La Casa celebrates 40th anniversary

Framed photographs of Hoosiers hang along the upstairs hallway of La Casa, IU’s Latino Cultural Center.

Lillian Casillas-Origel, director of La Casa, calls it her “hall of fame.”

Some of the photos show banquets, Little 500 racing teams and greek organizations from years past.

All the students in Casillas-Orgiel’s pictures have something in common, she said.
They all came to La Casa looking for a place to belong.

La Casa has been IU’s “home away from home” for Latino students since 1973, and this year marks the cultural center’s 40th anniversary.

This weekend hundreds of alumni and current students networked and socialized, celebrating the 40-year landmark in honor of La Casa. The three days included dozens of events, culminating in a sold-out banquet Saturday night.

The celebration allowed alumni to see the growth in the Hispanic and Latino community on campus.

Casillas-Origel and student organizations must now adapt to the challenges of the expanding population.

The percentage of Hispanic and Latino students has doubled in the past decade, while the space at La Casa has stayed the same.

“It has taken a lot of effort for people to see the University as a home for Latinos,” Casillas-Origel said.

***
Casillas-Origel sat down and pulled out a scrapbook from the thousands of archived photos in her office.

28 years ago, she came to IU as a freshman.

She laughed as she pulled out a picture of herself with dark, curly hair and thick-framed glasses. The image of her as an undergraduate was taken at one of La Casa’s social events in the late 1980s.

“During high school I felt like a woman without a country,” she said. “I didn’t fit in with the U.S., I didn’t fit in with Mexico, and it wasn’t until I came to IU that it clicked.”

La Casa provided Casillas-Origel with a connection to her heritage and home.

The University originally opened office space in a house at 410 Park Ave. for a small group of Hispanic and Latino student activists in 1973.

Guadalupe Anaya was one of the first undergraduate workers at La Casa when it opened that year.

Anaya worked with the Latino activist group on campus where she recruited Hispanic or Latino high school students to the University.

“Our size was so small at the time that most people had no clue Latinos lived in Indiana,” Anaya said.

In 1972, two students, Santiago Garcia and Dolly Manns, presented plans to administration for a newly structured Office of Minority Affairs.

The Office of Latino Affairs was created by January of the following year to help serve the academic, social and cultural needs of Latino students.

Never before had Latinos had their own space on campus.

“It was the first time we didn’t have to struggle with finding a place to meet,” Anaya said. “We had one less obstacle to deal with.”

The following year a porch collapsed due to poor structural conditions of the building, forcing the offices to find a new location, which brought La Casa to its current home at 715 E. Seventh St.

The Office of Latino Affairs joined forces with other campus cultural centers in 1999, when it was absorbed into the Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs.

When the restructure happened, La Casa’s full-time staff was reduced to just one person — Casillas-Origel.

As its director for 19 years, Casillas-Origel has worked to foster a welcoming
environment for students.

This year, Casillas-Origel was named the 2013 IU Latino Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni, an award she was given at Saturday night’s banquet.

Casillas-Origel has made efforts to form alliances with other culture center leaders.

“Because we are close, I know that the other leaders have my back,” she said. “If there’s something that needs to be advocated for minority groups, they will speak on behalf of me and for my community.”

***
In the past year, more than 10,000 people have stepped through La Casa’s arched doorway.

A clipboard in the front is used to record every person who visits.

Its central location has brought the center high visibility on campus, Casillas-Origel said.

“If someone were to say we could build a new house somewhere further away, I would seriously consider passing up that offer,” she said.

The Hispanic and Latino population on campus grew from 2.2 percent to 4.2 percent of total degree-seeking students in the past decade, putting pressure on the small three-story house’s spatial resources.

With 1,752 Hispanic or Latino students, this year’s class is the largest to date, according to official enrollment reports.

Casillas-Origel said many of La Casa’s student organizations have outgrown the couches and chairs of the main floor’s living room.

Expansion has proved difficult because the building is a historical landmark, Casillas-Origel said. 

“The growing pains that La Casa feels are the same that many other groups on campus feel,” she said.  “We’re trying to create this one-stop shop for students, this one place where everything is centralized, but the space just isn’t there
anymore.”

Sophomore Tam Huynh said this year’s freshman orientation event attracted more than 100 students.

“It was way too crowded in the living room of La Casa,” Huynh said. “Most of us had to stand and nobody could hear you unless you were shouting.”

“I don’t think it’s big enough. We need to expand.”

***
Casillas-Origel walked onto the main level where students rest and study between classes.

The back porch is where most students hang out and relax.

Senior Abner Gomez said he has made La Casa his second home — napping on the couches, cooking meals in the kitchen and forming many lasting friendships throughout the past four years.

“This is somewhere I know I can find somebody I can relate to, especially in this big university where not a lot of people look like me,” Gomez said. “Being able to see all these people here makes me feel at home.”

Casillas-Origel asked a small group of students, “What does it mean to you to have a cultural center for Latinos?”

“Everyone here understands me,” freshman Exsenet Esler said, Huynh said the fact he is Asian-American didn’t prevent him from getting involved with La Casa. 

“There should be more places that inform students of the support that’s available to them,” Huynh said. “During my freshman year I felt like I knew nothing about being in school except for going to class and going back to the dorm.”

On Saturday, Latinos Unidos at IU organized one of the weekend’s highlights — the Old School Sports Fest in Dunn Meadow.

Students and alumni formed teams and raced through an obstacle course consisting of a multi-colored bounce castle and hula-hoops.

The event hasn’t been offered for the past several years, but was brought back for the 40th anniversary celebration, said Citlali Meza, president of Latinos Unidos.

As teams raced through the course, La Casa alumna Marisol Pellot Julkes watched from a distance. She said she looked forward to this event every year during her time at IU. 

Pellot Julkes was an undergraduate in the late 1990s.

“We’re a big family,” she said. “It’s important that we continue to build on the foundation we already have.”

Casillas-Origel said her dream is to add on to the house to make room for more students. She said she would love to hire a full-time assistant director or graduate assistant to provide additional resources for students.

She also said she hopes to continue to voice the center’s needs to University administrative committees. 

“There’s still so much more that can happen,” Casillas-Origel said. “We have so much more time and things we can do as a community. We are strong.”

Follow reporter Matt Bloom on Twitter @matthew_bloom.