Institute of Hispanic-Latino Cultures- La Casita

In 2003, La Casita was defaced after Gil Sanchez ran for student body president. The words “No Spic for President” were spray painted on the side of the house. This event mirrored a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric of the time period and rising tensions between students at the University of Florida. Latinx students as well as students of other minority groups banded together to fight racism on campus and "La Casita" would eventually be remodeled for a new generation of students in 2017. Joselin Padron-Rasines would later become the first Latina student body president in the university's history in 2014.

“Institute of Hispanic-Latino Cultures.” Institutes, 17 Sept. 2017, institutes.multicultural.ufl.edu/la-casita/. 

Delgado-Romero, Edward A., et al. “Mapping the Development of Hispanic/Latino/a Student Organizations: A Model at the University of Florida.” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, vol. 3, no. 3, SAGE Publications, July 2004, pp. 237–253. Crossref, doi:10.1177/1538192704264441.

This source is a journal article that explores the creation of Hispanic Student Organizations, specifically on the UF campus, and their impact on Latinx students. The source begins with demographic information about Latinx students in the state of Florida then narrows in on the UF campus. It outlines the various Hispanic organizations created for Latinx subcultures, academics, and Greek-letter organizations. There is a section that includes the impact of Latinx staff and advisors at the university. The source also mentions various hate crimes committed against Latinx students, including the “No Spic for President” incident which saw no resolution or arrests for the defamation of the Institute of Latino/ Hispanic Culture. This source is thorough in its research, complete with an extensive bibliography from credible sources including many academic institutions. The article covers the inception of the Institution of Latino/ Hispanic Culture and gives a great analysis of its impact on the Latinx student population at UF.

I located this article through the UCF library database which led me to this article on JSTOR. I searched the keywords “University of Florida Latino” and “University of Florida Hispanic”.  

Dias, Tamara Wilkerson. “Experiences Of Latino Community College Students In Overcoming Barriers To Persist.” Zenodo, Zenodo, Dec. 2017, doi:10.5281/ZENODO.1165454

This source expands on previous research surrounding the various barriers Latino students face and focuses more on the strategies Latino students use to overcome those obstacles. The research relies on the experience of twelve students who identified 11 barriers and gave their strategies for success. Though the paper is insightful and highlights the importance of community support (which the ILHC provides), the sample size is too small. The source addresses this in the “Research Method” section and states that the purposeful selection of these students ensured the number of participants could be small. The content of the interviews could serve as a good starting point for further research on the college experience of Latino students.

I located this source in the UCF library database which led me to JSTOR. I searched keywords such as “University of Florida Hispanic” and “University of Florida Latino”.