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Convocation kicks off Latino History Month Liz Cho / Herald Staff Photographer By Brooks King Herald Staff Writer

Latino History Month kicked off Wednesday night with a convocation in the Salomon Center for Teaching featuring a keynote address by Latina writer Patricia Duarte.

Duarte - currently the editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language "Lamaze Parents' Magazine," a parenting publication for Hispanic mothers - has a long history of activity in the media.

She was the founding editor-in-chief of Latina magazine, a bilingual publication for young Hispanic women, and also founded La Familia De Hoy, a service magazine targeted at Latino immigrants.

In her remarks, Duarte addressed the emerging "Latino nation," a product, she said, of the growing unity of disparate ethnic groups under the Latino banner.

"Why have we come to classify ourselves as one single group of people?" she said. "There are 30 million of us in this country. We are spread across the map - how are all Latinos ever to become one people?"

The Latino label, which unites a wide range of groups, including Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and myriad others, grew out of a need for unity among Spanish-speaking South American immigrants to the United States.

"The first thing you notice when you come to this country is that all of us are perceived as one people by people who can't tell the difference between an Argentinean and a Panamanian," Duarte said.

What began only as perceived unity eventually resulted in the real thing, she said.

"The activism of Cesar Chavez led to the formation of a Hispanic identity," she said, referring to the Latino activist's efforts on behalf of Western farm workers in the 1960s.

"The idea is to form a large and more influential group so that we can better negotiate the terms of our assimilation into this society," Duarte said of the Latino label.

But beyond political activism, Duarte said, the mass media have served to reinforce and homogenize the Latino identity.

"Television has created a virtual ŒHispanic Land' in the United States," she said. "In this way, Latino-American television presupposes a kinship among viewers."

Further, Duarte said, anchors on Latino television channels try to speak without accents that will label them as coming from a specific region, and magazines geared toward the Latino market seek to avoid regionalisms in their writing.

United, Latinos are gaining political power every year, and in the process the different groups within the Latino community are hammering out a national agenda, Duarte said. Though Latinos are a diverse group, "a national Latino agenda is being
fashioned," she said.

The items on that agenda are "promoting education, preserving culture, fighting discrimination, and pressure for wider representation in government and private industry," Duarte said.

Noting political differences within the Latino community, Duarte said that most Cubans are Republicans, and most Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are Democrats.

But despite their cultural and political differences, all Latinos share common traits, Duarte said.

"Most Latinos are basically the same - people who are trying to succeed, to overcome, and to do better," she said.

Duarte was preceded at the lectern by speakers from the classes of 2002 and 1999.

Pablo Quintanilla '02 spoke about his expectations and experiences within the Brown Latino community during his first year at the University.

In his remarks, Quintanilla spoke of the unique opportunities afforded students at Brown - and the struggles many had to go through to come to the University.

"History, lack of resources, and even the American educational system have dictated that you and I should not be here," he said.

Owing to that struggle to get to Brown, Quintanilla urged the audience to take advantage of all the University has to offer.

"Don't wait ... to go after your ambitions and dreams," he said. "Be able to look back and know that you were able to accomplish something."

Indira Goris '99 followed Quintanilla and spoke of her experiences in four years of involvement with the Latino community.

She noted the impact that the community has had on her development, crediting it with playing an invaluable part in her education.

"It was [the community] that taught me the invaluable lesson that just because you have less power doesn't mean you are powerless," she said. "The woman I leave Brown being is one that has been formed by her community."

Xochitl Gonzalez '99 spoke following Goris and reflected on her journey to understand what a Latino identity means.

"After four years at Brown, I only now know what it means to be Latino," she said. "Latino is an identity of choice, an identity of empowerment, and a political identity."

Gonzalez urged the audience to "wear your identity on your sleeve."

"We must know the dangers of not carrying our identities with us everywhere we go," Gonzalez said, noting that in the absence of real people to contradict negative stereotypes, those stereotypes will flourish and become the popular perception of Latino identity.

The convocation marked the beginning of a month of activities, including a semi-formal banquet on April 10, and a series of forums dealing with a broad range of topics, including the tension between East and West Coast Latinos and the role of Latinos in the music industry.