Immigration night kicks off La Raza Heritage Month

Written by CUIndependent in News on Sep 15, 2006 0:00 / comments

Speakers address issues of citizenship, progress

El Concilio, a coalition of Latino and Chicano student groups at CU, hosted an “Immigration Night” yesterday as part of its La Raza Heritage Month celebration.

“I’m afraid that we’re going backwards to when citizenship first began,” said keynote speaker and University of Texas Sociologist Maria Cristina Morales, Ph.D., referring to the historic definition of a citizen as a white, male landowner.

“We are a nation of immigrants,” Morales said. “A lot of us have been taught that we are outsiders to this land, even though it is our land.”

The event was organized as an “opportunity for students to become more informed” about immigration, said organizer Armando Ruiz Alvarez, a junior architecture major. “We wanted to have an educational forum for learning about the history of immigration and the issue in the coming elections.”

Morales said that her goal in speaking was to dispel some of the common myths surrounding immigration.

“Latin American and Mexican immigrants have the highest levels of labor force participation in the United States,” she said. “They come here to work.”

When asked why she thinks so many Americans are opposed to immigration, Morales said that she thinks it is “a racial issue” as opposed to an economic one. She cited the “vast differences in earning power between European immigrants and Central American and Mexican immigrants” and questioned why it is taking so much longer for Latino immigrants to be integrated into our society than it took those from Europe.

“These issues will affect all of us who look different,” Morales said.

El Concilio will hold four more events for La Raza Heritage Month:

Tuesday Sept. 19

Noche de Independencia

7 p.m. to midnight in the Glenn Miller Ballroom

Friday Sept. 29

Noche de Baile y Musica

7 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom.

Friday Oct. 6

Vamonos al Norte (Presented by UMAS y MEChA)

7 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom

Friday Oct. 13

Nuestra Musica, Nuestras Raices

7 to 10 p.m. in Humanities 150

For more information visit www.colorado.edu/SORCE

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