After getting into college I wondered, how will I make Harvard feel like home? Nearly four years later, RAZA and the Mexican community have played a key role in my answer to that question.
Having two Mexican parents, living in Mexico for a part of my life, and then moving to a US Southern border city, I was always exposed to the Mexican cultural identity; it is a part of who I am. I was so glad to find that at Harvard, through RAZA, I could nurture this identity. At first, I went to RAZA's events as a general member. During my third semester at Harvard, I ran to be on RAZA's board as social chair, and during my junior year, I ran and won to serve as RAZA's president in 2024. This is all to say, RAZA's been a key part of my college experience.
If you're a prospective student, or even an admitted student, who is wondering how they could connect with their Mexican identity at Harvard, I'll share more of what that looks like through the student organization of Harvard-Radcliffe RAZA.
RAZA Events in 2024:
There were many events this past year. In January 2024 we started with a social event for our members that had sopita de fideo and quesadillas, food many of our board members ate frequently at home. From there we hosted events typically every other week, which included: a game night with CAUSA (the Cuban-American Student Association), a Valentine's themed event, a guest speaker event with Former Director of Legislative Affairs Grisella Martinez, a karaoke night, a farewell event to our graduating seniors, and several others.
We were also present during Visitas and loved connecting with admitted Latine and Mexican students, as we talked to them about life at Harvard.
In the Fall of 2024 we had our Welcome and Welcome back event with paletas!
Perhaps one of the most time-consuming events was organizing RAZA's third annual Trailblazer Award ceremony, for which we invited Mexican singer Christian Nodal to campus.
RAZA held an East Boston outing, an Alumni Conversation event, a mixer with a Latine student organization at Northeastern University, a breakfast event for our members with chilaquiles, molletes and huevitos revueltos, and a soirée to celebrate el Dia de los Muertos.
There was also a Student-Faculty dinner with Mexican and Latine Faculty accompanied by delicious authentic Mexican food from a vendor in East Boston.
Personal Reflection:
One of my favorite things about having an officer role, especially this past year while serving as President, has been seeing the growth of my board members through the past year. As a leader in a student organization, I had the opportunity to lead weekly meetings with people who care deeply about the organization's mission. People who are hard-working, passionate, reliable, and simply put, pretty incredible. My roles through RAZA have pushed me to grow the most, and the work we've done is some of what brings me the most pride as I reflect on my time in college.
Prospective and admitted Mexican students, I hope you'll have an opportunity to connect with RAZA. And if you're really interested, I hope you'll have the passion to be a board member.
