The highlights included a discussion of the Committee on Academic Priorities (CAP) report about efforts to start a Latino Studies program at Amherst and hire more Latino faculty. The weekend's organizers were thrilled with the event's success, and plans are already underway to forge stronger ties between Latino students and alumni and to bring Latino alumni to campus regularly in the future.
Alumni began arriving on campus Friday evening and were given a chance to socialize before events began in earnest on Saturday morning with the CAP report discussion. Participants expressed their frustration with what Ron Espiritu '06, who helped organize the weekend, called "the lack of institutional commitment to the hiring of more Latino faculty members and the complete lack of institutional commitment to the creation of a Latino studies department or a Latino studies program." Several alumni stated that these issues have been continually raised by the College's Latino community since the 1970s, and said that despite Amherst's repeated promises for change, little progress has been made in the past three decades.
This discussion was immediately followed by a panel entitled "Immigration: Re-imagining Aliens in the American Community," during which Amherst seniors Jessica Chung '06, Adam Lewkowitz '06 and Erin Mariano '06 presented their theses, offering different perspectives from their respective disciplines on the problems of immigration.
After the panel, students and alumni met for a "Networking Lunch," where students were given an opportunity to make connections with alumni from many different areas and occupations. The lunch was followed by the weekend's keynote speaker Director of the Metropolitan Chicago Initiative at Notre Dame University Sylvia Puente. Her address focused on the unique potential for leaders among the Latino community to utilize compassion and community service.
Carlos Parada '80 described the speech as "not only informative but inspirational. Service-oriented leadership is a powerful trend among Latino leaders," he commented.
After the panel, participants attended a roundtable discussion with several alumni about the Latino experience at Amherst through the years. Ed Camacho '79 recalled the story of the occupation of the Fayerweather Hall snack bar, led by Latino students when they demanded to have a room for La Causa to meet, resulting in the dedication of the José Martí room.
Ruben Robinson '83 looked back on the previous divisions in La Causa, the creation of a splinter group and the dedication of La Causa to addressing political issues. Alumnus and Assistant Professor of History Rick Lopez '93 discussed the increase in activism in La Causa while he was a student and Mabel Lajes-Guiteras '99 remembered being a Latina at Amherst and the story behind the creation of La Casa.
The next event, a dinner catered by La Veracruzana, concluded the day's business. The dinner was held in the Octagon, draped in purple and white and decorated with Latino Pride banners and event flyers from La Causa dating back to its founding. After dinner the two founders of La Causa, Les Purificación '76 and Thomas Gonzales '76, spoke, reemphasizing many of the weekend's topics. They argued that it was critical for the College to pay attention to Latino issues, as Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and also spoke about the need for a curriculum in Latino studies at the College.
After a long day of panels and discussion, students and alumni had a chance for recreation on Saturday night, with a Latin Jazz Night hosted at Drew House. The next morning included a meeting at which students and alumni laid out plans for a Latino Alumni Association to work closely with students in advocacy and in planning events, including another Latino Alumni Weekend in 2008.
Both students and alumni felt that the weekend was not only a great success, but a historic event for the Latino community of the College. Antoinette Flores '08, co-chair of La Causa, described the event's significance. "This event is something that La Causa has been hoping to accomplish for the past decade, but for one reason or another it always fell through," she said. "As a group, we have established connections with our alumni that are essential to our future individually and collectively." Flores shared that long term goals such as creating a Latino studies department no longer seem impossible, stating, "We now have a larger community with the experience and credibility to support us."
Oscar Baez '08, La Causa's alumni representative and the chief planner of the weekend stated, "Establishing a Latino alumni network when other affinity alumni groups have existed for decades affirms that we do have a voice and a group unified in its desire to change Amherst College."
Purificación, as a founder of La Causa, was excited about the future prospects of La Causa and its alumni. "This past weekend several of the alums took the first steps to establish a Latino alumni association. La Causa, however, must be credited with providing the impetus," he said. "The students we met impressed upon us that Latino alumni need to be more actively engaged-alumni presence provides continuity and a concrete reflection of generational progress." Students and alumni said that they were excited about the prospects of the new Latino Alumni Association, which promises to increase the manpower of the College's Latino community and assist them in expressing their concerns to the College.