In a sense, yesterday was just a family event -- a gathering of more than 100 members of "la familia" reminiscing over dinner about who they are and how they got here. But actually, it was more than that.
The Fifth Year Anniversary Banquet of La Casa Latina -- a cultural center devoted to Latino culture and identity -- was held yesterday.
Friends, family and staff of La Casa celebrated its fifth birthday by gathering in Houston Hall to commemorate the cultural center and the journey that unites them all.
"La Casa Latina is so much more than a resource center," Chairman of the United Minorities Council Carlos Rivera-Anaya said. "It is clearly a reflection of a vibrant community and a testament to the resiliency of the student spirit."
Many of the faculty and alumni, who helped found the center five years ago and are still closely tied to it, recollected the struggles and attempts to build a genuine, unified Latino community at Penn. They recounted the times before there were three full-time employees at La Casa, before its inception and before La Casa had a permanent home in the Arts, Research and Culture House.
Such contrast between the past and present realities was a recurring theme that echoed throughout the evening.
"I am proud that Penn has a place called La Casa Latina that deepens our knowledge of the vibrant cultural and life experiences of nearly 40 million people in the United States," University President Amy Gutmann said. "I am also proud that La Casa Latina serves as a catalyst for reflecting on the many ways our identities are shaped by and in turn shape our relationship with many, many cultures."
Gutmann added that the University is far from reaching its full potential in terms of benefiting from diversity, but La Casa illustrates precisely the kind of enriching experience cultural centers can bring to the Penn community.
The celebration also served as the public return of former University President Judith Rodin, who was awarded the first "Amigos de La Casa" award for the supportive role she played in La Casa's formation and during its infancy.
"This is my first event back at Penn, and just I couldn't think of a more wonderful way to return," Rodin said. "La Casa Latina is no longer a dream. It's no longer a struggle. It's an extraordinary place -- a place that's welcoming, a place that's open, a place that has unbelievable spirit and just extraordinary heart."
Rodin also announced that she will donate $5,000 from the Philadelphia Award -- an annual accolade honoring community advancement that will be presented to her later this month -- to La Casa. The money will be used for scholarships.
But as much as the identity of those present is linked to the past, most of the challenges and work still lies ahead.
Rivera-Anaya pointed to one statistic that illustrates the barriers that still need to be climbed. In 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 22 percent of Latinos aged 18-22 were enrolled in colleges or universities. He said that this situation is a "massive responsibility" and hoped that it would be a call to action for the student activists in attendance.
Although the staff at La Casa works there full-time, everyone -- including La Casa's director, Anamaria Cobo -- agreed that the center would not be possible without the students.
The students involved with La Casa, in turn, said that their experience at Penn has been closely molded by their experience of the tight-knit community, without which they would feel lost.
"When I first got to campus, I was searching for that place ... where I can feel comfortable. ... I found it at La Casa Latina," Wharton senior Celia Castellanos said."There will always be student who will feel like they don't belong. They need a La Casa Latina to feel welcome."
