This past weekend, Despierta Boricua went to El Barrio in New York City, where they visited El Museo, walked around the Puerto Rican neighborhood, and enjoyed great food at the Puerto Rican restaurant La Fonda. While in El Barrio, DBers met with DB alums—including one of the founders of Despierta Boricua, Judge Eduardo Padro (of the New York Sate Supreme Court).
DB enjoyed the trip away from campus and is looking forward to taking another trip to El Barrio next semester to meet with more alumni!
Listeners looking for a relaxing Sunday afternoon know that they can always tune in to WYBCx (Yale’s own radio station) to enjoy quite the international feast: Revolución Musicana, a one-hour show featuring diverse kinds of Latin American music.
Salvador Fernandez, the student behind this weekly bundle of sabor, is a pre-med student in Trumbull College majoring in Modern Middle East Studies. Salvador is a DJ on two different weekly radio shows at Yale, including Revolución Musicana. The La Casa Blog had a chance to ask Salvador a few questions about his experiences as radio show host.
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LCB: So, Salvador, what type of music do you play on your show?
S: On the show, I play any music related to Latin America in any way. This includes songs in English by musicians who happen to be Latin American, like Ozomatli. A large chunk of the music I play happens to be Mexican, because that is what I’m most familiar with. But I try to include music from Central and South America. So I play everything from rancheras to rock to merengue and bachata. Anything from Latin America is free game.
LCB: When did you first become involved with the radio station?
S: I first got involved with the radio station second semester of my freshman year, so that would be Spring 2010… such a long time ago! My friend was starting a science talk show, and asked me to be his co-host. As soon as I finished training that semester, I began the music show, while also doing the science show. To this day, I still do both shows.
LCB: What are the least and most fun parts of being a radio host?
S: The most fun part of doing the show was being given the opportunity to go to the SXSW festival in Austin this past Spring Break as a reporter for the radio station. I got to see Café Tacvba, Molotov, and so many other groups, Latin and not, in one week! It was great.
The most stressful part is definitely not knowing what timeslot I will have each semester, because we reapply for our shows at the beginning.
LCB: Why did you decide to start a radio show like this one?
S: The main reason I started this show is to show Yale just how diverse Latin music can be. It’s not all mariachi and salsa (but those are still awesome). It spans all across the musical spectrum, from rock to rap, and includes things like partying or broken hearts, the main difference being that it’s usually in Spanish or Portuguese.
LCB: Anything else you’d like the readers of the La Casa Blog to know?
S: Since I’m graduating, it’s definitely a shame that I won’t be able to do the show next year. It’d be great if someone continued the show next year, but I haven’t asked around to see if anyone is interested. Hopefully, someone decides to do a similar show in the future.
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Tune in to Revolución Musicana on Sundays from 2:00pm-3:00pm EST on WYBCx.
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Last fall, Mayor Anise Parker of Houston declared September 25th to be “Rick Cruz Day,” as she awarded Mr. Cruz the Hispanic Heritage Award for Education. Rick Cruz, a Yale Latino alum, has a passion for education that has evidently not gone unnoticed. Nonetheless, not many Yale graduates have had days declared in their honor. What path led him to such distinction?
Mr. Cruz, who majored in Philosophy at Yale and was a Mellon Mays fellow, worked as a 5th grade bilingual teacher at a low-income Latino community for four years. In 2010, he co-founded the EMERGE Fellowship, a Houston-based nonprofit that seeks to work with schools to prepare Latino and low-income students to attend and graduate from top-tier universities. The program, which has demonstrated success in sending all of its students to prestigious schools with excellent scholarships, has now expanded to four additional high schools in Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas.
“I know graduate school will be in my future at some point,” Mr. Cruz says, “but I am really deriving a lot of satisfaction out of the work I am doing.” Mr. Cruz also recently began a new job as assistant superintendent in HISD. He will be leading the school district’s large-scale initiative to send many more low-income students to top colleges. “I’m very excited with the direction things are headed for EMERGE.”
(To learn more about the history and goals of the EMERGE Fellowship, visit their website.)
Dr. Billie Gastic earned her B.A. from Yale University in 1998, but her inspiring academic career did not end there. After attending various professional schools in Stanford and Harvard, she finally completed her Ph.D. in the Sociology of Education at Stanford University. Currently, she leads a team of staff researchers and research faculty in investigations of effective teaching practices in her role as the Director of Research at the Relay Graduate School of Education. Dr. Gastic was also recently appointed by the New York State Board of Regents to the Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching.
Dr. Gastic co-authored and co-edited the book The Education of the Hispanic Population: Selected Essays, published last month. The La Casa Blog had a chance to ask Dr. Gastic a few questions about her latest publication.
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LCB: Why did you write this book? Was there a particular message about education and/or the Latino community that you wished to convey?
BG: It was a special opportunity to work with Richard Verdugo, a senior scholar in the field, whose work I had admired for a long time. It was also important for me to be a part of a project that showcased the scholarship of Latino researchers and reflected the diversity of research that is being conducted on Latinos’ educational experiences and outcomes.
