GREEKS GO LATIN--OR VICE VERSA

Juan de Los Santos says he and his fraternity brothers at New Jersey's Ramapo College "wanted to have fun tonight more than anything else." But their routine of synchronized claps and stomps helped Lambda Sigma Upsilon--"Latinos Siempre Unidos" ("Latinos Always United")--beat out other frats to win $1,000 at the school's Greek step show. Or maybe it was their insouciant T shirts, which read we didn't practice.

As more Latino students enter college--about 1.7 million in 2002--Latino Greeks are becoming a larger presence on campus. Jeffrey Vargas of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations estimates that as many as 30,000 Latino students and graduates are Greeks, a fourfold increase since the mid-'90s. The groups provide moral support and useful academic scuttlebutt--crucial, since the retention rate among Latino students is lower than that of the overall college population. "They can say, 'Yo, man, don't take this professor'," says David Ortiz, Baylor University diversity specialist and member of Omega Delta Phi. And Latino Greeks can make connections that last far into the future. "If you're going to spend $100,000 on your education," says Vargas, "that is priceless later."

At some campuses, established black fraternities, the first of them founded in 1906, have raised their eyebrows at the Latino Greeks' adopting such black traditions as stepping. But as minorities on many campuses, black and Latino Greeks more often connect, says Ortiz, as Latino Greeks "look toward black Greeks for a nod of acceptance."

On the campus at large, that feeling of belonging can be harder to come by. "It's very rare that mainstream Greeks interact with culturally based Greeks," says Frank Gonzalez, president of the University of Texas at Austin's United Greek Council. UT administrators are trying to bridge that gap this semester with a "Greek think tank" to spur communication.

Meanwhile Latino Greeks work to raise their profile. At Columbia, one sorority hosts lectures on Latinas' body image; another, at USC, holds college-application workshops for local high-school students. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of having fun. At Ramapo's step show, members of one Latino fraternity chanted, "They took my hand / And said, 'Understand / You're a brother like no other / You're a Lambda man'." It's not the "Whiffenpoof Song," but someday it's going to make aging brothers nostalgic for their college years.

© 2004