U Student Creates Latinx Student Union to Strengthen Presence on Campus
June 5, 2022
Although Latinx students currently make up the largest population of non-white students at the University of Utah, Osvaldo Miranda, third-year health, society and policy major, felt like their presence was not seen on campus enough.
He hopes to change this by starting a Latinx Student Union (LSU) at the college, which he announced on Instagram in the group’s first post.
Miranda acknowledged existing groups on campus like MEChA, TRIO and the Dream Center have been helpful to lots of Latinx students, but he believes there is still more work needed for Latinx students to be seen and involved on campus.
“I would like there to be a bigger presence,” Miranda said. “I think a Latinx Student Union is the first step in the right direction.”
Reflecting on the alienation he felt after his transition from West High to the U, Miranda said Latinx students at the U need a place to find community.
“I wanted to create a space for Latinx students specifically to come and meet one another because it is kind of difficult to just casually meet them on campus,” Miranda said.
Coming from a diverse high school, Miranda said he felt out of place as a first-year honors student living in Kahlert Village, where suddenly, that diversity was not present. This, combined with a lack of in-person interaction in his first year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, made it difficult for Miranda to connect with other students.
“I did wish that I could just meet other Latinx students,” Miranda said. “That was something that I struggled with.”
Alejandra Huerta Hernandez, second-year health, society and policy major, said she would personally be interested in joining LSU and appreciates the chance to meet other students with similar backgrounds.
“I’ve always felt like I’m too Latinx for white people and I’m too white for my Latinx community,” Hernandez said. “I personally don’t think I’d worry about it in this sense because I’d be surrounded by people that probably feel the same way and I feel like we could find our way together.”
In addition to Miranda as one of the co-presidents, LSU announced the executive board via Instagram — Lucas Zagal as co-president, Melissa Pardo-Choza as vice president, Tyra Imbico as communications chair and Mariela Landeo as treasurer.
The group will be drafting a constitution and finding an advisor over the summer.
Miranda said a concern he has heard from many students who are considering joining the club was being “Latinx enough.” In response, he emphasized that there was no such thing, and all people are welcome to join.
“If that’s something that worries you, don’t let it be a worry,” Miranda said. “You’re totally welcome.”
Miranda also said he would like to make an effort to include parts of the Latinx community that often get less attention, including Latinx students from countries other than Mexico, Afro-Latinx and queer Latinx people.
“I think those are people that kind of get left out of these discussions, so I want to make sure that from the get-go they know that they are welcomed at LSU,” Miranda said.
As for potential events, Miranda hopes to eventually throw a “baile” — a dance celebrating Latinx culture with music and food on the scale of Crimson Nights. Other events may include game nights and socials, but Miranda said they’re welcoming suggestions from students.
“At the end of the day, we’re here to help students, so if you feel like ‘I would like us to do this thing,’ we’re open to suggestions,” Miranda said.
Meeting times have not yet been decided, but LSU hopes to be operational by Fall 2022.
John Hedberg • Jun 7, 2022 at 11:32 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfUi92feLKg
Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) ran for President in 2020 as a Progressive Democrat and actually spoke here on campus to a full house which included a lot of MATH hats. 🙂 She believes the Left is no longer interested in protecting disadvantaged people, but is rather using us and pitting us against each other, so they can stay in power by falsely accusing everyone else of hatreds they actually espouse and practice themselves. The more they can divide us and teach us to fear each other, the easier for them to stampede our vote in whatever direction they point to, usually a wrong direction which ends up disadvantaging our own families and our communities.
Liberal principles for centuries have been built on the truth that we’re all equally and wonderfully human, and we all are deserving of the same high standard of behavior and conduct, not because we’re perfect or ever will be, but because we feel the same things, understand each others’ thoughts and hearts, and can share so much, even as we grow and express ourselves as diverse individuals who learn and err and forgive, love and provide healing and compassion.
