La Casa celebrates Hispanic heritage

A seemingly endless line wound inside from the backyard of La Casa Latino Cultural Center toward a table filled with chicken and beef tacos, rice and beans, and tortilla chips.

“What do you do to celebrate this? A bunch of Hispanic people get together and eat?” asked freshman Ana Carolina Meza Mendoza, who moved to the United States from Colombia three years ago.

La Casa’s National Hispanic Heritage Month kick-off event Sept. 15 was full of food, music and celebration. But the significance of both the event and month go beyond that.

The first National Hispanic Heritage Month was observed in 1988. President Ronald Reagan expanded what was previously Hispanic Heritage Week to encompass the independence days of Latin American nations, including Mexico, Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala, between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa, said National Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity for the cultural center to reach out to students at the start of the semester.

“For us, it’s not just creating that limelight but beginning the year by establishing relationships through the programming that we do,” Casillas said. “It’s a great opportunity (for students) to attend the program, get to know the key people involved in Latino issues and then see if it’s something they want to get involved with.”

Senior Estrella Gonzalez, who worked at La Casa during the 2010-11 school year, said the center is a place to relax between classes and a home away from home.

“Most of us are so far away from our parents,” Gonzalez said. “The students that come in and out are like family. We want to keep that culture alive within the family we have here.”

According to 2010 U.S. Census data, 50.5 million Hispanics live in the United States and make up 16.3 percent of the total population. The nation’s Hispanic population grew 43 percent from 2000 to 2010. Estimates project that 30 percent of the population will be Hispanic by 2050.

Director of Latino Studies John Nieto-Phillips said the rapid growth has increased attention and sparked debate on issues that affect Latinos, including the hot-button topic of immigration.

“Various states across the country, such as Alabama, Arizona, even Indiana, are enacting laws that give public officials such as the police the authority to question people about their citizenship,” Nieto-Phillips said. “The implications of these laws are really important for Latinos, because they have the potential to tear families apart, to exclude them from opportunities in the United States.”

Indiana H.B. 1402, which took effect July 1, requires undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition.

In a recent poll on idsnews.com, 52 percent of respondents said they thought the new law was “necessary and cost-driven.”

Nieto-Phillips said laws like these create roadblocks to education.

“The University is in the unfortunate position of having to enforce a law that negatively affects IU students,” Nieto-Phillips said. “We need to plan as a state — as a university — for the demographic shifts that are going to allow for educational opportunities for Latinos at all levels.”

Latino Studies and La Casa work year-round to advance a broader understanding on Latino issues with Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike.

Nieto-Phillips said people need to understand that terms like “Hispanic” and “Latino,” which the U.S. government uses interchangeably, encompass a broad spectrum of people of Spanish-speaking heritage. This can stop people from identifying someone as an incorrect nationality.

“Our mission as an academic program is to teach students about Latino history, social conditions, culture,” Nieto-Phillips said. “It’s important to remember that all immigrants are not Latinos, and all Latinos are not immigrants.”