Members of the Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs emphasized the importance of communication to forming community at the public conversation Tuesday night.
Commission members gathered at La Casa Latino Cultural Center, where they circled chairs and set out churros.
The commissioners said they hoped to have a forum with the Latino community so they might hear directly what the community’s needs were and work with what they learned.
But the meeting was smaller than they hoped.
Freshman Angelica Navarro was one of only a handful of people present not on the commission. Navarro said she came to the meeting because she was interested in social justice.
“I feel like breaking down cultural barriers,” Navarro said.
Navarro told the commission she wanted to know more about voting, since she had just turned 18.
Commissioner Maria Carrasquillo smiled. After answering a couple of questions regarding Navarro and voting, she began talking about what the commission was doing to educate the Latino community on local and federal government issues.
“We’ve been talking about ensuring the community knows what their government does, since it’s different in other countries,” Carrasquillo said. The demographics of the commissioners demonstrated her point: members hailed from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Ruben Marté, the commission’s vice president, said even though the community and commissioners often represent significant diversity, there is one thing that unites them.
“What we all have in common is our language,” Marté said.
United on that front, the commission seeks to serve the greater Bloomington community by focusing and working on their own.
Government is not the only focus. The commission often focuses on a selection of key issues and has subcommittees dedicated to them. Currently, the commission is working on knowledge of government, access to voting and domestic violence. Carrasquillo encouraged more community participation so the commission can best serve its community.
“We aren’t able to be the voice if you aren’t to us,” Carrasquillo said. Since she came to Bloomington several years ago, she said she has noticed “pockets” of Latino communities within Bloomington.
“There’s no communication between them,” Carrasquillo said.
That is part of what the commission is trying to change.
Sophomore Brandon Diego came to the meeting as a commissioner. He had come to one of the commission’s meetings before, and they recruited him to become a part of the commission. After saying yes, he began working on relations between Latino students at IU and Latinos in the community.
Marte joked that Navarro might be the next to follow in Diego’s footsteps.
“I’m excited to come back and learn more,” Navarro said.
The Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs meets publicly the first Wednesday of every month at City Hall.
