The 1993 Latino Cornellians’ Day Corridor Takeover, 30 Years On
On Nov. 19, 1993, a bunch of Cornell Latino college students and their supporters marched to Day Corridor to demand the administration handle on-campus vandalism and hate speech. When the administration refused to talk with them, they staged a four-day takeover of the constructing.
In response to Kety Esquivel ’97, a takeover participant, the protest started in response to an act of vandalism that had occurred earlier that month. Cornell college students had vandalized a bit of art work — “The Fortress is Burning” by Daniel J. Martinez, a distinguished Hispanic-American artist — that was on show within the Arts Quad.
The art work was part of a sequence of exhibitions known as “Revelaciones/Revelations, Hispanic artwork of evanescence,” during which artwork by varied Hispanic artists was positioned round campus.
Martinez’s piece, a set of barricades lined in black tar, was vandalized with messages similar to “Cesar Chavez is lifeless,” “Kill the illegals” and “White pleasure.” A swastika was additionally drawn on the art work.
Esquivel, a local New Yorker, mentioned these messages shocked her when she first noticed them on campus.
“The issues that they had been saying made it such an unwelcoming local weather when in reality, this was my dwelling,” Esquivel mentioned. “That is my dwelling.”
Cristina Bañuelos ’97, who was adjusting to her first yr at Cornell when the vandalism befell, expressed an identical sentiment.
“It was actually stunning,” Bañuelos mentioned. “My expectation coming onto campus was that it was this actually numerous place with folks coming collectively as a result of they needed to be part of a multicultural, numerous studying atmosphere.”
Patricia Campos-Medina ’96, a sophomore on the time, additionally reported sensing a hostile atmosphere, saying she felt the vandalism was disrespectful to Cornell’s Latino group.
In response to Esquivel, Cornell’s Latino group was dissatisfied with the College’s lack of response, particularly in distinction with their speedy condemnation of the vandalism of the Ezra Cornell statue that occurred across the similar time.
Campos-Medina mentioned she, amongst different members of the Latino group, felt the necessity to take motion.
“We had been harm. We had been indignant. We had been upset,” Campos-Medina mentioned. “However we additionally felt that we couldn’t keep quiet. I labored as exhausting as every other pupil on that campus to get accepted to the College, so no one may inform me that I didn’t belong on that campus.”
The group responded by main a peaceable protest, joined by many non-Latino college students. Nevertheless, this protest was met with some bodily altercations with different college students.
Having skilled the hostile campus local weather, some college students determined that they needed to talk instantly with Cornell’s president on the time, Frank H. T. Rhodes, to encourage him to deal with the vandalism.
When the scholars arrived at Day Corridor, the place Rhodes’s workplace was, Esquivel mentioned that they had been ignored by directors and advised that Rhodes was not current on campus. The scholars determined to remain within the constructing, refusing to depart till an administrator would communicate with them.
“We did this as a result of we cared [about Cornell], and we believed on this mantra of ‘any individual…any research,’” Esquivel mentioned.
Throughout the takeover, college students’ calls for started to develop. They urged College administration to extend funding for initiatives run by and serving Latino college students — together with supporting actions for Hispanic Heritage Month, buying extra books about Latinos in America, hiring extra Latino professors and making a Latino Dwelling Heart by the next tutorial yr.
Campos-Medina mentioned she and others believed strongly in these calls for. Along with occupying the constructing, Lorna Holt ’96 determined to take part in a starvation strike.
“I assumed that might be an efficient solution to make a loud assertion, silently,” Holt wrote in a press release to The Solar.
Throughout the four-day-long takeover, the administration threatened suspension and even expulsion for the scholars remaining in Day Corridor. Nevertheless, after three days of occupation, the administration agreed to talk with the scholars on Monday, Nov. 22, 1993.
Esquivel mentioned she was proud to have taken half within the takeover together with her fellow college students.
“We had been in a position to contribute ‘nuestros granitos de area’ [our little grains of sand] to essentially make a distinction,” she mentioned.
Holt is likewise proud to have participated.
“I’m nonetheless amazed at what [the takeover] did,” Holt mentioned. “It confirmed me what activism can do.”
In response to the takeover, Cornell created the Latino Dwelling Heart, reworked the Hispanic American Research Program into the extra well-funded Latino Research Program, employed extra Latino professors and created programs that mirrored the range of the American Latino group.
As well as, the Latino Civic Affiliation of Tompkins County was based shortly after by a bunch of people who had been related to the takeover — partially, as a result of tradition of activism that the takeover helped foster on campus and past, in response to Esquivel.
Bañuelos additionally commented on the empowerment she felt following the takeover.
“I used to be lively on campus afterwards and felt empowered,” Bañuelos mentioned. “I noticed how organizing and motion may result in tangible outcomes.”
Due to the inflow of Latino professors and sources that had been delivered to Cornell, Bañuelos, a Mexican-American pupil, mentioned she was in a position to take part in a Chicana convention and take lessons inside the Latino research program.
Campos-Medina additionally expressed pleasure on the impression the takeover had on the Cornell group.
“We modified the longer term trajectory of [our] campus,” Campos-Medina mentioned. “I’m very proud that we modified Cornell for the higher.”
The takeover will probably be commemorated with a number of occasions on Thursday, Nov. 16 and Friday, Nov. 17, organized by teams together with La Asociación Latina, the Latino Dwelling Heart, MechA — Cornell’s Chicanx Pupil affiliation — and the Cornell Latino Alumni Affiliation.
The programming will embrace a poster making occasion on the Latino Dwelling Heart on Nov. 16 and a Day Corridor takeover alumni panel and dialogue at William Straight Corridor, in addition to a Day Corridor takeover stroll reenactment, on Nov. 17.
Cristobal Ramirez ’26, a co-chair of MEChA who will probably be one of many audio system on the commemoration occasion, emphasised the significance of commemorating the takeover, saying its objective was to construct solidarity amongst Latino Cornellians.
“The first significance of this occasion, in addition to being political, is to construct Latino intergenerational solidarity. Not simply among the many alumni inside themselves, however between the alumni and [current students],” Ramirez mentioned. “Latinos normally — however at Cornell, particularly — I really feel like we don’t have function fashions which might be precisely like us, which might be seen. However they’re really numerous them.”
Ramirez — whose mom is a Cornell alumna and was one of many first residents of the Latino Dwelling Heart — famous the present challenges confronted by Latino college students and organizations on campus. Though he acknowledged the progress from administration and a extra accepting atmosphere within the pupil physique, he mentioned there are funding and planning constraints that don’t permit for a cohesive sense of group amongst Latinos on campus.
“The LLC itself is underfunded. It’s typically disorganized. The one massive Latino occasion that we now have per yr there’s the Latino Bienvenidos Barbecue,” Ramirez mentioned. “By no means once more, is there an occasion the place the group has an excuse to get collectively in a whole bunch.”
Regardless of these shortcomings, Ramirez mentioned he stays hopeful of the potential of college students to reconnect and study from how alumni overcame challenges to create group and unity on campus.
“I hope that it may be a spot for reconnection, and for us children to get to know the people who find themselves in our sneakers, who walked upon this exact same campus going through very comparable points that we will study from them,” Ramirez mentioned.
Campos-Medina mentioned she hopes that present Latino college students don’t take these campus sources as a right.
“I hope they treasure the legacy of the Latino college students but additionally maintain working to make it higher and make it serve the aim of their era,” Campos-Medina mentioned.
Dina Shlufman ’27 is a Solar contributor and may be reached at [email protected].
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