Mother Harvard is a stubborn institution set in her ways. It takes patience and dedication to convince her to change or alter her traditions. In the past ten years, she has neglected the Hispanic community she needs so much to prove her diversity. Harvard needs to build the Hispanic community by bringing more of us at every level. The simple problem is that we are not represented on campus, and the less simple answer is that we need more students, faculty and staff of Hispanic descent on this campus.

But in my experience, efforts to increase our presence have not proved successful. I talk to administrators about the faculty hiring process, and I have yet to get a straight-forward answer. When I bring up the question of representation, I am told to go to speak to someone else who is in charge of that. But no one at Harvard is in charge of building the Hispanic community.

All ethnic organizations complain, at some point, about underrepresentation, since ethnic minorities are not well represented in the College, faculty or staff. When it comes to the curriculum, ethnic experiences, especially the Hispanic and the Asian American ones, are indiscernible. These ethnic communities, as well as others, have experiences that would enrich all of the Harvard community. Yet we are invisible.

Looking through the courses book I get the feeling that my ethnic group is indeed invisible. My history and background are not important enough to be the subject of a single class. Course descriptions also fail to mention if my ethnic group is to be studied in a course where it would be relevant. If Hispanics are mentioned in a course, no more than one week will be devoted to this experience and the entire Hispanic experience is lumped together, forgetting differences between Hispanic sub-groups.

I know that many problems plague the Hispanic community nationwide and I know that I cannot change them in my lifetime. But I can try to make some changes, especially among the Hispanic community here at Harvard.

I periodically look around my classrooms to see if there are some brown faces or vaguely Hispanic ones. I have gotten used to being the only Hispanic in section in all subjects--science, literature and government. Since Harvard is unwilling to take any initiative, it is up to Hispanic students to build our community. I know that this is not an easy task, but it is something that we must do. If we do not raise our voice, we will not be heard.