It's a small facility, with a big mural and a warm atmosphere. And with La Casa Latina's new leader starting to settle in after two months on the job, the center can continue focusing on programming and its central mission.
Anamaria Cobo has only been at Penn for two months, but she seems to have found her niche with students and administrators alike, through program implementation and personal contact.
The new director of La Casa Latina and chairwoman of the Latino Caucus for the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education in America stepped into the vacant seat in September. La Casa Latina, which opened in the fall of 1999, had been without a director for the past year and had enjoyed administrative leadership for only part of its existence.
But this fall, La Casa welcomed Cobo from her former position as assistant dean and director of the intercultural center at Swarthmore College. Since receiving her master of arts from New York University, Cobo has also been an administrator at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Alaska-Anchorage and the City of New York Baruch College.
Already this year, the Latino community has been more visible in its mission to promote its heritage and culture. Activities have been highly promoted and praised, and the center, located in the ARCH building, has attracted use from Latinos and non-Latinos looking to learn more about the culture.
Her goals for this year are many. She wants what any director would want -- a thriving center at the in the midst of a strong student community and a wealth of resources for student research and recreation. Yet for Cobo, going beyond the Penn campus will be the real challenge.
"Though we are located in West Philadelphia, a large Latino community exists in the northern part of the city. It is our job as an institution of higher learning to reach out to this community and show them that we are serious about the education of our Latino students," Cobo said.
And right now is a critical time for leadership within Penn's own Latino community. With rising recruitment numbers, current students and alumni have made strides to make their presence felt.
Despite the lack of past administrative leadership, La Casa has not faltered in any of its goals.
"I was amazed and so happy when I got in here to inherit such great resources," Cobo said. "The students have been implementing projects and holding things together when they could have so easily just folded."
The students missed having a guiding voice for their endeavors and are pleased with the joint leadership of Cobo and Illeana Casiano and Maritza Santiago-Torres, both staff members at La Casa.
"We became so accustomed to working without a fully staffed La Casa last year, but I am realizing that with Anamaria, Illeana and Maritza, we can achieve so much more in advancing the goals of the community, especially in terms of providing a comfortable atmosphere for Latinos, and an outlet for proliferating a greater awareness and understanding of the culture," said College junior Shaun Gonzales, student spokesman for the Latino Coalition.
Because so many student-oriented programs overlap, Cobo hopes to work closely with other departments. Career Services has job recruitment programs for Latino students, as does the Wharton School. Cobo is not looking to move any of these under her jurisdiction. Rather, she just wants to make sure that the programs are giving the best aid and understanding to Latino students as they possibly can.
She admits that she wouldn't be able to do any of it without the help of her staff and the students who have maintained the program for the past year.
"I am just so proud of the alliances in the Latino community here. "I am honored to be able to work with these students and watch them grow as the move towards graduation and beyond. Their strength, passion and activism is beyond words."
