Corazon Latina has emerged among the ranks of cultural organizations at Wichita State, serving Latina students on campus. The group has taken an unusual approach to spreading news of their group to the targeted community — no posters or QR codes hanging on bulletin boards. They rely on the organization’s Instagram and by “word of mouth.”
“I personally think that that is the best way to market an organization, especially if we want to create a community,” Favela said. “It kind of tells students that, ‘Hey, we’re here for you. Here’s a familiar face that you get to know so you can come to our meetings and our events and fundraisers.’”
Corazon Latina is an organization that was created to build a community for Latina students on campus.
“Everyone is welcome to our events, although it is mainly for that percentage of campus, but we just want to welcome everyone,” Marketing Coordinator Lorena Favela said. “(We) help them build their own platform here on campus, whether it’s through leadership skills, professional development, or even just going out to the community and doing community service hours.”
Grecia Esparza and Edna Flores Cisneros are on the Corozon Latina executive board. The two are a part of the Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO), a group within Wichita State that aims to strengthen the Hispanic community, and are came up with the idea for Corazon Latina while trying to find their own sense of community.
“They just kind of came up with this idea of themselves,” Favela said. “And then they started sharing it with other people who they thought could be really good leaders, such as myself and some of the other girls that are in our executive board. And it just kind of spread…like a wildfire.”
Being a part of HALO, they understood there were some groups with similar goals, but Esparza found something that sets Corazon Latina apart.
“I think we just want to kind of bring something that combines all of these organizations into one,” Esparza said. “… Although we are serving more towards Latina women. We do want to make it open to any race of women. That’s the most unique part, is we just want to be inclusive to anyone and everyone on campus — for them to feel like they have that organization.”
Creating a new organization presents challenges for its leaders andCorazon Latina fares no differently from other groups.
“I think for me, (it’s difficult) taking on that leadership aspect,” Esparza said. “… Having to do all the behind the scenes work, and how we have to kind of be those leaders for the girls to kind of look up to.”
The group has learned to face these challenges when they arise and lean on each other when times get difficult.
“I think something that really helped throughout this whole thing is just really communicating with the Corazon Latina executive board. Being honest and saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have this done, but I’ll have it done soon,’” Favela said. “…so I got really comfortable enough to where I was just like, ‘Hey, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get this done,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m not gonna make it.’ And I think just communication is really being part of what helped balancing everything.”
Corazon Latina plans on having new endeavors in the upcoming fall semester for its members. Esparza said they will be focusing on community outreach, with plans for service events and outreach to other cultural organizations on campus.
“We want to have a lot of collaborations with other organizations on campus,” Favela said. “Whether that be like the Cultural Greek Council, whether that be with other organizations, such as HALO or BSU (Black Student Union) … we just want to have more events with them. And we also want to try to see if we could have partnerships with the student offices.”
Favela said she hopes members walk away from their activities and meetings feeling more empowered than they previously did.
“I think something that our members could walk away with after these events would be empowerment,” Favela said. “… We will have fun events in the future, like our first general meeting, but we will also have the serious events that talk more about the difficulties that we might face on campus or in the community in general, with everything that’s going on.”
Esparza said she aims for members to feel comfortable within the group.
“I want them to feel comfortable,” Esparza said. “(I want them) to be able to come to our meetings whenever they feel like, but also comfortable enough where they know that they don’t have to come to every single one of our meetings to still be included in our community.”
The group currently doesn’t have set days for meetings or activities, but more information about Corazon Latina can be found on their Instagram @corazonlatina.wsu.
