Johnny Irizarry, director of La Casa Latina — the cultural hub for Latinos at Penn — won the Phillies Goya Family Service Award last week for service to the Latino community of Greater Philadelphia.
An educator and community organizer of the Latino community in Philadelphia for over 20 years, Irizarry sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss La Casa’s role on campus in light of the center’s upcoming 10th anniversary.
The Daily Pennsylvanian: Could you describe the history of La Casa Latina?
Johnny Irizarry: It came out of [the Greenfield Intercultural Center] and the Latino students and staff advocating for a center that allowed them to have more representation, more ethno-specific events [and] a specific place where they [could] go to promote the culture and the Penn community. ... It was the first ethnic center that was established [at Penn].
DP: How have you worked to engage more Penn students in the Latino community?
JI: La Casa Latina has always done a pretty good job of being welcoming. Right now, the variety of students that come to this center is very multicultural. Latino students, especially because of our own very diverse backgrounds, since we come in all colors and many multiple ethnic-specific cultures, are very welcoming to multiculturalism.
DP: College junior and Latino Coalition Vice Chairwoman Wendy de la Rosa said LC is preparing the community for a future demographic change. How will that change affect culture at Penn and in Philadelphia?
JI: Philly ... is a very diverse city [with] a growing Latino population. ... The Latino community, which was strongly a Puerto Rican community, now in the last 20 years has become a very diverse Latino community. Philadelphia is probably already an example of what the entire United States is going to look like in 50 years.
DP: What are your goals for Latino Heritage Month, which starts next week?
JI: The goal is to use it as an opportunity to talk about ... the political [and] racial aspects of being Latino [and] the real history of Latino communities in this country. Our purpose is create events that provide opportunities for serious dialogue. It’s an opportunity to learn together, teach and interact with other groups.
DP: What has changed in the 10 years of La Casa’s existence?
JI: The real role of the center is an educational one as well as a service one for students. As it’s grown, it’s worked with the students in leadership development, through our mentoring programs and through our leadership retreats. ... Many universities don’t have these resources — very few have ethno-specific, culturally-specific centers.
DP: “Latino” must be a word that holds special connotations to you. Why is it meaningful to you?
JI: To take 22 different nations and put them under one heading is already kind of complicated, especially [for] peoples that are so diverse racially and ethnically. “Latino” emerges from more progressive Latinos that didn’t believe that term “Hispanic” was accurate enough to cover the diversity of what a Latino is. Latino — it isn’t the perfect word — [but] it encompasses the diversity of many groups.
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