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Sitting in the front row of her Earth science lecture, Nicole Pacateque saw a presentation slide showing her home covered by a then-Category 4 Hurricane Maria. She couldn’t stop staring at the slide, and she began tearing up.

When her professor asked if anyone in the class was from Puerto Rico, Pacateque raised her hand, tucking her head down as her tears became sobs. Puerto Rico was the place she grew up. The place where her family and her home was. But on the slide, it didn’t look like that.

“The island (looked) tiny,” Pacateque said. “(Like) that’s my home. That’s what I know.”

A few days after Hurricane Maria hit the island, Bea González, SU’s then-vice president for community engagement, held a meeting for Puerto Rican students. Pacateque entered a classroom filled with other Puerto Ricans from across the United States and from the island. It was an “eye-opening” experience for her, as she didn’t realize how many Puerto Rican students were on campus.

The meeting sparked the Puerto Rican Student Association, which was founded in 2018. Pacateque, who’s now president of PRSA, is one of several students who lead campus organizations that serve as a haven and a “home away from home” for Latino students.

For Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month, here are a few of the current leaders’ stories:

Nicole Pacateque, senior and president of Puerto Rican Student Association

As president, Pacateque wants to make sure PRSA is a home on campus for Puerto Rican students, something she didn’t have her freshman year.

“We try to be everywhere,” she said. “Even though we are a student org, we are a big support group.”

She grew up in San Juan and anticipated leaving Puerto Rico to go to college. Though she applied to schools in Florida because she had family there, her plans changed after she was accepted into Syracuse University.

The over four-hour flight to New York state made Pacateque feel isolated. She was away from her family and came to Syracuse knowing only a handful of other Puerto Ricans. And when Hurricane Maria hit, things got worse.

She had to see news through “second-hand” sources and talked with her brother, who was in Puerto Rico, over the phone. When Hurricane Maria first hit the island, she spent the day in silence with two other Puerto Rican students, she said.

“(It was) knowing that we left home and we never (were) going to go back to the same home we left from,” Pacateque said.

PRSA aims to be a group whose members support each other. If something like Hurricane Maria ever happened again to their home, members of PRSA wouldn’t have to deal with it alone, Pacateque said.

This year, PRSA reached out to freshmen to give them an outreach group. Pacateque hopes the organization will continue growing. If it weren’t for PRSA, she wouldn’t have been able to connect with so many other Puerto Rican students and may have even transferred to another school before her sophomore year.

“We were going through such a traumatic experience of us seeing our home destroyed. We still had to go to class, and we still had a culture shock,” Pacateque said. “(But) as time passed, it has helped us build a really strong community on campus.”

Christian Andino Borrero, senior and co-founder of PRSA

Since he was eight years old, Christian Andino Borrero kept on hearing the same message at school in Puerto Rico: either leave the island or stay to help it grow.

It’s the same message that Andino Borrero kept in the back of his mind as a student at SU. His studies have centered around his home of Puerto Rico, and after Hurricane Maria, he helped found PRSA with Pacateque.

“We wanted to create a space and community where you can be yourself,” Andino Borrero said. “We wanted to create a space where we could support each other.”

Andino Borrero hopped around from home to home during his childhood, which was consumed by the message of either leaving or staying. After applying to SU, he was first waitlisted but was eventually accepted.

Courtesy of Christian Andino Borrero | Graphic by Sarah Jimenez Miles

He took international relations at SU to see how Puerto Rico fit in the “international arena.” He later added the policy studies major to look at the creation of policy in Puerto Rico.

As a founding member of PRSA, he hopes to connect other students together as he enters into his final year at SU. He also hopes PRSA will continue to be inclusive and to grow.

After he graduates, Andino Borrero plans on working for corporate America and going to make “bank,” to provide his family with financial stability and upward mobility, he said. But in the future, he hopes to return to Puerto Rico, pursue urban policy and work with the electrical grid, which was highly impacted by the hurricane.

“You can’t deny that Puerto Rico is a part of you,” Andino Borrero said. “It’s everything.”

Noeli Vasquez, senior and president of La L.U.C.H.A

Noeli Vasquez’s experience at SU changed when a member of La L.U.C.H.A. approached her during the involvement fair. The two talked about how Vasquez was from New York City, and they connected over being Dominican. Now in her senior year, Vasquez currently serves as president of the organization.

La L.U.C.H.A. was first founded in 1994 as a Latino and Hispanic student organization, but it has since expanded to involve social events and has become a “haven for Latinx students,” Vasquez said. Club members have participated in the Theta Tau protests and #NotAgainSU’s sit-in last year at the Barnes Center at The Arch. One of Vasquez’s favorite parts of the organization was that it allowed her to be more active in the Syracuse community.

“If I knew I didn’t have La L.U.C.H.A. my freshman year and I didn’t have people I could go to see weekly, that might have been a different experience for me,” Vasquez said. “I want to give back.”

Vasquez was one of the only people of color on the fourth floor of Boland Hall her freshman year. It was quite a change from her growing up in Washington Heights, but she had a positive experience. After joining La L.U.C.H.A., Vasquez gained a “home” within the organization and went to different events at La Casita Cultural Center.

Courtesy of Ashley Méndez | Graphic by Sarah Jimenez Miles

Despite being just a general member of La L.U.C.H.A. at the time, Vasquez attended all the town halls after the Theta Tau incident and saw how the organization worked to promote activism. And during #NotAgainSU’s sit-in at the Barnes Center, Vazquez made churros for the protesters and slept over with a friend. Other La L.U.C.H.A. members were in attendance, and they were all there for the same cause.

Vasquez’s attitude for activism hasn’t changed, even if it isn’t as “obvious” as a protest, she said. For the upcoming election, her organization is linking voting resources to the La L.U.C.H.A. Instagram page to encourage people to register to vote.

Vasquez is also recruiting for La L.U.C.H.A. despite the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the main desk assistants in Brewster, Boland and Brockway halls, Vasquez has had other Latino students share their experiences with her. She tells them about the organization and upcoming events, she said.

“I still want people to feel, ‘Oh, L.U.C.H.A. was here, L.U.C.H.A. was having events,” Vasquez said. “I want to leave a mark.”

Published on October 5, 2020 at 12:09 am

Contact Christopher: [email protected] | @chrisscargs