Taking pride in Latino heritage and appreciating and uniting with other ethnicities can take the country's Latin American community forward, poet, journalist and community activist Felipe Luciano told almost 100 people in Salomon 101 last night. The event, sponsored by the Third World Center and the Brown Lecture Board, kicked off Latin American History Month.
Dressed in a pale blue sweater and khaki pants, Luciano talked to the audience informally before the event began. He asked for chewing gum, posed questions about Latin American history and urged Latinos in America to overcome their internal divisions.
"We all are South American, not just Puerto Rican," said Luciano, who is of Puerto Rican decent and was born in New York. Latin Americans must "find a way to speak to each other with respect and admiration," he said.
He also urged Latinos living in the United States to embrace it as their country. "My family has been here a hundred years," he yelled.
Patricia Ybarra, assistant professor of theater, speech and dance, introduced Luciano and said his success in the entertainment and literary fields should inspire first-generation college students who might be discouraged from pursuing the arts. Luciano was the first Puerto Rican news anchor for WNBC and has won two Emmys. He contributes regularly to publications in New York, including the New York Times.
At the beginning of his speech, Luciano warned the audience that his lecture would be "a bit profane, a bit vulgar."
"I hope those who can't take certain language would just bear with the message and not the messenger," said Luciano, whose frequent profanity surprised some in attendance. "There's a lot of stuff that I say that may be impulsive, but I would hope that you would listen ... and then take in what I'm really saying."
Luciano began his speech with a poem dedicated to Puerto Ricans who, he said, are often accused wrongly for not strongly resisting Spanish rule.
Speaking for over an hour, Luciano said groups that have experienced struggles - in particular, Latinos, African-Americans and Jews - must be sensitive to one another and recognize their cultural similarities.
He also called on young Latinos to show more pride in their family values and "rich history."
"Get out of self-hatred, Latino," he said. "You are beautiful."
Luciano also encouraged students to read voraciously. "If you're not reading, you're not learning," he said. "You cannot conquer America until you read its literature. You want to find out about American white men, read Faulkner."
Since Luciano emphasized unity among Latinos, an audience member asked how Mexicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans in America could unite despite their varying concerns.
Luciano said the diverse Latino communities should focus on their similarities and not their different national backgrounds.
"Stop allowing other people's definitions of you," he said. "Define you."
Gabriel Kussin '09, who attended the event, told The Herald that Luciano is one of his "personal heroes."
"I'm a Jewish Latino," he said, adding that Luciano's speech was "almost geared to me."
After the event, Luciano told The Herald that rising levels of high school drop-outs, teenage pregnancies, divorces and gang violence are problems facing the Latino community in America today. But he added that education and a strong "value system" are key to the community's progress.
Applauding Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, Luciano told The Herald that Obama, if elected, "will herald in a renaissance of people of color who will be integrated not only in their (own) culture but also in the mainstream culture."
Jennifer Gomez '08, the Third World Center's Latino History Month programmer, said Luciano's speech set the tone for the rest of this month's events.
"He didn't just talk about Latinos," she said. "He talked about different cultures, religions, how we're interconnected."
"Aside from the profanity, (Luciano) was very passionate," said Karen McLaurin-Chesson '74, associate dean of the College and director of the Third World Center.
McLaurin-Chesson said she hopes Luciano's message "will resonate with the students" who attended the event. Students "need to talk to and communicate with each other as students of color, regardless of their ethnic and racial identity," she said.
Ken Estrellas '10, co-chair of the Filipino Alliance, said he was impressed by Luciano's "sensitivity (to) and knowledge of the struggles of other cultures."
"It takes an impassioned speaker to talk about issues like the concept of identity, racism in society, problems of nationalism not evolving into multi-nationalism," Estrellas said.
