by Michelle Thornton
Staff Writer
The six Latino Student Forum (LSF) members that experienced the Latino/a College Leadership Institute Conference (LCLIC) retreat at a Glendale camp last weekend walked away speechless.
The conference dealt with issues that affect the Latino community.
Over the four day period junior Glenda Rivera, sophomores Jose Gallegos, Vladimira Chavez, Giselle Matus, Jennifer Cuevas, and freshman Horacio Rodriguez discussed issues that affect the Latino community with approximately 200 other individuals.
The conference was designed to “recognize how diverse we are as a community and to learn to agree to disagree with one another,” said Cuevas.
On the first day of the conference the students set guidelines to help keep emotions and feelings under control and to show respect for other people’s views.
Students were instructed that when they spoke of their experiences they must use first person and state “I.” This allowed students to take responsibility for their words and not push them upon anyone else.
On day two, the students participated in identity exercises to help them identify whether they consider themselves Chicano, Latino or Hispanic.
Some said they have a problem being called Hispanic. It has negative connotations for them and brings feelings of oppression. This was a term given to the Spanish who conquered the indigenous tribes.
Latino is a term used to generalize all Latin speaking countries and Chicano is a term that surfaced in the ’60s that in the Aztec’s real language, Anuhuac, means children of the sun.
“I’ve come to accept that people call themselves different things. That’s OK because I know what I am,” said Chavez, director of hospitality and services for LSF.
The third day focused on gender roles and homosexuality. “Machismo,” which is the role the man plays in the family, was a examined subject.
In the Latin culture, the male has been the dominate and controlling partner in the household, as with many cultures.
“As women leaders, we have to deal with being seen as the weaker sex so there has to be a even greater effort on our parts to be heard,” said Rivera.
Students participated to show the men at the conference how the treatment of the women feels like. The women formed two lines that made a pathway for the men to walk down. As the men walked through, half the women hollered the obscenities and cat calls they have heard and the other half glared or eyed them as they have had done to them before.
“We wanted to show them that this is not acceptable,” said Cuevas.
The last thing that was tackled was what is called an action plan. Each group of representatives from their respective schools took initiative and outlined a change they would like to see happen at their school.
The students said they look to start a series of courses that probe deeper into regions of Latin America. They have contacted a professor from Cal Poly to learn about the process that they will have to go through. They hope that the classes will focus on the northern, central and southern regions.
The students formed “communidad,” a community to become closer. Then they broke down into “familias,” a family and then even further into “casas” or houses. Within these “familias” students dissected the happenings and experiences of the day even deeper.
These “familias” helped to ease students into the conference when they felt uncomfortable. Last year’s experience for La Verne was not good, as the participants left half way through the conference.
Rodriguez said that he was warned that “it would be very intense and they would get personal and I would get emotional.” He was intimidated at first but the relaxed, friendly atmosphere washed his fears away.
They all said they walked away with a sense of bonding. Some of the discussions were new and enlightened them, and for others, it motivated them to help their community.
Rivera said that amongst the Latin community there is separation, but Cuevas said that they have a common goal to help their people and to make a difference in their community.
