Conference to spur revival of Chicano group

Students from up and down the East Coast gathered at last weekend's Chicano Student Forum conference, an event Latino students hope will mark the revival of Princeton's Chicano Caucus.

During the weekend, the caucus, the Mexican-American organization on campus, hosted the annual East Coast Chicano Student Forum Fall Conference, drawing more than 125 people from 18 schools.

The conference's success has given Chicano Caucus President Barbara Soliz '04 hope for a previously dwindling membership.

"After the conference, I am optimistic about the future of this organization, there are so many excited young people" she said.

For the past few years, the Chicano Caucus has not been regularly involved in the ECCSF, Soliz said. The University has not held the conference in several years.

"We have been less active in the ECCSF and less active on campus," she said. "But we are working towards being more involved."

The Chicano Caucus seeks to be viewed as more of a political group, Soliz said.

"This conference was a way of getting our feet wet," she said. "Recently, everything we've done has been small scale such as study breaks and members-only meetings. We wanted more University involvement."

The conference theme, The Latino Community and Education, was based around the idea that "education is the most important civil rights issue facing the Latino community in 21st century America," according to the conference agenda.

The conference was a compilation of workshops, concluding with a dinner where keynote speaker David Abalos, a visiting professor in the politics department, talked about Latino education and the Ivy League.

Other speakers included Marc Rodriguez, an assistant history professor, David Gutierrez, a fellow in the history department and Delia Pompa, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

East Coast Chicano Student Forum, the national organization that sponsored the event, holds three conferences per year at participating schools.

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"The Conference provided a forum for Latino issues here on campus," said Rodriguez, who serves as an informal adviser to the caucus.

He added that media attention focused on African-American studies has left the Latino population marginalized.

"I think it's important. There is an interest, but no institution for discussion," he said.

The University's Latin Amer-ican Studies program has not provided the outlet for discussion that students need, Rodriguez said.

"In the future, we would like to see a Latino studies program on campus, but as of now there is not enough administration support," Soliz said.

She said more student involvement will lead to more faculty support and increase the caucus' credibility. The conference concluded with a fiesta at Colonial Club.

"Holding the party at an eating club, I knew there would be many people who were not involved in the conference, and that would give us more exposure," she said.