Started at The University of Pennsylvania in 2005, the Latino
Ivy League Conference (LILC) has served to advance Latino communities within
the eight Ivy League Institutions--Brown University, Columbia University,
Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton
University, The University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. The
conference accomplishes this by establishing a strong network between academic
institutions and students, fostering academic excellence, serving as a catalyst
for the pursuit of student-identified goals, and by simultaneously upholding
and challenging Latino and Latin-American culture.
Since
its commencement, one of the eight sister
schools has bid for the opportunity to plan, coordinate and host this highly-esteemed
conference. Moreover, every Ivy League school (including the host school) is
responsible for the selection of ten (Latin@) students to serve as delegates of
their respective institutions. Now in 2012, it is our honor to announce
that LILC is returning to Penn, from November
9th through the 11th.
We as a delegation intend to build upon the deep-rooted and
inspirational raices bestowed to us
by our predecessors. Who through their work to create the LILC have shown us
that truly, “we cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress
and prosperity for our community [instead] our ambitions must be broad enough
to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our
own.” (Cesar Chavez)
We like to think of a conference theme as a vehicle for the
conveyance of a purpose that may not seem plausible at first, but which, by the
end of said conference, is attainable. As such, our theme for the Seventh
Annual LILC is, Latinos and Music, represented by our title, Oye Mi Canto: Exploring Cultural Dissonance
in the Ivy League. We recognize that music is more than the beats
and rhythms to which we sway our bodies; it plays a prominent role in
our economy, it has served to unify and empower those once enslaved, it
provides a viable medium of self-expression, and it serves to
catalyze political movements. That being said, with this theme we hope to
achieve several goals such as, scholarly discourse, professional network and
community resource expansion, the fostering of friendships, etc. But more
broadly, we wish to address the cultural dissonance that is (arguably) rampant
across the Latino Ivy League community: the new found complacency amongst
historically, one of the most unstoppable and tireless minority groups.
One of the greatest take-aways from last year’s conference for
our delegation was that, as a whole, our community felt the lack of activism on
our campuses in spite of our endless resources, credentials and “Ivy League
clout.” By the end of the conference, we want each delegate to be able to find
an internal as well as a communal thread that can propel our institutions forward
into advocacy. Seeing as music is the staple of any culture, including our own,
we hope to use music—in its many varieties—to explore this in great depth and
revive an old passion that transcends beyond the
classroom.
-Diana, Adan y Fabi
