Latino Greek Letter Organizations

[wrussell]

Originally posted by LatinaAlumna
Sorry, I misread your post. LOL.

I've been a member of my organization for almost 9 years. I've been an alumna for the last 7 years. I have nothing but respect for the Lambda Theta Alphas, Sigma Lambda Gammas, Kappa Delta Chis, and all of the other Latina sororities who are out there improving things for women and for the community. Latina sororities all over the country are making progress and making a positive difference. I'm proud to be part of this. I've met several Lambda Theta Alpha sisters over the years, and they were all outstanding people.

One thing that being a member of an LGLO has taught me is that it is not about the letters that we wear, but the people who we serve.

I can do nothing but applaud. It is nice to hear something good versus the stupid bickering. I appriecate your honesty and commitment to the betterment of society. Thanks.

[audaz49]

to both wrussel &preciousjeni ~
i'm so glad to see intelligent and coherent conversation being posted about a subject which could (and has in some instances) become contorversial and/or a nasty fight. its important to include all of the things which have been discussed into the consideration when figuring out what to call an organization. ultimately, you can't stop an org from calling itself whatever, but you can be aware of how they fit their own given label and what other labels they might fit under instead/as well. my organization in particular has been very careful about what we call ourselves, we weren't founded as a multicultural organization, but we have grown to be one which does concern ourselves with multicultural issues, and have multicultural membership, something that happened in the very very very early days of the org. while i do look around at my chapter and the nearest chapter to us and see primary membership as latina in the past, the current trend is becoming more and more mixed members. other chapters are predominantly black, asian, or white, the chapters are generally a reflection of the women on the chapter's particular campus. depending on the area, the size of the campus, the cultural makeup of the campus, and the number and types of the glos available on the campus, each chapter of any organization is going to have a unique composition and will reflect the region and of course, the membership interest, recruitment success, and quality of the ladies in the potential member pool. speaking for my own chapter, we have only 4 ladies who do not identify as latina in some way, but regardless of their choice of self identification, Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. and Gamma Chapter of aforementioned organization accepts these ladies as full and respected members of our sisterhood because of the founding principles and the strong bond of our organization. multiculturalism is not just a cause, it is a reality, and a lot of people have yet to learn that.

[rocketgirl]

wow go to work and i seem to miss a whole conversation. anyway i just wanted to give applause to audaz and wrussell for your responses. it is definately great that there is an intelligent convo going on instead of arguing.

i do have a question...for any and everybody, for the organizations that recongize that their membership has become more multicultural, are you changing your programming to reflect this or no? just wondering because it seemed that the latina/o orgs at my alma matter have become more multicultural, but the programming never changed. Is that a direction that you think more orgs will go towards over time?

[juniebug19]

I don't mean to be rude, or negative, but if y'all don't mind, I rather give a more negative aspect of Latino/a Fraternities and Sororities, just so y'all see the "other side."



This past fall, I rushed a Latina Sorority. During rush, the women were cool, really down to earth, strong women. I decided to pledge this sorority. There was only one other girl who signed a bid for this particular sorority during rush, but during an informational meeting, 2 other girls signed up. Throughout all this, the sorority ladies stayed cool. They talked with me, they were just awesome.

Once our "process" (or whatever you would call it) started, the cool, sweet, down to earth ladies made a complete 180. This ladies became heartless, rude and demeaning. Out of us 4 girls that were pledging, 3 were Mexican and 1 was African-American. Although these ladies from the sorority said they had sisters of all nationalities throughout the nation, their actions in this specific chapter showed that they really didn't want my African-American friend. They treated her differently, constantly complaining about the way she did things, or the way she pronounced Spanish words.

This women, during our process, started to belittle us. As we walked pass them at school, they whisper about us, give us dirty looks, and during our "meetings" they would yell.

Finally, 3 of the 4 girls left (the only one who stayed was my African-American friend). Now, if we just even walk past us, they call us names. They have a reputation of being rude, snobbish, a little too overconfident when they shouldn't be, etc...its no wonder their numbers are so low.

I have talked to my American American Friend and the belittling continues, she still hasn't become a member of the sorority (and our process started around Halloween). The more she tells me about what is happening to her, the more i'm realizing that what they did to us could be considered Hazing. So i'm now i'm trying to get in contact with our Greek Life Advisor about this.