LCB: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
BG: All of my work on Latino issues in education is inspired by my own experiences as a student, an educator, and a researcher.
LCB: How have your personal experiences affected your writing?
BG: In my research, I ask questions that are important to me and whose answers have implications for marginalized communities.
LCB: How was the writing process of the book? How many hours or months?
BG: From beginning to end, the project took almost 2.5 years.
LCB: Do you have any advice for any aspiring writers or academics?
BG: I connected with writing in graduate school, because I began to acknowledge the value of my voice and saw writing as an opportunity to contribute to a field of learning. Writing isn’t easy; it’s a disciplined practice that can both frustrate and inspire. I urge anyone who is interested in academic writing to remember that it’s hard and that it will take time to get better. I urge them to always remember the value of their ideas and what they have to say. It’s often easy to forget that during the writing and revision and feedback process.
LCB: Are you thinking about writing another book
BG: Absolutely.
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa crossed the Mexican border into the United States at the age of 19. Starting off as a migrant farm worker, he ultimately achieved his dream of becoming a neurosurgeon.
On Tuesday, February 26, Dr. Quiñones visited the center to share his uplifting story with Yale students. Dr. Quiñones started working in his father’s gas station as a child. By the age of 14 he was a migrant farm worker in the San Joaquín Valley. Eventually, he went back to Mexicali to finish his schooling and came back to the U.S. in 1989 and worked as a cotton picker.
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Quiñones is the current Director of the Brain Tumor Surgery Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, as well as the Director of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In addition to being a professor of neurosurgery, neuroscience, oncology, and cellular and molecular medicine, he is also the author of the book “Becoming Dr Q.” The discussion will be taped by the Davis Guggenheim group who is doing a documentary that will include Dr. Q. Guggenheim is also the director of “Waiting for Superman” and “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Dr. Quiñones’ story of triumph and success is encouraging to students from all backgrounds. Everyone who attended greatly enjoyed the opportunity to hear such an inspiring figure speak.
(Click here to read the article written on the YaleNews website about Dr. Quiñones’ visit.)
This day in Yale Latin@ history: March 8, 1979
On March 8, 1979, the Yale Daily News announced that Puerto Rican students would finally obtain a Latin cultural center “to unite the Yale and New Haven Puerto Rican community.” For seven years, Despierta Boricua (Yale’s Puerto Rican student association) had been planning and organizing around the formation of a cultural center more capable of directing social programs. The small Despierta Boricua house, situated at La Casa’s current location demonstrated the need for a unified cultural space where social and cultural projects could be executed more effectively and on a larger scale.
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On Monday, March 4, Professor Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera visited Yale for a conversation on indigenous rights in Latin America, hosted by MEChA and ANNAY (the Association of Native Americans at Yale).
Dr. Nájera, a professor at Darmouth, opened with a thorough description of her research experience and interests. She shared with the students anecdotes and insights gained from her fieldwork among Zapotecs and Zapotec migrants in California. Nájera has has published several articles dealing with identity, migration and political movements, and thus she was also able to provide enlightening explanations of the concepts of indigeneity and autonomy in Mexico.
ANAAY is a student organization housed at Yale’s Native American Cultural Center.
On Friday, February 22, La Casa closed its campaign week with a showcase at Ezra Stiles College’s Crescent Theater. The event featured performances from various groups registered within the cultural center, such as Ballet Folklórico, Sabrosura, and ¡Oye! Spoken Word.
However, the showcase also aimed to display the wide diversity of skills and interests even within Yale’s Latino community. Therefore, the audience enjoyed acts from a variety of other performance groups in which Latino students are involved, including Rangeela (a fusion Bollywood dance team), Pitches & Tones (Yale’s newest a capella group), Konjo (the West African dance troupe), and the Yale Ballroom Dance team. What a night!
To watch the recorded performances from the showcase (as well as to receive updates to your Facebook newsfeed about La Casa and its upcoming events), like us on Facebook!
MEChA de Yale had its semesterly “MEChA 101” info session on Monday, January 28th. The group came together to welcome new and returning members and give them a peek into what MEChA has planned for this semester. In the midst of a few icy set of days, they had warm chocolate and pan dulce.
The MEChistas discussed their upcoming establishment of a scholarship for undocumented students in New Haven, as well as their Wage Theft Project, amongst other things. They also introduced the creation of “committees” so that MEChA members could become more hands-on with any of the group’s projects. Join MEChA on Mondays at their weekly meetings on Mondays at 8pm at La Casa!
Click here to read MEChA de Yale’s blog.
