Background
Charlie Goff was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, to James E. and Margaret Louise Pollard Goff.
Charlie Goff was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, to James E. and Margaret Louise Pollard Goff.
He then attended college, taking undergraduate courses at University of California Santa Cruz, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), the Ibero-American University of Mexico City, and the State University of New New York He graduated from Cal State-Northridge with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, specializing in Mayan culture.
He spent his childhood and teenage years in Colombia, graduating from Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogotá in 1969. Founded in 1974, offers courses in Spanish language, Latin-American studies and Mesoamerican anthropology. Currently, over 2400 students from all over the world study at every year, with over ninety colleges and universities from the United States accepting direct cr transfer from the school.
Goff currently serves as admissions coordinator for the school, as well as handling the school"s finances, hiring and public relations.
He also teaches several courses, is an active lecturer at the school, and oversees and conducts field studies. In addition to coordinating field trips for, Goff has used his extensive knowledge of Mexico and Central America to assist many other organizations with field studies, including Ohio State University, Elderhostel, the National Association of Editorial Writers, and the Land Improvement Contractors Association of America, along with several high schools.
He has also served as keynote speaker for several bilingual education and social studies seminars, and is active in many professional organizations in these areas. He serves on the board of directors for VAMOS, a charitable organization dedicated to helping the poor in the Mexican state of Morelos.
As a result of his activist activities Charlie was arrested In 2002.
All charges were subsequently dropped. He also serves on the Board of the human rights foundation named for the famous former Bishop of Morelos, Don Sergio Méndez Arceo. In April 2010 Charlie Goff questioned the authenticity of an Associated Press story about rampant "fear" in Cuernavaca.
The story, viewed by Charlie as fear-mongering, was picked up by papers around the world and has impacted Cuernavaca"s tourism-based economy.
Charlie challenged the paper by re-interviewing those Cuernavaca citizens the Associated Press quoted in their article and confronting Associated Press"s Latin American Bureau Chief, Niko Price, with the distortions in the article. In June 2010 a Mexico City English language newspaper wrote about Charlie Goff"s confrontation with Associated Press. As of October 2010, Charlie has a regular column, "Charlie"s Digs," appearing in The News, Mexico"s only English-speaking newspaper.
Charlie"s column can be found at.
Goff is a founding member of Educational Community, a highly respected Spanish-language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Charlie is a member of Cuernavaca"s Frente Civico, an organization founded to protect the environment, art, and archeological site known as Casino de la Selva.