The Story of "La Unidad Latina"
By Founding Father Hernando Londoño



The Idea

 In the fantasy land that it sometimes seemed like up at
Cornell University (especially for a Latino from New York City),
in the summer of 1981, an idea was born. It was an idea that would
take a life of its own. A conversation was started by a group of
Latinos on campus that summer brought up the fact that there
was a need for a Latino fraternity at Cornell. At the time, there
was little choice for Latinos who wanted to join a fraternity;
you either joined a traditionally white fraternity or a traditionally
black one. This group of Latinos began not only to talk about the
idea of creating a Latino fraternity, but to take some steps towards
building one. From that summer conversation sprung informal
meetings to discuss the idea.

I was working as a Peer Counselor for the minority Summer
Program at the time. Everyone agreed that there was a need
for brotherhood and unity as well as a need for more cultural
expression and exchange of ideas between Latinos at Cornell,
but very few where willing to commit to more than words. We
all wanted this new fraternity to not be a typical fraternity - less
Animal House and more one of true Latino Unity and Culture
and academic excellence. We wanted this new fraternity to shine
for its Latino pride and represent all that is good in
our people and culture.

The Early Days

That following semester (Fall 1981) the work began on organizing
the Latino fraternity. The organizing was slow. Most people
indicated an interest in the mission, but few committed themselves.
The first few meetings were attended by only a handful of people.
After the fourth meeting, the core group had expanded. A club,
La Unidad Latina was registered with the university on 9/15/81,
with myself as President. The intent was to register first as a
club and then officially become a fraternity. After much work
at recruiting people, the fraternity started to gain form. From
approximately 30 interested men, La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon
Lambda Fraternity was formed with 13 members:  

Hernando Londono - Sophomore Engineering
Victor Silva - Sophomore Pre-Medicine
Jesse Luis - Sophomore Engineering
Jose Torres - Junior Pre-Medicine
Henry Villareal - Faculty Advisor
William Barba - Senior Pre-Medicine
Dennis DeJesus - Sophomore Pre-Medicine
Samuel Ramos - Senior Engineering
Edwin Rivera - Junior Engineering
Tomas Rincon - Sophomore Engineering
Mario Rivera- Junior Engineering
Victor Rodriguez - Senior Economics
Jim Ziebell - Cornell Administrator

It was very tough to get engineers and pre-meds to give up any of
their free time, but in spite of this, we marched forward. The
fraternity was finally registered as an official fraternity with
the university in the beginning of the second semester, January
1982. On Friday, February 19th 1982, an initiation ceremony was
held at Henry Villareal's (our faculty advisor) home, and we
became the Founding Fathers (Los Fundadores) of La Unidad
Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity. La Fraternidad uses
the February 19, 1982, as the founding date because it was at this
ceremony, that the group formally took their oaths and became
Hermanos of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. 

The Future

The idea started on that campus, but our dream then, as well as now,
is to spread La Fraternidad, its ideas and goals across the U.S.,
and the Americas. Our ideas of Latino Unity, Culture and
empowerment require life time commitments. We want Hermanos
that will become the leaders of our people, that will make great
sacrifices for the benefit of our people, that stand for and live up
to the best of the Latino culture. It seems a long time now from
those early days when we had meetings on the steps of Barnes
Hall or a room in Willard Straight. Now we have several chapter
websites on the internet, as well as a national website, http://www.launidadlatina.org, a national governing structure,
and a business/strategic plan. The real test of a successful
organization is what happens after the founders are no longer
running the day to day activity.

Finally, I think that the fact of the matter is that as a group,
Latinos have many formidable challenges. One of the biggest is
in the area of education. We are the lucky ones. For whatever
reason (hard work being one of them) we were able to go to and
graduate from one of the most prestigious schools in the U.S.
I feel obligated to give back to the community and hopefully inspire
or be a role model to a young brother or sister to help them
realize that they too can excel at whatever they set their mind to.
I believe that there is room for various types of organizations,
alumni, professional, cultural, etc. as well as fraternities and
sororities. What sets the fraternities/sororities apart, is the
level of interaction and commitment of its members. There is a
much deeper experience when someone considers the other
person an Hermano, in comparison to just another member of an
organization. That is not to say that a Fraternity can or should
replace those other organizations. On the contrary, both can
benefit from their mutual existence. 

With this said, I believe that we really have an obligation to
get involved and do what we can to help out and give back some
of our time and resources to help those that come behind us.
I would also like to invite you to explore the possibilities of
joining LUL, at the professional level, where the focus is on
networking/mentoring and community service, and of course,
experiencing that extra special feeling of being an Hermano.
For the women reading this, there are of course many Latina
Sororities that would love to have you and your experiences and
expertise. The bottom line is we need to get involved and give.

La Unidad Para Siempre!

Hernando Londoño
Founding Father