Latino Groups To Restructure Umbrella Organization

In an attempt to better unify the Latino student groups on campus, members of Concilio Latino hammered out plans for a radical restructuring of their group at a meeting yesterday.

Currently, members of Concilio Latino—an umbrella organization for the 12 official Latino student groups on campus—simply volunteer to serve on Concilio’s board.

But with yesterday’s changes, Concilio board members will be nominated by participating Latino student groups, thus strengthening Concilio’s ties with the groups it is supposed to represent.

These changes come after the graduation of Luis Hernandez, Concilio’s co-chair who brought national media attention to the group with his role in the drive for a Latino Studies program.

Now, with many senior board members approaching graduation, Concilio leadership is planning for broad-ranging change to gain more influence in the University.

“I think this is a wonderful idea, in terms of getting the Concilio connected to the Latino groups on campus” said Chris Tirres, a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who has been involved with Concilio since 1995. “I think it’s important that people who are involved in other groups in the community serve,” he said.

Four students at the meeting said they would temporarily serve as board members while Concilio works with other Latino groups on campus to form a more permanent board.

Some students said it would be difficult to get representatives of the Latino groups interested enough in Concilio to participate. But others were enthusiastic about the change, proposing large-scale plans aimed to make Concilio more of a presence on campus. These included organizing a Latino culture show in the spring and publishing a Latino guide to Harvard.

Traditionally, Concilio has sponsored two social events each year. But its main role has been as a representative of the many smaller Latino groups at the College and graduate schools.

“In times of turmoil, or when we need to pull together as a community, like the Latino Studies initiative...we’ll have a community to turn to,” said Tirres.