Compadres Meeting

Last year, a group of male Latinos began a small dialog group called Compadres (the word is a Spanish term a man might use to regard a non-relative as his brother). Among Black and Latino men and women, Latino men have the worst retention rates at Occidental College. Compadres was started partly with the intention of giving Latino men a dialog group similar to Harambee and to work towards helping Latino males make it through college here.

With the end of the semester nearby, Cesar Serrano called for the last Compadres meeting; probably the last one the original members would all be present at. Once people arrived we actually ended up spending some time just talking to one another and having impromptu conversations about our experiences at Oxy, the difficulties Latinos have in math and science (which Leo and I are very aware of), family expectations of their sons, and plans post-Oxy. When we officially began the meeting, Cesar spoke to us about what he would like Compadres to be next year and basically told the non-seniors that they would have to step up next year and lead the group if it is to continue and actually be able to do something significant at this campus.