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When Dr. Antonio Ramirez spoke about boycotts, protests, and the long history of Latiné activism, the packed room at Harper College listened closely. On Sept. 17, the college hosted its first-ever Juntos Adelantes gathering, an event designed to uplift Latiné voices and foster student activism.
Juntos Adelantes comes after the Spring 2025 shutdown of the Guiding Learners to Intentionally Develop Efficacy (GLIDE) initiative, which had supported Latiné and African American students at Harper. Juntos Adelantes now offers students a space to engage with Latiné culture, history, and advocacy, regardless of their background or major.
The event, a part of the Spotlight series, aims to help inform students on both political and activist issues in various communities and cultures.
This event explored social justice issues within the Latinx community and the history of Latinx activism. Dr. Ramirez discussed historical boycotts and protests, including the L.A. Chicano School Walkouts of the 1960s, Las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc in the 1970s, and Elgin’s Latin American Civic Committee.
Latinos Unidos President Lindsay Aguilera Torres and Co-advisor of Latinos Unidos, Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez, welcomed students to begin the discussion. Participants of the discussion were asked to scan a QR code and were encouraged to share their voices and opinions throughout the dialogue.
Dr. Ramirez, whose work has been published in The Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, The Progressive, and others, is the director of the Chicagolandia Oral History Project. This project allows the Latiné community in Chicagoland to share their history, successes, losses, and lives.
Dr. Ramirez explained they have always felt a sense of activism, recalling a time in high school when they weren’t allowed to have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, a day when schools are closed in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and his work.
“I really read a lot about him and was really influenced by Martin Luther King [Jr.] and the Civil Rights movement when I was younger,” Dr. Ramirez said. “And so in high school, I was reading about it, and I said, ‘You know, we should do something about this.’”
For many students, Dr. Ramirez’s insights provided both inspiration and a call to engage more deeply with the Latiné community.
Mari Miranda, a freshman at Harper, came to Juntos Adelantes for the opportunity to be involved.
“Where I come from in my community, it is majorly based on Latinos and Latinx,” Miranda explained. “So coming into college, a big thing for me was being involved with my own community.”
Miranda explained that in her first week at Harper, she was interested in Latinos Unidos and Juntos Adelantes, both of which offered opportunities so that she could find her footing.
“I heard of Latinos Unidos during my first week of school, and then I did hear about Juntos Adelantes,” Miranda said. “I personally feel that Juntos Adelantes gives you more of an insider on the community and everything that we’ve gone through to reach the point that we are at now, and that we still fight for.”
Coordinators hope that events like this can bring a healthy shift in students that drives them to want to join the community.
Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez, one of the coordinators for the event, hopes that Juntos Adelantes meetings can help students open up, create a tighter community, and find their voice at Harper.
“I would like for students to have a more holistic, collegiate, and rich experience,” Guerrero Lopez stated. “To make the connections, to broaden their knowledge as pertains to our Latino community, information, and history.”
To illustrate how anyone can start their activism journey, Dr. Ramirez shared a story that encouraged students to overcome fear and take action. Dr. Ramirez describes how there was once a young Indian attorney who, when it came time to argue his first case, sat down and didn’t talk out of fear.
This fear caused the attorney to dash out of the courthouse, ultimately losing the case. The attorney would later become Mahatma Gandhi, an anti-colonial activist who helped overthrow the British Empire in India.
“I think that these things are learned, like bravery, speaking out, speaking up, and knowing what you want and valuing what you want,” Dr. Ramirez expressed. “I think that anybody who wants to be an advocate should look to other people who are doing it the way that they admire and walk alongside them and learn from them and then use that and help develop their own voice.”
Juntos Adelantes marked a new chapter in Harper’s history, creating space for Latiné voices and stories on campus. For future meetings, follow Social Justice Studies at Harper College, Latinos Unidos, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI).
