List_of_Latino_Greek-letter_organizations
Latino Greek-letter organizations, in the North American student fraternity and sorority system, refer to general or social organizations oriented to students having a special interest in Latino culture and identity. The first known Latino fraternal organization was Alpha Zeta fraternity, established in 1889 at Cornell University.[1]
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In 1898, a group of Latin American students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute organized the Union Hispano Americana (UHA) as a cultural and intellectual secret society based on the ideology of Pan-Americanism.[2] The UHA eventually became Phi Iota Alpha.
The current rise in Latino Greek organizations began in 1975 and is known as the Latino Greek Movement. This movement called for the equality of Latino people in America, and many Greek letter organizations were developed to create solidarity and political empowerment for the Latino community.[1]
In New Jersey on December 1, 1975, Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. was founded at Kean University in Union Township, New Jersey.[3] With the fraternity's second chapter at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in the fall of 1978, Lambda Theta Phi was well on its way to growing the Latino Greek movement.[4] Shortly afterward, a Latina sorority was established at Kean University; Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. became the first Latina Greek-lettered organization in the country. These two Greek-lettered organizations empowered the Latino Greek Movement's infancy days and provided the Latino community on campus and the United States a voice.
On the campus of Rutgers University–Livingston campus, Latino Siempre Unidos or Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc. formed on April 5, 1979. Corazones Unidos Siempre or Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority, Inc. formed at Rutgers University–New Brunswick on April 29, 1980. In 1982, Lambda Upsilon Lambda became the first Latino-based fraternity to be chartered at an Ivy League institution.[5]
There are currently more than 45 Latin-oriented fraternities and sororities, seventeen of which are members of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations.