The Latino 2000 Conference -- consisting of three days of workshops and panels on the role of Latinos in culture, academics, and politics in the United States -- will take place at the College during the first week of February.
Exchange of information and discourse between students and successful Latinos in many different fields will be of paramount importance, said student organizer Andrew Vera '01.
Vera also said it is equally important to attract people of all backgrounds in an effort to bridge ethnic and cultural gaps.
"This conference is for everyone, not just Latinos. We hope everyone gets involved," Vera said.
Unlike other conferences, Vera emphasized that this conference will be different because of its magnitude and the issues it emphasizes.
The conference will focus on three central themes entitled Latinos and Learning, Latinos and Cultural Exchange and Latinos and Political Interventions.
"We have several goals, but the basic purpose of the conference is to bring together a group of talented and intelligent students and discuss issues central to our communities," student organizer Micaela Diaz '00 said.
He added that this conference is one of the first where undergraduates are the main audience.
According to Diaz, an important part of the scheduled events is a series of workshops which will cover concrete issues applicable to the Latino community.
Working texts will serve as a basis for discussion and interaction between participants.
Another part of the event will be the plenary sessions, in which all discussion will be written down to serve as a resource for future reference.
"Latinos 2000 is a conference for reflection, but also for action," states the conference's web site.
According to organizers, the structure of events will allow participants the freedom to make the conference exactly what they want it to be.
Organizers expect approximately 200 people from colleges such as Georgetown, Oberlin, and the other Ivy League schools to attend the conference, and are looking for Dartmouth students to host them.
Plans for the conference were initiated at the beginning of last year by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and have been in the works since then.
Organization has been coordinated by professor Beatriz Pastor and assistant professor Israel Reyes of the Spanish and Portuguese department and students Vera, Diaz, Jonathan McKinney '00 and Kim Jorgensen '00.
The Latino 2000 Conference will take place in conjunction with another, smaller conference which is part of a quarterly series organized by the East Coast Chicano/a Student Forum.
The smaller conference, entitled "Expanding Fronteras: Bridging Communities in Action," is supplemental to the Latino 2000 Conference and events will not conflict, Vera said.
The organization at Dartmouth belonging to the ECCSF consortium is Movimento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztln, also known as MEChA.
Organizers anticipate another conference similar to Latinos 2000 to occur again next year at Dartmouth.