Note: I'm not trying to be rude. I still completely respect this organization, and if I was at a different campus, i'd probably rush this group again. I met some of their sisters from California and they are awesome, but just this particular group is NOT!

[wrussell]

Originally posted by rocketgirl
wow go to work and i seem to miss a whole conversation. anyway i just wanted to give applause to audaz and wrussell for your responses. it is definately great that there is an intelligent convo going on instead of arguing.

i do have a question...for any and everybody, for the organizations that recongize that their membership has become more multicultural, are you changing your programming to reflect this or no? just wondering because it seemed that the latina/o orgs at my alma matter have become more multicultural, but the programming never changed. Is that a direction that you think more orgs will go towards over time?

Our programming changed, but I believe that it should. Your orgs programming should reflect your org's membership and principles. I hope that more org's go the diversify their programming, but you never know. Time will tell.

[wrussell]

Originally posted by juniebug19
I don't mean to be rude, or negative, but if y'all don't mind, I rather give a more negative aspect of Latino/a Fraternities and Sororities, just so y'all see the "other side."



This past fall, I rushed a Latina Sorority. During rush, the women were cool, really down to earth, strong women. I decided to pledge this sorority. There was only one other girl who signed a bid for this particular sorority during rush, but during an informational meeting, 2 other girls signed up. Throughout all this, the sorority ladies stayed cool. They talked with me, they were just awesome.

Once our "process" (or whatever you would call it) started, the cool, sweet, down to earth ladies made a complete 180. This ladies became heartless, rude and demeaning. Out of us 4 girls that were pledging, 3 were Mexican and 1 was African-American. Although these ladies from the sorority said they had sisters of all nationalities throughout the nation, their actions in this specific chapter showed that they really didn't want my African-American friend. They treated her differently, constantly complaining about the way she did things, or the way she pronounced Spanish words.

This women, during our process, started to belittle us. As we walked pass them at school, they whisper about us, give us dirty looks, and during our "meetings" they would yell.

Finally, 3 of the 4 girls left (the only one who stayed was my African-American friend). Now, if we just even walk past us, they call us names. They have a reputation of being rude, snobbish, a little too overconfident when they shouldn't be, etc...its no wonder their numbers are so low.

I have talked to my American American Friend and the belittling continues, she still hasn't become a member of the sorority (and our process started around Halloween). The more she tells me about what is happening to her, the more i'm realizing that what they did to us could be considered Hazing. So i'm now i'm trying to get in contact with our Greek Life Advisor about this.


Note: I'm not trying to be rude. I still completely respect this organization, and if I was at a different campus, i'd probably rush this group again. I met some of their sisters from California and they are awesome, but just this particular group is NOT!

This is something I completely understand. And something I have a passion about: NEW MEMBER EDUCATION...

Before you let your advisor know about this consider this: did any thing they did serve a purpose? Like was there a lesson behind it? If not THEN IT IS HAZING...

I think alot of people have lost the meaning of bring new members in and are simply BEATING THEM UP to say OH WE PLEDGE HARD....but ah this is conversation for another thread. SomeBODY START IT...I WILL BE ALL OVER IT!

[Private I]

I could see a possible complication in that, however. Say, random example, several non-Latino members joined a historically and predominantly Latino fraternity. Somewhere down the line, the breakdown of the cultures gets mixed up. Those of non-Latino descent feel like the fraternity should reflect this multiculturalism, and abandon the predominant focus on the Latino culture. Then there could be others who want to continue following the traditions and rituals that their fraternity was founded upon (such as line names in Spanish, events catered towards the Hispanic community, etc). They feel that the original vision their founders had has completely changed from what they originally intended.

What then?

p.s. I'm not bashing one side or the other, I just think it's a realistic situation that could cause problems in the future.

[wrussell]

Originally posted by Private I
I could see a possible complication in that, however. Say, random example, several non-Latino members joined a historically and predominantly Latino fraternity. Somewhere down the line, the breakdown of the cultures gets mixed up. Those of non-Latino descent feel like the fraternity should reflect this multiculturalism, and abandon the predominant focus on the Latino culture. Then there could be others who want to continue following the traditions and rituals that their fraternity was founded upon (such as line names in Spanish, events catered towards the Hispanic community, etc). They feel that the original vision their founders had has completely changed from what they originally intended.

What then?

p.s. I'm not bashing one side or the other, I just think it's a realistic situation that could cause problems in the future.