Genuine liberal values are based on our common humanity, human rights, as children of an Infinite Love (by whatever name), imperfect but bustling with diverse potentials, beauty, wonder, worth, and joy! In these diverse potentials and our ability to share and understand each other, we are One, and we always have been. As diverse individuals who don’t hold to any homogenous group, we’re equal in that humanity!
As human beings, we suffer in normal growth from error and imperfection and circumstance together as children, and we celebrate it when we overcome that error, when that necessary suffering is overcome in a better understanding and a better way. This takes work, but if you notice anything about children, they never stop moving while they’re awake. Working out growth and development is built into us, along with the wonder and joy which bring us through to the other side of exploration. And each one us us has a unique insight, a point of view which doesn’t belong to anyone else, but which adds to the whole we share. Beautiful tapestry, indeed!
Love overcomes the fear which politicians and mindful parasites use to divide and pit us against each other for no reason, so they can falsely claim to protect us from the useless fear they created themselves from the beginning. Our greatest identity and asset is that we share this humanity. Focus on this in ourselves in each other, and every space becomes safe. We’re family, and Love is a choice to act and treat each other by that best standard, regardless of how others would teach us to fear so they can stampede control. Love builds relationships, institutions, and civilizations. Fear, if the 20th century has taught us anything, leads to false division, false hatred, and genocide, all so someone who’s lying to themselves can maintain an illusion of control before society implodes.
Love not only shows us who we really are, but it leads us out of the darkness in treating each other by that best standard, even when we fall down and make mistakes, as children do. We’re working, through Love, to discern and express all that diverse potential written into us by that Infinite Light, to share the inevitable suffering which comes with life by comforting, understanding, healing, and uplifting as we grow beyond what we were and what we did yesterday to something totally new, diverse, and beautiful together as friends & family.
It’s all a matter of choosing Love over division and fear. Human suffering is universal and inevitable, but how we face it (together) defines our actual liberal values and virtue. Even through the hurt, we share that Love, respect, understanding, and willingness to get back to work “making it better”. That’s what our parents tried to do for us (for our “boo-boo’s”). We can choose to be this for each other, and be healed while we do.
I hope all this makes sense.
Best Regards Always,
J Hedberg
John Hedberg • Jun 5, 2022 at 7:16 am
“And a recent Gallup poll found that 4% of people surveyed preferred “Latinx” as the label of choice to describe their ethnic group.
Recently, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Hispanic and Latino civil rights organization in the U.S., and Congressman Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., stated that they would no longer use the term Latinx because it was offensive to some and failed to prove that it had a wide acceptance.
When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use,” Gallego tweeted last month.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/latinx-latino-hispanic-linguistics-expert-explains-confusion/story?id=82273936
When the Progressive label for the community doesn’t even come from the community itself, that kind of says it all: that it’s Progressives looking to take advantage of the folks they say they’re here to help, since they can’t even listen to people enough to find out what they call themselves, never mind find out what they think, value, and need. If they name you, isn’t it a little like they think they own you? I mean really! When do you ever name other people? Child? Dog or cat?
It just seems like another opportunity for so-called “liberals” to tell people what they want them to think, so they can stampede you to vote for their agenda, even when it hurts your family and your community. That’s not really liberal. That’s Marxism, coming to you in the name of help, but really coming not to listen, but to control. They live to label other people, and accuracy doesn’t seem to mean much if the control works. Always, they seek first to divide you into groups, then pit those groups against each other, just like the Soviets did in Yugoslavia before the genocides began.
It’s been done before, all over the world, all through the 20th century. If they can divide you, label you, and get you to accept the labels they put on other people, they can control you, since they’re now defining how you name things. Why fall for the same old control games again? It’s the hatred they bring that’s evil, not how someone looks or identifies. Love everyone! We’re all a family of human beings inside, where it matters.
Just an observation.
Kindly, with Love,
J Hedberg