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This day in Yale Latin@ history: February 21, 1979
Early in the month of February 1979, the Yale administration decided, for budgetary reasons, to cut back on the number of assistant deans, leaving the Chicano community at Yale without a dean in charge of Chicano affairs. The position of Chicano affairs coordinator—which had been filled by Ricardo Madrigal for the previous five years—promoted activity and unity, and therefore represented an essential component of Yale College’s commitment to its Chicano community (the largest on the east coast at the time). The termination of the deanship prompted a quick response from the students, who repeatedly sought contact with the administration. A statement published in the Yale Daily News in mid-February stated that “by terminating Madrigal’s position, the University perpetuates a perspective which relegates Yale students to subordinate status.”
On February 21st, after repeated refusal from the administration to listen to MEChA’s demands, forty members of the Chicano group staged a 90-minute sit-in outside the President’s office to demand a fair discussion of the termination of the deanship. The occupation concluded with President Giamatti’s agreement to retain the position of Chicano affairs coordinator and to meet with the group in order to make an informed decision.
Nowadays, Yale boasts four cultural houses, each one coordinated by an assistant dean. However, these cultural centers did not come into being overnight; various groups throughout the university’s history fought for these cultural outlets that make multicultural life at Yale more vibrant and welcoming for all students.
Yesterday, Yale University’s President-elect Peter Salovey joined the Yale community in William L. Harkness Hall for a discussion on the challenges faced by cultural centers at Yale, as well as the importance of these centers’ presence on campus.
The panel, moderated by the Dean Rosalinda García, consisted of President-elect Salovey, Trumbull College Dean Jasmina Beširević-Regan, and Student Affairs Fellow Hannah Peck (DIV ‘11). President-elect Salovey debunked myths about self-segregation from his perspective as both an administrator and a psychologist. Dean Beširević-Regan and Ms. Peck, as Yale employees who are both heavily involved with daily student life, also got a chance to share their views on cultural centers’ contributions to the campus community.
Click here to read the article on the Yale Daily News about Tuesday’s panel.
The La Casa Campaign!
This week, Yale’s Latino Cultural Center is proud to present the “La Casa Es Su Casa” Campaign! This is a series of events meant to open up the center for the Yale community and attract students, new and old, to enjoy everything the center has to offer.
The campaign kicked off yesterday with an open house in which the Latino student groups were able to share information and mingle with interested students over delicious food.
Tonight, Prof. Albert Laguna and his wife visited the center for a faculty dinner. Prof. Laguna, a professor who has taught in the American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration departments for the past two months, casually discussed his research and academic interests with the students over Peruvian food. He also talked about the importance of cultural centers, provided insights about his Yale experience so far, and shared career advice with everyone who attended. It was an excellent way to carry on the spirit of Campaign week.
Look out for more updates on the campaign over the next few days!
Yale alumnus Johnny Salinas featured on NBC Latino
Sing for Hope is a nonprofit organization that dedicates itself to harnessing the transformative power of the arts and bringing it to the individuals and communities most in need of empowerment. The organization was featured last week on NBC Latino; the beginning of the segment focuses on Juan Carlos Salinas (DRA ‘03), president of the Yale Latino Alumni Association of the Tri-State Area.
The poet Richard Blanco visited Yale on Tuesday, February 5th for an Ezra Stiles Master’s Tea. The large group of students who attended had the opportunity to hear the poets Richard Blanco and Elizabeth Alexander speak at a Q&A session with Master Stephen Pitti.
Blanco spoke about his background in his conversation with Master Pitti. Having grown up in the U.S. as a Cuban immigrant, Blanco was able to share insights related to his blended heritage, his upbringing, and his philosophy of creativity. He then performed three poems, two of which were related to his family and thus were particularly meaningful for him. Additionally, Blanco recited the poem he presented to the American public at President Obama’s inauguration, “One Today,” prefacing it by explaining the inspiration he derived for it from previous works.
Alexander, the chair of Yale’s African American studies department and the 2009 inaugural poet, joined the conversation with questions for Blanco; she added her own experience of the inauguration by discussing her feelings during her performance on the inaugural platform four years ago.
In their commentary, both poets explained how the concepts of identity and belonging shaped their artistic and personal development. Throughout the Master’s Tea, Blanco and Alexander reflected upon the idea of national belonging, contextualizing the process through which the inaugural ceremonies reaffirmed their sense of American identity. “I never embraced America fully until that moment,” said Blanco.
This day in Yale Latin@ history: February 5, 1973
After much protesting and petitioning from MEChA (Yale’s Chicano activist group) Yale banned lettuce not bought from the United Farm Workers from its dining halls. In 1970, Yale had signed an agreement stating that they would purchase lettuce only from UFW, which guaranteed that the lettuce served to students was produced under fair migrant labor conditions.
In response to the university’s failure to comply with the agreement, Latino activists took matters into their own hands. Students began petitioning on January 31, and over two days sixty students gathered 3600 signatures. Despite that support, the petitions continued to raise much controversy on Yale’s campus.
Nonetheless, on February 5 the Yale Daily News reported on the students’ success, and non-UFW lettuce was banned from Yale dining halls. Through MEChA’s hard work, university authorities were held accountable for supporting labor fairness, and the students got a chance to make Yale a more just institution.
