Our History

Latino students had been organized in small organizations dating back to the 1950s.  La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos (ACELA) was the first Latin American organization to appear on campus, formed by Puerto Rican and South American students in the 1950s.  The first Latino students from the United States to attend Penn did not appear until the 1970s, when efforts to desegrate the University began to focus on Chicano and Carribean students from the Southwest and the Northeast.  In 1971, the University of Pennsylvania began its first real recruitment of Mexican-American students by bringing in a group of freshman from South Texas. Following the 1969 founding of MEChA at the University of California at Santa Barbara, MEChA was formed by that first small group of students in an effort to help Chicanas and Chicanos adjust to life at Penn.  At the same time, as unity in the Puerto Rican-American community grew, ACELA slowly became an organization

El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan, became an organization that could support the exploration of Chicano culture, work to recruit Chicano students to Penn, and also work with the Penn community to build dialogue across campus and build a social conciousness within the Latino community.  Later in 1979, and the early 1980s, MEChA and ACELA would be at the forefront of establishing ethnic studies programs at Penn and the Greenfield Intercultural Center at Penn.  Members of MEChA and ACELA helped lead a sit-in at then-Penn President Martin Meyerson’s office in College Hall. MEChA, ACELA, the Black Student League and the United Minorities Council would be instrumental in establishing the GIC and the development of resources for students of color on campus. MEChA member Marc Rodriguez would serve as one of the first Chairs of the United Minorities Council in 1983.  For the next decade, these organizations would work as members of the UMC to bring about positive change for Latino students at Penn, academically and socially. 

The Latino Coalition, the umbrella organization for all Latino student organizations at the University of Pennsylvania was originally formed in 1992.  Latino Coalition was formed with the purpose of uniting Latino students behind an effort to support the tenure-ship of Latin American Studies and History Professor, Dr. Dain Borges.  The organization protested a decision by the History Department not to grant tenure to Dr. Borges and lobbied the Department and the College to reconsider. Since the early 1970s, Latino students had begun to populate the University of Pennsylvania student body.  However, during that time, Penn had not granted tenure to a Latino professor in that time, someone who provide mentorship and be a role model to a growing community at the university. Unfortunately, the actions of this small group of Latino students were not successful in bringing about change in a reconsideration of Dr. Borges’ effort for tenure.  Afterwards the Latino Coalition dissipated and did not meet on a regular basis, becoming defunct by the end of 1993.

In 1994, students again discussed the idea of bringing together Latino students permanently in a formalized organization.  With the previous efforts to unify Latino students, Latino student organizations saw the necessity of bringing together the Latino community permanently.  Members of ACELA, MEChA, Sigma Lambda Upsilon Latina Sorority, and Lambda Upsilon Lambda Latino Fraternity along began to work with Boricua Latino Health Organization members to create this organization, a coalition of Latino students.  With that, the Latino Coalition was reborn.

In 1995, a group of conscientious Latino students realized that they should take decisive action. Latinos at the University of Pennsylvania were and are grossly underrepresented at all levels: students, faculty, and administrators. To develop a unified voice and a comprehensive strategy to deal with under-representation, we formed a coalition of five Latino student organizations. These organizations have missions that range from cultural, professional, honor, arts, and social.

Over the next several years, the Latino Coalition worked to formulate strategies to address past difficulties in creating a permanent Latin American and Latino Studies program at Penn.  The Latino Coalition, in an effort to jump start this effort contacted Professor Ann Farnsworth-Alvear of the History Department and Professor Jorge Salessi of the Spanish Department to lobby the University, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Academic Senate.  In September 1996, the Latin American Studies major was approved by the university and the Latin American Cultures program became the Latin American Studies program. 

As the Latino Coalition expanded, with the formation of several new organizations at Penn such as Wharton Latino, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Onda Latina Dance Troupe, Club Colombia, Mex at Penn and several graduates organizations such as the Latin American Law Student Association, the need for more student space would play a key role in Latino Coalition activities going into 1997-98. 

With growing numbers of Latino students active in LC groups and new groups forming, existing organizations that had space in the Greenfield Intercultural Center requested more space then the single room they inhabited at the GIC.  MEChA and ACELA, founding members of the UMC and the Latino Coalition asked the GIC for the opportunity to create a second room for Latino student organizations at the GIC. With the permission of the GIC, these groups cleared out a storage room on the third floor of the GIC in order to make the room available for Latino students as their population had grown.  However, a conflict arose as other organizations in the UMC objected to the Latino organizations having the expanded space. A vote was held by the UMC which revoked the space from the Latino student groups, creating a great deal of animosity between MEChA, ACELA and the UMC. 

