Fuerza Latina is Harvard College's pan-Latino cultural group, which organizes and co-sponsors events that promote the Latino student experience on campus.
What today we call Fuerza Latina was originally founded in 1993 as Fuerza Quisqueyana. The club was created by 10 Dominican undergraduates who envisioned a group that would specifically address Dominican issues and concerns. At the time, Harvard College had several Latino groups, including RAZA, Causa, and a Puerto Rican group called "La O," but nothing dedicated to Dominican issues and cultural sharing. The club's founding members included Julissa Reynoso, '97 (Treasurer), Luis Rodriguez '94 (President), Ana Cepin '95, Solangel Cubas '95, Sandy Santana '97, Zaire Dinzey '95 and Maribel Tineo '95. As an organization, Fuerza Quisqueyana brought speakers to campus, did community service in Brighton (an area that housed a large Dominican community), and founded the now traditional Quisque Jam, a yearly party that featured salsa, merengue, and hiphop - music that was at that time not heard at Harvard's parties.
However, by 1998 the membership of Fuerza was no longer mostly Dominican, as Latinos of various backgrounds found themselves comfortable in the group. The board and members in 1998, including Alex Rovira ''99 (President), Eliana Kaimowitz '01, Maria Cruz '01, and Priscilla Aquino '01 (Treasurer), began a dialogue on whether or not the group's name should better reflect its membership. The debate lasted a few weeks until the name was changed to Fuerza Latina by a majority vote. The focus of the organization, however, remained unchanged, as by that time Fuerza had taken up a much broader Latina/o agenda. Today, Fuerza Latina is Harvard's Pan-Latino organization and boasts members from numerous Latin American countries, as well as non-Latino members who share our interest in Latino and Latin American culture.
