“I think it would be nice to meet maybe like once or twice towards the beginning or end of the semester just so student leaders can see what our personal organizational goals are for the semester, and then pitch certain collaboration efforts to see who would want to join certain things… and also make sure to know that we planned an event this day [to avoid events from overlapping]… facilitate organizational respect amongst ourselves but then also a good way to meet other leaders… one thing I told a president of another org is something that makes it easier for me to reach out to the other people is that other student leaders that I know, I know them because they are not strangers to me… they’re more than acquaintances… and they are easier to talk to… because I see them as my friend.” - A current student leader in the community

“[We can still preserve our cultural traditions], but at the same time, we do have to be innovative… the culture at Harvard is changing… we will never know how it was pre-pandemic, we’ll never know what the culture was, as members of the Class of ‘22 and ‘23 have said, it was different… finding a happy medium between not alienating people from the community and allowing them to remain close to their heritage, their home…”  - A current student leader in the community

“When I think about how Concilio could help… it needs to be an advocate for the community, I think above all… if there is something or some organization that has the capacity and should do that as an umbrella organization, it should be Concilio Latino, and I think that sounds easier said than done, of course… I don’t know if that was the vision that Concilio has had, or if that’s something Concilio could be, but we can’t really get anything done or advocate for our community without fighting for them [our community]… it takes a community.” - A current student leader in the community

“Sometimes I feel like our community is underrepresented or an afterthought when it comes to certain initiatives, such as politics with the IOP, or other groups doing things. I think that no one really thinks about collaborating with Latine organizations. I feel that there are more efforts now… coming off a pandemic world… people have been rebuilding connections… I would really love to see our presence be acknowledged or thought of among other organizations.” - A current student leader in the community

“We had a slump with our organization because of COVID and several other reasons…  members weren't as active… It was difficult for us to build that bridge again as a club… to rebuild those connections with the Latine community… but I feel like that is just because COVID messed everything up and the people we were collaborating with, maybe they graduated… we didn’t meet the people that our organization was collaborating with… I think Concilio can help with connections, if Concilio can be a bridge with big communities, connecting officers, facilitating that transition for new members and new officers and clubs, helping with institutional memory, that would be helpful.”  - A current student leader in the community

“I would have wanted to strengthen alumni connections and have that be a stronger part of how we operate in general… having stronger sources of funding, better institutional memory, having information passed down more easily… Bringing back some of the old events that used to go on… trying to instill a more centralized approach to our Latine community, rather than disparate, everybody doing their own thing, which has its value too, but also having a central space with a unified goal is something that is very valuable.”  - A former student leader of the community

Moving Forward:

Concilio Latino de Harvard will work on establishing a steering committee that will comprise of Latinx student leaders, which will operate over the course of the summer to help us reimagine our goal as both an organization and a community. I will bring forth the following recommendations: 

1. ​​​​​​TO INSTILL A SENSE OF ALLYSHIP AMONG MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY BY ESTABLISHING CONCILIO AS A CENTRAL SPACE FOR THE COMMUNITY.

I plan to introduce the idea of reimplementing monthly meetings with all the Latinx organizations in our community, which will help bring these student leaders together over formally structured roundtable discussions. I would also like to make time before and after our meetings for student leaders to mingle, collaborate, and connect. 

2. TO ESTABLISH CONCILIO AS AN ADVOCATE FOR SMALLER ORGANIZATIONS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY, FOR OUR WHOLE COMMUNITY OUTSIDE OF HARVARD, AND FOR THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE IN THE FACE OF ADMINISTRATION. 

I would like to discuss with other student leaders about officially reinstating Concilio Latino as the interface between our undergraduate community and the broader community inside and outside of Harvard. On a broader scale, I envision part of Concilio’s role to be the point of contact for outside Latinx groups, including schools with their own Latinx communities, Harvard graduate schools with their own Latinx groups, and alumni networks such as the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance for collaboration, partnership, and mentorship. On a smaller scale, I envision another part of Concilio’s role to be an advocate for the Harvard undergraduate Latinx community with administration, such that we work with administrators to acknowledge and support our community’s endeavors of visibility and growth. I would also redirect Concilio’s attention to initiating more conversations with the smaller organizations of our community about what they wish Concilio could offer them, be it a voice to advocate for more funding or a platform to communicate with the rest of the community.

3. ​​​​​​TO CREATE A TOOLKIT OF RESOURCES FOR OUR COMMUNITY TO RELY ON.

What I envision this to look like is a centralized database of some sort, which will be created per the contributions of our student leaders, that holds important information, such as sources of funding, the contact information of outgoing and former Latinx student leaders, and the history of our community and the groups within our community, that is easily accessible to all members of Concilio Latino de Harvard.