by Victor Azuaje
Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies

On September 20th 2017, I entered Hudson Hall 003 to meet with members of the Latino Student Union. They wanted to organize a panel on DACA, the recently ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. During the conversation, one of the students noticed the inconsistency in ethnic labels at the Mount: he is a member of the Latino Student Union (LSU), and I am the professor of the Hispanic Studies Program. Even though the comment was made in a discussion about DACA, this time we did not blame the government for the confusion.

Take, for example, the United States Census Bureau. It included the option “Hispanic/Latino” in the census form only in 2000. The Bureau was trying to improve the quality of the data on Hispanics subgroups and Hispanics in general, but without realizing it, it got involved in a debate initiated beyond the US borders a long time ago. For almost one hundred years, Spanish-speaking people from Mexico to Chile have been arguing whether the proper term for the region is Hispano-América or Latino-América. Should they call themselves hispanomericanos or latinoamericanos? To many, there is no neutral ground. Those options represent a stand on the legacy of the Spanish Empire, the place of Brazil, or the status of the non-Spanish speaking Caribbean countries.

In the United States, the debate has its own political overtones. You choose Latino, and you’re tinged with social justice concerns; you select Hispanic, and you’re stained with social conservative preoccupations; you pick neither, and you have no color, no brain, and no heart. If you are around twenty five years old, you’ll probably see the shades everywhere. This could be the reason behind the comment about ethnic labels at the Mount: here Hispanic/Latino students are grouped in the Latino Student Union, and the courses about their cultures, in the Hispanic Studies Program. How much subtlety can a dichotomy hold? No wonder most Hispanics/Latinos have resolved to dispense with the distinction altogether and to invoke the countries of their ancestors in less tainted combinations: Cuban Americans, Mexican Americans, Nicaraguan Americans.

At Hudson Hall that night, however, there was a student who had no urgency to summon Spanish speaking places of origin although he plays an important role in the Mount Hispanic/Latino community. Caleb Oliver sat slowly forward when he heard the alternatives for identity. They touched him in different ways. He’s been in Spain twice with the Mount Study Abroad Program. There, he improved his Spanish proficiency, nurtured his culinary skills, and sharpened his Salsa dancing style. The issue of ethnic labels is also close to Caleb because he’s the first black or African American president of the Mount Hispanic Honor Society. Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino—Caleb stands for what the future of real diversity could be at the Mount.

I saw that future again two weeks later. Giselle Martinez, Mexican American member of the LSU and organizer of the event on DACA, welcomed three panelists and around fifty students at the Knight Spot—most of the front row seats were empty since the students have retreated to the safe sides of the room. Jessica Lazo, Ecuadorian American lawyer from Catholic Charities, explained the legal aspects of the policy. Peter González, Puerto Rican and president of Latinos Unidos of the Hudson Valley, talked about how Mount students can work with the many organizations serving the Hispanic/Latino community in Newburgh.

But it was Laura Garcia, a Mexican immigrant, DACA recipient, and ex-Mount student, who moved the audience with her story. She arrived to the United States when she was eight years old. She was a dedicated student from elementary to high school. When Laura graduated, her family put money out of their own pockets to enroll her in Mount Saint Mary College. Since she didn’t have access to financial aid programs, her family ran out of cash, pockets, and loans in a year. All the circumstances combined to make her dream of a Mount education impossible. She still cherishes her time at the Mount.

Laura particularly mentioned that she wanted to be a member of the Black Student Union to point out that diversity remains a visible need of the Mount, but that it can’t be reduced to a problem of race. She asked the audience to question the idea of restricting people to choose only one race or gender or ethnicity.

At that moment my inner professor woke up to remind me that Laura was speaking against essentializing diversity. I realized that a young educated Latina woman have discovered that diversity is about age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, nationality, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, and many other things. I realized that Laura, Caleb, and other Mount students are taking apart the rigid, archetypal, and homogeneous table of diversity and are shredding it to pieces.