Keynote speeches and panel discussions centered on Latino student issues highlighted the conference, which was organized in partnership with the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Ilan Stavans, the event's guest speaker, focused on the betrayal of Latinos in higher education. He is the author and editor of several books, including "Spanglish" and "The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays," and is currently the Louis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.
Stavans expressed concern about the under-representation of Latinos at his institution and others in the northeast. He discussed how the best colleges, including Ivy League schools and top-ranked liberal arts colleges, often focus their outreach to the 2,000 academically strong Latino students identified by the College Board each year.
"There are 42 million Latinos -- we are the largest minority, but these colleges are all going after these 2,000 students," Stavans said. "The general pool of [Latino] students, unidentified by the College Board, are not paid attention to. How are we defining who makes it to college?"
Stavans also discussed how a Latino studies department can be integrated with an institution's other academic departments through measures like cross-listing courses.
Panel workshops on subjects like Latino student advising, the racial identification of U.S. Latinos in higher education and global labor relations and immigration focused on issues pertinent to both Latino college students and the Latino community at large.
Students involved with the conference felt that it was important to bring Latino student leaders together.
"Once you have this population of student Latino leaders in the community, it's important to discuss our leadership and realize that there's a role that we play," Adlin Tuya '07, vice president of La Alianza Latina, said. "We need to find ways to get back to, and be aware of, the conditions in this country and Latin America."
After the conference ended on Saturday afternoon, some conference attendees and other Dartmouth students protested against anti-immigrant legislation like the controversial, recently proposed HR 4437.
Elizabeth Mendoza '08, a presenter at two panel workshops, participated in the demonstration that ran from Filene Auditorium to the Green.
"We're trying to start a dialogue and shine light on the hypocritical stance of America," Mendoza said. "People need to stop eating fruit harvested by immigrants; buying clothes made by and living in houses built by and cared for by them [if they don't want illegal immigrants here]. Americans want the labor but don't want to see them living in their communities."
Ramon Zertuche '01, the Executive Director at the Inter-American Economic Council, a non-profit organization that works under a cooperative agreement with the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Development Bank, also presented and spoke about his experiences as a Dartmouth student. He urged students to not compare themselves to others, especially in corporate recruiting and pre-professional pursuits, and warned them against getting caught up in the alleged value of an Ivy League degree.
"We all go at our own rhythms, our own paces," he said. "Don't think you're less than [another student] because he has a job...Take a lesson in humility and don't let your degree go to your head."
The Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Program, The Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, The Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences and the Office of Latino Student Advising were among the co-sponsors of the event.
