In response to the growing interest for a special interest group within the Tufts Latina community, a newly-formed Latina Women's Group met for the first time last Friday.
The group was founded in conjunction with the Women's Center at the University. Elaine Theodore, the Violence Prevention Program Coordinator at the Women's Center, is the group's faculty advisor. She said that there used to be a Latina Women's group at Tufts as well as a Latina Women's counselor at the Latino Center, but these resources no longer exist.
"We felt there was a need and interest [for an all-women's group]," Theodore said. She also said the group's formation had been postponed in the past due to logistical issues and this time students and faculty did not want to give up on the initiative.
There are a lot of Latin-American women on the campus from a wide variety of ethnic and social backgrounds that tend not to mix socially, Theodore said.
According to the University's 2004-2005 Fact Book, there are 234 female undergraduates - or nine percent of the female undergraduate population on campus - who identify themselves as "Hispanic."
The Latina Women's Group will attempt to address these social concerns as well as other issues that the Women's Center focuses on. "Gender issues are cultural issues," Peggy Barrett, Director of the Women's Center, said.
Barrett also said that it's common for individuals to feel more comfortable discussing certain issues in an all-female group setting. The Latina Women's Group will allow dialogue to flow between women "in a particular cultural context," she said.
The Latina's Women Group, however, will ultimately become whatever the students involved will make it. According to Theodore, the first meeting focused on issues of identity, which tied into the diversity of the group.
Theodore said there are currently around 40 potential members, though only 15 attended the first meeting.
A Latino Men's Group was formed last semester to address similar desires among males. Alonso Nichols, Violence Prevention Educator at the Woman's Center, is the faculty advisor for the Men's Group.
Nichols said that his group has been successful, allowing Latino men to more easily "bond and be active in the Tufts community."
The Men's group is essentially an outgrowth of the University's Latino Center - located in the Bolles House on the corner of Talbot and College Avenue - but Nichols said it allows the men to better relate and discuss "broader issues," not necessarily in the context of Latino issues.
"I do have the sense that women from [the Latina] community have had a desire to get together," Nichols said. This was the same basic conclusion that Theodore had reached, simply that Latina women "wanted more unity" on campus.
