The ‘examination’ of the Hispanic community (‘BU Hispanic organizations focus on cultural education,’ Nov. 18, pg. 1) failed to recognize a prominent issue plaguing this community: mainly that there is a split between the many generations of Hispanics from the United States and the Hispanics directly from Latin America. All of the student groups mentioned in the article by Julianne Shumko foster either the community of American-born Hispanics or the Latin-American-born Hispanics, not both. And this is not intentional.
Several factors contribute to the split between these communities that have so much in common, but that are separated by the small differences that are brought to the foreground. These differences include economic and social status and language barriers. International students (Hispanics from Latin America) typically come from wealthy backgrounds. How else would any international student be able to pay Boston University’s tuition without federal aid? But ask a U.S.-born Hispanic student to tell you why he or she came to BU and you will find that the ‘pretty generous financial aid package’ was the reason. International students also speak perfect Spanish, as opposed to the ‘Spanglish’ spoken by first and second generation Hispanics from the United States. And if the student is a third- or fourth-generation U.S.-born Hispanic student, Spanish might not be spoken at all.
So which student groups are which? Well, as a proactive student in the Hispanic community or I guess the U.S.-born Hispanic community I can say that Latinos Unidos and La Fuerza foster that one. Groups like the Mexican Student Association and the Brazilian Association are typically comprised of students directly from those countries. And as far as their programming events are concerned, I have yet to hear of any. Danzon, as a cultural dance group, is different because it actually tries to bridge the gap by focusing on the cultural aspects that both communities share. But unfortunately, its membership is comprised only of U.S.-born Hispanics.
Another group not mentioned in the article, Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity also attempts to bridge the gap through its array of programming events. It is a national organization that was established in 1931 by international Hispanic students, but today in the chapter at BU and across the United States, it is mostly comprised of U.S.-born Hispanics.
The Hispanic community at BU is small as it is, and is made even smaller by this split among the student groups. So our resources are spread thin, and the responsibility of fostering any Hispanic community lies on the backs of only a few strong and active students that lead these various groups. The administration definitely doesn’t do it, nor have they made any strides to attempt to do so (well aside from the Office of Admissions and the Admission Student Diversity Board, which started last year). The article was correct in identifying that the Hispanic community is fairly large at BU, but that it does not seem that way because only a handful of students are active as far as extracurriculars are concerned. The bottom line is that the active students are few and the fact that we are separated does not help. So students waiting to be ‘approached’ by the community have to be more proactive and approach the groups on their own if they really want that ‘community,’ because in one way or another it does exist.
Brian Macias SMG ’04
The writer is BU chapter president of Phi Iota Alpha.
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