The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (DFLL) at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) is home to a pioneer program in Spanish for the Professions and Specific Purposes (SPSP) in US higher education. For the last two decades (2000-18), its Spanish curricula have been carefully experimenting and evolving to adjust to the societal needs and professional demands of the twenty-first century. Today, the DFLL offers a minor in Spanish for Business, an undergraduate Spanish for Specific Purposes Certificate, and a major in Applied Professional Spanish. In addition, a professional Spanish language and cultural component has been seamlessly integrated into the newly redesigned three-semester introductory Spanish sequence with a new focus on proficiency and everyday-life use of the language. Curricular transformations never happen in a vacuum, as they are always dictated by the larger contexts that shape them. This article explains the multi-level contextual forces that have influenced UAB's SPSP-CDA six stage evolution.