A growing sense that not only the UMC, but the University itself was not focusing on the concerns of Latino students grew with these actions.  In repeated efforts to improve Latino student recruitment, to bring tenured Latino professors to the University and to create greater Latino programming on campus, Latino students were met with hesitation and inaction.  Latino students were not represented in the Undergraduate Assembly, University Council and were not regularly consulted by Penn administrators in regards to issues in the larger minority community. 

In 1998, that changed, as Latinos voiced a common concern that their issues were being ignored within the UMC and moved to rectify these concerns.  The only two Latino student groups in the United Minorities Council withdrew their membership from the UMC in protest of their handling of Latino issues.  The Latino Coalition, which now consisted of 14 Latino student groups including ACELA and MEChA, unanimously decided that ACELA and MEChA should withdraw from the UMC at its general meeting.

ACELA President and Engineering junior David Villafana and MEChA President and College sophomore Milady Nazir requested to speak before the meeting formally began. They released a joint statement saying that the "UMC remains inadequately prepared to voice Latino concerns."  Following the withdrawal, former ACELA President and College junior Tania Castro resigned her newly elected seat as UMC vice chairperson.

The debate about proper representation for Latino students was at the forefront of the move to leave the UMC.  "The University was looking to the UMC as a political institution when in reality it was cultural," said MeCha Vice President Jonathan Cantu, a College sophomore.  The Latino Coalition also felt that by remaining in the UMC, the Latino voice was not being clearly heard, according to Cantu. “We as Latinos are the best representatives of Latino issues. By remaining in the UMC, we were allowing the administration to see all minority issues as a big lump."

With new found independence, the Latino Coalition embarked on an effort to redress the difficulties that the Latino community had encountered in receiving proper representation in the larger Penn community. 

On April 21, 1998, one week after MEChA and ACELA left the UMC, members of the Latino Coalition led a protest down Locust Walk which culminated in presenting a list of demands for improving Latino student life to President Judith Rodin.  This list would address issues of student recruitment, academic programming, increasing the presence of Latino professors at Penn and lastly, the creation of a student resource center based around Latino culture.

        Although 10 percent of the United States population consists of Latinos, U.S.-born Latinos make up just 3.8 percent of Penn's students and faculty members, according to an umbrella group of 14 Latino political and cultural groups.

        That and other statistics led about 20 students representing the Latino Coalition to march around campus yesterday, protesting what they described as Penn's failure to address issues such as Latino recruitment and retention and tuition costs that are too high for many Latino students.

Watched by reporters from the major city newspapers, the students began their march from High Rise East at noon to deliver a four-page complaint to six University offices, including that of University President Judith Rodin and the Undergraduate Admissions Office. Last week, two member groups -- La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos and El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan -- withdrew from the United Minorities Council, saying the group lacked a political focus.

"We are here to protest the University's unwillingness to ameliorate the dire situation of Latino students at Penn and to express our anger that the goals of the University's minority-permanence plan and affirmative-action policies have not been met," declared Amy Maldonado, a second-year Law Student and MEChA member.

Admissions officials from the Undergraduate Admissions Office as well as the Medical, Law and Engineering schools refused to release any statistics regarding Latino admission, matriculation or retention rates.

Also, the complaint bemoaned the fact that out of the 1,800-member standing faculty at the University, only 23 professors are Latino.

"Without Latino faculty available as mentors, Latino students feel unsupported and often misunderstood," said Randy Quezada, a College freshman and the incoming president of ACELA.

Additionally, "the students feel that Penn tuition is prohibitively high," said Amy Fernadez, an Engineering senior and president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

"Better financial aid packages are imperative," said the statement.

The Latino Coalition would also like to see a vice provost for Latino affairs and a Latino Resource Center instated on campus.

The students seemed determined to continue their efforts.

"The only way to make anything happen at this university is to make noise," Maldonado said. "Otherwise, nothing changes."

The University was receptive to the idea that a Latino student resource center be created and requested that Latino students and staff to create a proposal for this resource center, but the creation was not without its difficulties.  The following is an Op-ed column written by Latino Coalition co-founder, Phil DeChavez.

GUEST COLUMN: La Casa Latina: Meeting Latino students' needs

philip dechavez (this year, comments were made in an article published in the daily pennsylvanian during latino heritage month that beg for a response. this article, "latino groups seek to get voices heard" (10/2/98), reported that university president judith rodin said she had not received our complaints

November 20, 1998

I find this explanation difficult to believe since I was part of the group of 14 Latino student leaders that walked to her office on April 21, 1998, accompanied by reporters from two television stations and five local newspapers, to deliver the complaint.

The following day the DP reported that spokespeople from the president's and Interim Provost Michael Wachter's offices acknowledged that the report had been received.

