Latino Coalition elects new leaders

When College sophomore Cris Barrios and Wharton sophomore Wendy De La Rosa take over as the new chairman and vice chairwoman of the Latino Coalition next year, they hope to promote unity among the various Latino groups at Penn.

Barrios and De La Rosa, who were elected on Wednesday, discussed their vision for the LC with the DP last night.

Daily Pennsylvanian: What are your goals for next year?

Cris Barrios: One of them would be maintaining the cohesiveness between the groups in the Latino Coalition and also reaching out to other University . groups and collaborating with them.

Wendy De La Rosa: Unity is the most important thing that should be addressed.

DP: Why did you run for a position on the LC board?

CB: I was co-head delegate for the Latino Ivy League Conference. It really motivated me to become a little more active in Penn's campus, in particular the Latino Coalition.

WD: I spear-headed the Wharton recruitment initiative, and it was just shocking to see how much progress we still needed to make.

DP: What would you like LC to do differently next year?

CB: We have Latino Heritage Month in the fall and Festival Latino in the spring. I would like to cut down on the number of events [at Festival Latino] and make the remaining ones bigger. That would increase turnout.

Penn is only 7-percent Latino, and I feel that with such a small percentage, we need as many people as we have to come out and show support.

WD: We want to deepen the ties to individual groups - with LC and with each other. One of the ways that I want to do that is simulating the [Student Activity Council] model, in the way that they have individual liaisons to different groups. The groups want and need that individual attention.

DP: What plans do you have to work with other groups on campus?

WD: We want to increase our involvement within the University Council and the [five minority coalition groups]. We definitely want to try to put on group events together.

DP: How do you propose to encourage communication and collaboration among the constituent groups of the LC?

WD: We want to create a big sis, little sis program, so groups that are already more established on campus . can pair off with start-up Latino groups.

DP: What is the greatest problem facing the Latino community at Penn?

CB: Indifference from the Latinos that are on campus. We hope to . reach out a little more to those people, particularly freshmen when they first come in.

WD: Another big issue is many Latinos on campus may not know what resources are available to them. If you don't know who can help you, then you can never be helped.

DP: How would you describe the presence of LC at Penn?

WD: We've made great strides from where we used to be to now. I think LC has really started to pull its own weight within the 5B, and we moved away from just being the little sister to becoming an adult within the community.

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