La O Speaker Urges Latino Community Consciousness

Puerto Rican and Latino students must work to achieve change in their communities, Ramon P. Morales '76 said last night in a talk at the Lyman Common Room.

Morales, executive director of Playing to Win, a New York-based company that operates technology learning centers, said because minority students at Harvard will be future leaders for their ethnic groups, it is important for them to begin to return their communities to effect social change.

"At this point you have a feeling of being undifferentiated, of being all Harvard students," Morales told an audience of about 30. "But in time you will anchor yourself in your community."

To lead well in the future, Latino students must understand not only which issues face minorities, but must also determine the best way to respond to those issues, Morales said.

Using himself as an example, Morales said that it can be hard to learn this in college. He said he spent too much time "at protests on Tremont Street" and not enough studying.

"Your communities want you to return to them, but they want you to graduate. Spend your time well when you are here," Morales told the audience, who were mostly members of La Organization Estudiantil Boricua de Harvard-Radcliffe (La O), the Puerto Rican student group.

Morales told students that they must not think of themselves as victims, but rather as social reformers.

"While there is a system that oppresses us, don't spend your time complaining. Of my peers, those who do this are on the periphery--they are far less effective than people who work to achieve change."

"There is a Puerto Rican renaissance going on that you must continue," Morales told the students. "Where are the Puerto Rican movies and the Puerto Rican poets?"

Morales told students to effect change on campus as well. "If they admit 27 students in one year, tell them that the number is intolerable, that they must raise it by 20 percent, 30 percent, or whatever," he said.

Julie M. Reyes '95, the president of La O, said she was pleased with Morales' talk.

"We really needed someone like [Morales] to come back to Harvard and tell us what it was like to go here before. We are having many of the same experiences he had. And the experiences he talked about today are ones we will have in the future," Reyes said.

Xavier A. Gutierrez '95, the newly elected president of RAZA, said he appreciated Morales' speech.

"I think he was very articulate and eloquent in telling us to advocate change within our communities and to achieve our own personal goals," Gutierrez said.

In response to undergraduates' questions, Morales said La O is very different today than it was 20 years ago. Only 11 Puerto Rican students matriculated in his class and only five graduated.

"It was a terrible experience. My classmates would be amazed to know how many Puerto Rican undergraduates there are today," he said.