The concern with Elmhurst University being a Hispanic Serving Institution

For some individuals, their ethnicity is what defines their being, it’s what connects them to their heritage and their communities. However, when it comes to the Latin community they’re often clumped into one category: Hispanic. 

As a Boricua student at Elmhurst University, I’ve often found myself surrounded by students who don’t necessarily look like me. However, when I have been around other Latinx students I’ve always heard us referred to as “Hispanic”, which is a term not many individuals appreciate being called.

Last year EU was designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) due to a number of Latinx students enrolling and attending school for more than three years. If EU is going to be a HSI, it’s time they look at the terminology used and do more to respect the students that fall under this umbrella term. 

Graphic by- Abbey Mark

The problem with the word “Hispanic” isn’t an easy one to discuss. For Latinos, this word connects us to our ancestors and colonization. For white people, they often think every “hispanic” person is the same, or comes from the same origin. 

People hear the word “Hispanic” and do not bother to do further research into who, or what, an individual is. It’s as if the moment the word “Hispanic” is used to describe someone, that’s it. Nobody bothers to dig further. 

There’s so many incredible Latin cultures that deserve recognition, and to just lump us together under the umbrella of “Hispanic”, or further assuming Hispanic means Mexican, is incredibly damaging to an individual. 

While there is some overlap between cultures, each culture is rich with its own heritage, food, and traditions. For Puerto Ricans, our parents make mofongo, arroz con gandules, and pasteles. 

While every other culture in the world may have some traditional dish associated with rice, arroz con gandules is a Puerto Rican specific dish that always feels like home to me when I eat it. 

For Mexicans, there’s traditional dishes and parties one celebrates, the biggest and most widely-known party being the quinceañera. Of course, the quinceañera has spread across many other Latin cultures, however it’s important to note that the tradition originally stems from Mexican origins. 

Despite these beautiful cultures all being vastly different, more often than not white media will paint us with one broad stroke. 

From the time I was a child I could remember people looking at me differently. My primary school teachers knew my ethnicity and didn’t treat me the same as most students. I was in the office more times than I care to admit.

As an adult, I can say that some of those faculty members were indeed racist. 

Flash-forward to adulthood and I’m once again faced with racism, this time at my job. A customer berated two women for speaking to each other in Spanish, as if it were a problem. 

It’s easy to sit back and stay quiet when you’re an eighteen year old with anxiety problems, despite knowing how wrong it is. 

I’m proud of my Puerto Rican heritage for a multitude of reasons. After the eugenics project the United States attempted to perform on Puerto Rican women in the 1930’s, my blood line remained strong and prevailed. After the paper genocide committed against my Taíno ancestors, our blood line prevailed. 

Puerto Rican, and further Taíno, history is incredibly rich and beautiful. However, rarely any attention is actually brought to it. If Elmhurst University is going to be a HSI, then it actually needs to be an HSI. 

The best place to start would be to ask students how they can further serve our community. For starters, some students don’t actually like to be called Hispanic. Some prefer the terms “Latino” or “Latina”. Further, implementing heritage appreciation can go a long way. 

Make your students who come from any and all Latinx heritages feel as though they’re seen and heard. Lumping us under an umbrella isn’t as appreciated as one may think. There’s more to us than just “being Hispanic.” 

The HSI designation is an incredible achievement for Elmhurst University, and it holds so much merit. However, now that EU is an HSI it’s time to actually serve the Hispanic community in more aspects than just giving us grants and implementing cultural literacy in the classroom.  

The Latin community is one that is made up of so many different cultures. Each culture is beautiful and has so much to offer the world.

However, when you lump us together and just assume that we’re a part of one culture, you’re inadvertently closing yourself off to any other possibility. While the sentiment is there, and it’s seen, EU should be working with Latinx students to truly illuminate our individuality.