The Latino Coalition's newest member, Grupo Quisqueyano -- Penn's first Dominican interest group -- is continuing to unite Penn's community, this time by offering a variety of plantain dishes this afternoon in the ARCH Building as part of its Platano Social Potluck.
GQ's first attempt to bring unity to the minority community on campus came last semester when it became the first Latino interest group to join the United Minorities Council since 1998. That year, the two Latino groups and founding members of the UMC -- La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos and El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan -- withdrew from the council.
The groups left the UMC because members wanted to pursue heightened political activism. Additionally, leaders felt Latino concerns were not adequately voiced in the larger body.
GQ "really progressed into a group that became trailblazers in a sense," UMC Chairman and College senior Carlos Rivera-Anaya says. "GQ really closed a chapter in the history of certain organizations, and they did it in a really elegant manner. ... I see this as a first step towards a more unified force. ... It behooves us to work together, and that's really the bottom line."
GQ, which was created last year to promote Dominican cuisine, culture and interests, joined the UMC last spring on April 14, exactly six years to the day after MEChA and ACELA walked out of the UMC. That same week, GQ also joined the Latino Coalition in an attempt to bridge the historical divide between the two groups.
"We thought it was a greater arena for collaboration," GQ President and College junior Rocio Polanco says. "It was exciting to be the first Latino group to be back after the history and the drama."
In fact, the decision to join both groups was somewhat natural for GQ, since Polanco is on the UMC board, while GQ's vice president, College junior Arlene Fernandez, is the political chairwoman of the Latino Coalition.
Polanco remembers that the GQ board saw joining both the Latino Coalition and UMC as a possibility for broader collaboration within the minority community.
In many respects, the time was ripe for a rapprochement -- all those that were directly involved in the original split in 1998 have graduated, and in fact much of the tension had died down. Furthermore, many in the community thought it was an opportune time to move on.
"When I first came into Penn, it was a thing you didn't talk about. You didn't ask why there [weren't] any Latinos in the UMC," Rivera-Anaya says.
This semester, GQ is planning a domino tournament to pay tribute to a cultural pastime of the island. In the upcoming semester, they are planning events to raise political awareness that will coincide with Dominican Independence Day.
"There have been ups and downs, but the Latino community helped start the UMC and help found the [Greenfield Intercultural Center], and they were always an integral part of the GIC," says Valerie De Cruz, director of the center, which houses the United Minority Council. "I am just so thrilled that GQ is involved, and I am thrilled that we can work closely with" La Casa Latina.
Rivera-Anaya was also optimistic about further progress and collaboration.
"As student activists," he says, "we are fighting and advocating the same issues, and the best thing to do is not to bring down a sister coalition. ... In a lot of ways, it's really about how comfortable the organizations feel together."
"Hopefully, this will open the door for other Latino organizations to make it a possibility to join the UMC."
