August, 2020

With the heaviest of hearts, we inform our Hermandad that one of our Founding Fathers, Edwin Rivera, has passed away.

Hermano Edwin Rivera unexpectedly passed on August 1, 2020. He was a leader through example and a consistently driven and upbeat person who always put the needs of others first. What makes this news harder to bear is that Hermano Edwin participated in our virtual national convention the week earlier, actively recounting the formation of La Unidad Latina, listening attentively to our State of La Fraternidad address and enthusiastically expressing the love for the fraternity he helped create.

During convention, Hermano Edwin was asked what was one of his proudest moments for the fraternity he helped found and his response was a reflection of the gentle and kind man many grew to love. Hermano Edwin responded, “The proudest moment I have is knowing that I am an Hermano to over 3,000 men who believe in the power of our community.”

Hermano Edwin is survived by a loving wife of 34 years, Leonor, two sons Sean & Jordan, his father Edwin S. and sisters Eileen, Sandra, Mildred, Caroline and Suzanne.

Edwin was a caring father, amazing husband, wonderful brother, dedicated son and inspiring friend. He found time to lead innovation and engineering efforts with Delphi Technologies, worked with his wife in Worldwide Marriage Encounter (wwme.org) and mentored local FIRST robotics teams and organizations.

In addition to the foundation he laid for La Fraternidad, Hermano Edwin was involved as a board member with Ibero-American Action League helping to elevate underserved communities in the Rochester area. He and his wife also wrote a monthly marriage blog for the Catholic Courier called To Have and To Hold at https://catholiccourier.com/viewpoints/blogs/to-have-and-to-hold.

With social distancing still enforced, his celebration of life service will be held at St. John of Rochester Church on August 7th at 10:00 AM ET and the service will be live streamed at https://www.stjohnfairport.org/sjr-online. We encourage our entire Hermandad to log in and express our condolences to his wife and family.

Hermano Edwin: You will be missed, and we honor you as we often do…

“I looked to the sky, and what did I see, I saw the 13-Knights looking down at me! They took my hand and said understand, you are a brother like no other, you’re a LAMBDA MAN!”

La Unidad Para Siempre, Hermano Edwin! We will forever honor your memory and those of Hermanos past and future who are inducted into the chapter that honors La Eternidad – Pi Sigma! PARA SIEMPRE!!!

If you would like to share any memories, pictures, or stories about Hermano Edwin, please forward those gestures to EdRiveraMemories@gmail.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to St. John of Rochester Church or to any of the other non-profits Hermano Ed was involved with listed below. Please mark the donation as Ed Rivera Memorial.

Worldwide Marriage Encounter: wwme.org
St. John of Rochester Church: www.stjohnfairport.org
FIRST Robotics: www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc

July 6, 2020

In the past 30 days, our fraternity has stopped to reflect on our role of promoting and condoning an environment of toxic masculinity. As an organization that prides itself on professional development and academic achievement, we have fallen short with our own definition of Caballero. Our fraternity was built on the tenets of brotherhood, equality, leadership, and love, and sadly, that same self-respect has not always been reciprocated to the women and men in our lives. La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., Stands Against Sexual Assault.

Our national leadership has invested considerable time making sure we go beyond words and focus on addressing cultural issues impacting our communities. We have been actively working to ensure steps we implement are focused on systemic change and ongoing training.

As an organization, La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda has committed to the following action plan:

• Suspension of members receiving allegations until inquiries have been completed and member outcomes determined.
• Reviewing and strengthening the Sexual Abuse and Harassment sections of our current Risk Management Policy. This work includes expanding an already existing contract and scope of work with Limberlost Consulting (https://www.limberlostconsulting.com/). Limberlost has extensive experience in governance, risk and crisis prevention/management and interventions.
• Incorporating mental health, sexual harassment and consent training with subject matter experts as part of our July 2020 Virtual National Convention.
• Implementing required annual sexual harassment certification training for all members as part of being recognized as an active member.
• Integrating a sexual misconduct workshop as part of the expectations for interested students prior to applying to become members.
• Incorporating sexual misconduct training into New Member On-Boarding Training for neophytes.
• Guidance on a chapter-led virtual workshop with subject matter experts/organizations to increase campus and community awareness. Chapters will be required to conduct a minimum of one (1) workshop each year.

Our fraternity will continue to believe the individuals reporting sexual misconduct and support their courage to speak their truth. We will continue inquiries amongst our members and with complainants, as appropriate. Based on findings, will hold members accountable accordingly. We are working on additional action items that will be shared as they are finalized.

As a member of NALFO, we are co-leading the Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign & Action Committee (SA3C). SA3C was organized to revisit long-standing concerns within and among our respective organizations around sexual assault. Our collaborative work is intended to identify best practices and strategies focused on: 1) actionable steps we can take now; 2) preventative measures in training, policies, programming, and collaborations; 3) evaluating reporting practices, investigations and adjudication; and 4) establishing a process for escalating these issues across impacted organizations.

As Hermanos, we will continue to live up to the meaning of Caballero.

Please contact president@launidadlatina.org should you have any questions.

June 4, 2020

La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. seeks to help prevent sexual misconduct, assault and rape on our campuses and within our communities. We have become aware of recent allegations made against members of our organization. We are committed to working with the survivors and their organization’s leadership (as applicable) in order to gather all the facts and work towards resolving and mitigating this and any future issues.

First and foremost, we believe the women and support their courage in speaking their truth. We take these allegations seriously and will investigate all allegations and hold members accountable for any and all misconduct. We ask our Hermanos to provide the space for them to share their pain, to be heard and acknowledged.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, we will implement the following for our organization and our members, undergraduate and alumni:

• Review and update the Sexual Abuse and Harassment and Gender Relation Policy sections of our current Risk Management Policy
• Institute an annual online sensitivity awareness/sexual harassment/gender violence training, accompanied by a quiz and completion certification
• Incorporation of the above training into New Member On-Boarding Training
• Integration of a virtual workshop with subject matter expert as part of our national convention July 2020
• Guidance on a chapter-led virtual workshop with subject matter expert/organization to increase campus and community awareness
• Provide all members with access to the following toolkits from the Me Too Movement website (metoomvmt.org):
  • #MeToo Masculinity, Male Privilege & Consent Discussion Guide
  • Creating a 360 Degree Day of Healing, Empowerment, and Strength
• Storing applicable resources on our website for ease of access by members and visitors

We will provide future updates on the training and our member participation.

Finally, given the sensitivity of these matters we ask for patience while we investigate and work on implementing the above.

Since the women’s right movement began in 1848, women have fought against and demanded equality, equity and respect. In 2006, Tarana Burke founded the ‘me too’ movement focused on the experiences of survivors of sexual violence and sexual harassment of Black women and young women of color. The Hermanos of La Unidad Latina are committed to helping address this internally and within our communities and being agents of change and accountability.

We will provide future updates on the training and our member participation.