To the Editor:
Over many years La Alianza Latina has attempted to empower and support Latinos and Latinas, and also to educate the Dartmouth community about Latino issues. Yet today Latinos and Latinas continue to have to justify their unique ethnicity to a community of skeptics. Among Dartmouth students, faculty and administrators, "Latino" at times can become synonymous with "Latin America" or "Spanish." It seems they have forgotten that Latinos and Latinas are American. The deconstruction of this perception is central to the empowerment of Latinas and Latinos and to the legitimacy of their concerns.
La Alianza Latina's association with La Casa not only perpetuates this myth, but is unimportant, if not detrimental, to the organization's efforts to establish a Latino resource center and to secure a residential living space prioritizing the promotion of Latino issues and culture.
Latinos are the largest underrepresented minority group not to have a space designated specifically for their use. La Casa is explicitly a Spanish Affinity house, complete with a proficiency requirement, and thus is discriminatory towards non-Spanish speaking Latinos and Latinas and can only incorporate Latino issues on a periphery level. The administration's efforts and suggestions that Latinos and Latinas use La Casa as their designated space marginalizes Latino issues and culture and is unacceptable.
La Alianza Latina can no longer sit passively while assumptions of the organization's relation to La Casa circulate throughout campus. As a result, La Alianza Latina has decided to formally announce the discontinuation of the use of La Casa as a meeting and social space. In addition, La Alianza Latina will no longer seek or accept funding from La Casa, nor participate in, organize or sponsor any event in La Casa.
La Casa is inconsequential to the long run goals of La Alianza Latina. La Casa has not and will not conform to Alianza's vision of a Latino resource center or residential house, and therefore all discussion and argument over La Casa's responsibility to Latinos and Latinas is irrelevant, and in fact a categorical mistake.
RAMYAR ROSSOUKH
President, La Alianza Latina