Were these spokespeople telling the truth when they admitted to having received the complaint, or was Rodin misquoted when she said that she did not receive it? Regardless, after six months, neither the president nor the interim provost has responded to a document researched and written by a group of 14 Latino graduate and undergraduate organizations. Is the educated and civil approach that we took toward solving a problem dealing with race inequities on this campus effective? I would still like to believe that it is; however, I am starting to lose ground with those who have been waiting patiently with me.

According to the University of Pennsylvania's Affirmative Action Policy Statement: "Men and women of different races, religions, nationalities and backgrounds are necessary to achieve the University's ultimate purpose: the improvement of the human condition through the pursuit of learning. Diversity is prized at Penn because it helps to create the educational environment that best prepares students to contribute to an increasingly diverse and rapidly shrinking world. We have a clear commitment to affirmative action. We must continue, therefore, to seek talented faculty, students and staff who will help constitute a community at Penn that is diverse in race, ethnicity, interests and perspectives."

And in 1996, Rodin was quoted in Almanac as having said that, "If Penn intends to educate leaders, as we frequently proclaim, then we must recognize and accommodate the diversity of the society we expect our graduates to lead."

Latinos are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. In 1996, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Latinos make up 10 percent of the U.S. population, and it projected that by the year 2000 we will make up 12 percent. By 2010 we will be the largest minority group.

Our population is currently undereducated and underserved. It is imperative that world-class institutions such as Penn take the lead in providing our community with a new generation of leaders.

This "clear commitment" to affirmative action has resulted in only token Latino access to the University at all levels. In the same Almanac article on minority recruitment and retention, Rodin admitted that the numbers of Latino students and faculty at the University "are still not what they should be." Out of the 1,800 standing faculty, we have counted only 35 Latinos, or 1.94 percent. More dramatically, at present there are only three tenured Latino faculty members. As for the number of students, we have managed to count a total of 323 Latino undergraduates who make up 3.23 percent. Finally, out of the 53 members on the Board of Trustees, there is only one Latino.

In the same article, Rodin also stated, "If Penn's mission is genuinely tripartite, teaching, research and service, then our service to a tremendously complex and ever-changing society demands that we educate future leaders who come from and participate in that complexity and change." Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of those future leaders that Penn educates are Latinos. What will happen if the University continues to serve our "tremendously complex and ever-changing society" without educating a fair and proportionate number of Latino leaders?

Despite all of the messages from the president admitting that there is a problem, since at least September 1996, the percentage of Latinos at this University has remained essentially unchanged. In fact, it has gone down.

The Latino Alumni Society, the Latino Faculty and Staff Association and the Latino Coalition have decided to work together to address the complaints that we submitted last April and come up with solutions. These solutions were transformed into a proposal that was delivered to the president's and interim provost's offices on October 30 of this year. This time we called the secretaries who received the complaints to ensure that they were actually delivered to the president and to the interim provost.

It is our hope that Rodin and Wachter will read the proposal and meet with our respective organizations to finally make the president's inspiring words a reality.

An effort to create La Casa Latina moved forward.  During the spring and summer of 1998, a group of faculty, staff, and students worked to propose a center whose objective was to increase the presence of Latino community at the University of Pennsylvania. In summer 1998 the two groups, the Latino Faculty and Staff Association and the Latino Student Coalition, came together for the purpose of designing The University of Pennsylvania Center for Hispanic Excellence. It was to be a comprehensive resource center for Latino students of the four undergraduate schools. The proposal for the center was presented to President Judith Rodin on October 30, 1998. It was presented in the name of The Latino Faculty and Staff, the Latino Student Coalition and the Latino Alumni Society. On September 21st, 1999 President Dr. Judith Rodin inaugurated the Center for Hispanic Excellence.

La Casa Latina became one of the few free standing Latino-based student resource centers in the East Coast and would be the focal point of Latino student activities going into a new millennium.  Under the directorship of Dr. Lilvia Soto, the center opened its doors at the Tabernacle Church on Chestnut St. The center would be the meeting place for Latino Coalition organizations and would serve as a resource for students to expand programming targeting the Latino community and mentorship for Latino students.

After a short period, Dr. Soto left the University and La Casa Latina was left without a staff member by the end of the 1999-2000 school year.  In the fall of 2000, a search for a new full-time Director of La Casa Latina was initiated by students and faculty.  That search culminated in the hiring of Ana Maria Cobo, an Assistant Dean at Swarthmore College.

During the 2000-2001 school year, the Latino Coalition began an effort to formalize the coalition by creating a constitution and an executive board.  The board would coordinate meetings and the Latino Coalition would reach consensus by having member organizations vote for consensus decisions on organizational issues.

FIRST BOARD

In order to bring the Latino community’s voice directly to the Penn administration, the Latino Coalition made a request that the University Council, the main advisory council to Penn’s President, be given a seat on the council as there were no representatives on the body that were Latino.  The University Council made the request