A new student organization, Por Latinoamerica, will hold its first meeting to announce its newly elected officers and lay out its purpose and goals to attendees Tuesday night. The group, recognized last Wednesday by the College, plans to focus on political, cultural and social issues directly related to Latin American countries.
"The need for Por Latinoamerica was that there was no student group on campus that concerned itself with the issues facing Latin America," said Federico Sequeda '09, co-founder and presidential candidate of the organization. "MECA focuses on the political issues concerning Latinos in the U.S. La Alianza Latina, on the other hand, is a social network for Latino students at Dartmouth College."
The organization's mission is not to provide another association for Latino students, but rather to discuss and act on current topics in Latin America.
"We really knew this was lacking and we made [the Committee on Student Organizations] understand that these Latino groups had different issues than ours," Sequeda said. "We want to create a conscious understanding of what's going on in Latin America, not just what you learn in class."
Kevin Jackson '10, who co-founded the group with Eric Sanabria '10, stressed that the group is relevant to all Dartmouth students, not just those hailing from Latin America.
"We want to get everyone here to sit down and talk about what's going on," Jackson said. "Why people immigrate to the U.S., because of poverty and other problems in the region, is one of the issues that should be a concern to everyone."
Por Latinoamerica received between 40 and 50 e-mails from interested students, and executive positions, which will be announced at tonight's meeting, were decided Monday night through online voting.
The group plans to hold informal discussions every week, as well as semi-regular meetings with faculty members or guest lecturers, open to the entire campus. In addition to dialogue, the founders of the group plan to work with other on-campus organizations, such as Dartmouth Ends Hunger, in taking a more activist approach.
"Chiquita has been funding terrorists in Colombia for the past several years," Sequeda said of the international produce company. "Dartmouth should not be supporting these types of organizations. We are actually trying to persuade the College to switch to a different brand until they can fully switch to fair trade bananas."
In addition, Sequeda and Jackson have arranged for the group to give presentations on Latin America at Bernice Ray Elementary in an effort to educate young children about a region they feel is not covered well in primary school.
"Rico and I were talking in Spanish," Jackson said referencing a visit they made to the school. "A kid came up to us and asked us, 'Are you guys speaking Mexican?'"
The group is also working with the Spanish department to program their discussions in accordance with the subject matter of Spanish 9.
"We hope this will draw more students in," Jackson said.
They also expect to be strongly grounded enough by Fall term to attract incoming freshmen.
The organization's first meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Collis 14 on Tuesday.
