The presence and influence of Latinos in southeastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the United States in general is indisputably on the rise. In the United States, after the last census numbers were collected it was announced that Hispanics are now the largest and fastest growing minority group, with 16.5% of the population. In Chester County, Pennsylvania the number of Latinos increased nearly 80% from 2000 to 2010. In West Chester, this translates to an increase of 8% of the total population.
On WCU's campus, the number of Latino/a students increased from 435 in 2010 to 690 in 2014, up from 3.5 to 5% of the population, whereas other minority students have decreased or stayed about the same (African-Americans at 9.1% in 2013, and Asians at 2.1%). The number of students in WCU's Latin American and Latino/a Studies Minor, Latino-American Students' Organization (LASO), Calypso, and Latino/a fraternities and sororities also continue to rise.
This Seventh Annual Latino Communities conference strives to continue to contribute to the WCU mission of responding thoughtfully to diversity, by working to build bridges – construir puentes - of communication and understanding between Latinos and non-Latinos in the region. The various tracks of panels, presentations, workshops, art and music aim to open up multiple "conversations" with and about Latinos, to make the campus climate more amenable for Latino/a students, staff, and faculty, as well as to create safe space for non-Latinos to ask questions and explore issues that might be new to them. Likewise, the inclusion of many local Latino leaders, teachers, professionals and artists from the region provides innumerable opportunities for networking and knowledge-building through personal connections.
*SOCIAL WORK CEU’s and ACT 48 CREDITS available. The cost for these credits is $10. Please bring a check to the conference.