I think this way: certain rituals/traditions such as the line names in spanish shouldn't be changed. But PROGRAMMING, I feel that is a different issue. I believe that programming is a function of the chapter, thus based entirely on what the chapter is or composed of. It is a fine line, but I think as long as we stay true to our purpose, which I believe is creating quality men who live by the principles we teach, I don't think it is going to be a real issuse for the founders.

[preciousjeni]

quick hijack

FYI wrussell -

I'm only pretending to be nice to you...because, after all, I AM a Georgia Bulldog. SIC EM!



GREEK UNITY!!

/hijack

[wrussell]

Originally posted by preciousjeni
quick hijack

FYI wrussell -

I'm only pretending to be nice to you...because, after all, I AM a Georgia Bulldog. SIC EM!



GREEK UNITY!!

/hijack

OH GOLLY...those ugly dogs...when was the last time you beat us? LOL LOL I am just kidding, beause I don't like our football team either. I always root for UGA at Florida/Georgia.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by wrussell
I always root for UGA at Florida/Georgia.

Ohhh - you were raised RIGHT sweetie!!

[wrussell]

Originally posted by preciousjeni
Ohhh - you were raised RIGHT sweetie!!

Of course...LOL.

[rocketgirl]

Originally posted by wrussell
I think this way: certain rituals/traditions such as the line names in spanish shouldn't be changed. But PROGRAMMING, I feel that is a different issue. I believe that programming is a function of the chapter, thus based entirely on what the chapter is or composed of. It is a fine line, but I think as long as we stay true to our purpose, which I believe is creating quality men who live by the principles we teach, I don't think it is going to be a real issuse for the founders.

So then at that point, do you change from a Latino org to a multicultural org? I think that is where the whole multicultural org confusion begins, because for most GDIs, programming is what they see as the representation of the organization and what they stand for. If the org is full of African-Americans, Asians, Caucasians, and Latinos, representated at the time, then when do you draw the line and say, we need to focus on the Latino culture our organization was founded to represent vs. we need to represent the membership? I think all orgs are dedicated to having quality membership that lives to their purpose but the question then becomes what is the main purpose the organization was founded on. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most orgs based on one specific culture or another have the purpose of advancing their specific culture or helping that specific community or addressing problems that arise in that specific community or at least to strengthen the bond between people who feel invested in that culture?

[Private I]

That's actually what I'm trying to get at. If at some point SLB DOES decide to switch from Latino based, multicultural to simply dropping the 1st part and becoming solely multicultural, would it still be SLB? Or would it be something entirely new?

[wrussell]

Originally posted by rocketgirl
So then at that point, do you change from a Latino org to a multicultural org? I think that is where the whole multicultural org confusion begins, because for most GDIs, programming is what they see as the representation of the organization and what they stand for. If the org is full of African-Americans, Asians, Caucasians, and Latinos, representated at the time, then when do you draw the line and say, we need to focus on the Latino culture our organization was founded to represent vs. we need to represent the membership? I think all orgs are dedicated to having quality membership that lives to their purpose but the question then becomes what is the main purpose the organization was founded on. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most orgs based on one specific culture or another have the purpose of advancing their specific culture or helping that specific community or addressing problems that arise in that specific community or at least to strengthen the bond between people who feel invested in that culture?

I agree completely. We are Latino-based, thus our focus is going to be Latino culture and the unpbringing and proliferation of that culture. But at the same time, we do say:

Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity is an international social fraternity that was founded in 1986 at the University of Iowa. It is based on cultural understanding and wisdom. Most noteworthy is that Sigma Lambda Beta was founded by 18 men of whom 16 were of Latin American or Hispanic origin/descent.

We believe in the principles of fairness and opportunity and in the equality of all men no matter what their race, culture, or ethnicity. Our biggest goal is to see that all of society can realize the importance of these three principles. In order to achieve this goal we all strive to model these behaviors and present ourselves in a gentlemanly and educated fashion.

Thus our focus maybe one thing, but our mission states that we are based in CULTURE, but refuses to deny us the ability to focus on other just as we focus on latin culture. I don't hold SLB up against TNX or your org, because we were not founded on that multicultural stance. We grew into those values, but still do not compare to your total commitment.

For Private I - If we drop that, we drop our letters. We can't lose the first part. We would be a new organization. At least that is my view.