La Casa has a number of affiliate undergraduate student organizations that vary in “active status” each semester. If you would like to stay updated with the events and gatherings our organizations are hosting, make sure to subscribe to the La Casa newsletter, follow their respective social media accounts, and join their respective Yale Connect groups/pages. All organization events are listed under center events in our weekly newsletter!
Latine Undergraduate Student Groups
BF: Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale
Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale (BFMdY) was founded during the 1998-1999 school year to bring a greater awareness of Mexican culture to the Yale and greater Connecticut communities. It is the only Yale dance group dedicated to Mexican traditional folk dance. BFMdY provides an outlet for students to explore their heritage, enrich their cultural knowledge, and perform for the Yale/New Haven community. Our goal is to create a safe space for cultural exchange while preserving the traditions of each region in Mexico.
Because all our dances are historical in nature, we take an interest in preserving the authenticity of each region’s distinctive traditions. Whenever possible, we strive to incorporate a substantial educational component, often in the form of informative videos played between dances. As a college student group, especially as a Yale organization, we strive to teach our audiences about Mexican folk culture. The goals of our organization are both diverse and ambitious: while we seek to foster a spirited Mexican dance group for Yale students and community members of all backgrounds, we also strive to become a cultural resource for the city of New Haven, as well as the greater state of Connecticut.
BCY: Brazil Club de Yale (inactive at La Casa as of Spring 2023)
The Brazil Club at Yale seeks to foster the Brazilian Community at the College. At our events and weekly dinners, we gather to celebrate our heritage and create a home away from home for all Brazilians at Yale!
BlackGen Capital at Yale
BlackGen Capital is a 100% minority-owned student investment fund. We close the access gap by creating a pipeline for talented, Black, Hispanic, and Native American students interested in entering the financial services industry. BlackGen Capital members are provided with a standardized 10-week educational series, where students learn the fundamentals of finance. After receiving this thorough training, students have a unique opportunity to propose equity investment ideas to the BlackGen Capital investment fund!
Website: https://www.blackgencapital.com/
Central Americans for Empowerment (CAFÉ) at Yale aims to create a space for Central American students to come together and discuss and celebrate the diversity within the isthmus and beyond, as we also consider Central America to transcend borders. CAFÉ at Yale’s mission also aims for a collective voice on campus and in New Haven through political, social, and cultural education and advocacy for issues pertaining to and regarding Central America. Follow CAFÉ on Instagram @yalecafe
Join our GroupMe: tinyurl.com/CAFEgroupme
CdB: Casa de Bailes
Casa de Bailes is an undergraduate social and community group that promotes Mexican dances to all students at Yale. We create an enjoyable space for students to both learn and appreciate the art of dancing Mexican music styles, including but not limited to: norteños, huapangos, zapateados, cumbias, wepas, duranguenses, and tribaleros. We hold weekly workshops where students can learn how to dance and understand these genres of music. Each workshop has a unique style of dance. Additionally, we host bailes/events where students can demonstrate their newly acquired dance skills in a comfortable and pressure-free environment. Casa de Bailes also aims to teach the history of the dances and their cultural impacts.
CSO: Yale Caribbean Students’ Organization
The Yale Caribbean Students’ Organization (CSO) aims to create a space on Yale’s campus for the celebration of the rich and diverse cultures of the Caribbean region and its many diasporas.
CAUSA: Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association
The Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association at Yale, better known as CAUSA, was established in 2005 to serve the needs of both Cuban and Cuban American students by providing an open forum wherein to share and promote our common heritage. CAUSA also seeks to foster dialogue and raise public awareness pertaining to Cuba’s history, and the social, political, and cultural issues affecting both the Cuban and the Cuban American communities in the States and abroad. To keep up with our events, follow us on Instagram @YALE_CAUSA!
BCASY: Club of Argentine Students at Yale (inactive at La Casa as of Fall 2019)
CASY: The Club of Argentine Students at Yale intends to advance Argentine culture within the Yale Community. It provides an institutional framework to allow for regular gatherings of individuals from Argentina, as well as those interested in its culture. The cultural advocacy will provide a space for discussion about Argentine culture amid the whole of Yale community. The club will provide orientation and support for incoming or prospective Argentine students, in order to secure their inclusion. Visit them on their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/yaleargentineclub/
Club Colombia
Club Colombia is an organization seeking to unite Colombian students and friends of Colombia, offering both groups and the greater Yale community an opportunity to learn more about, and share the culture of, Colombia. This will be achieved through a combination of local, on-campus events, including movie screenings, Cultural Nights, mixers with other cultural groups, and typical Colombian dinners.
Club Venezuela
Club Venezuela is an organization seeking to support members of the Venezuelan community at Yale College. In addition to providing opportunities to share in our common heritage, Club Venezuela is looking to provide institutional support in fostering dialogue regarding the political and socioeconomic crises in Venezuela, including their implications on members of our community and beyond.
Contigo Perú
Contigo Perú aims to promote Peruvian culture at Yale and create a community space for Peruvians, Peruvian-Americans, and those with an interest in the country. Through social events (gatherings, meals, cooking events, parties) and cultural events (guest speakers, exhibitions, film screenings, gastronomical events), Contigo Perú hopes to advance Yale students’ understanding of Peru and its culture, while helping students navigate what it means to be Peruvian at Yale.
De Colores
De Colores seeks to be a safe space and affinity group for Yale’s queer Latinx community. It primarily serves as a discussion and social group through which students can both discuss issues of importance regarding queer Latinx people and form a community linked through common interests and experiences in solidarity and alliance with the other cultural centers/identity-based spaces. Its secondary purpose is political, fighting for policy changes or volunteering at organizations in New Haven that benefit the LGBTQ and/or Latinx community.
DB: Despierta Boricua, the Puerto Rican Student Organization at Yale
Since 1971, Despierta Boricua has provided students of Puerto Rican heritage with a space to educate, celebrate and motivate one another through the collective appreciation of our shared Puerto Rican identity. The organization has centered around uniting the Puerto Rican student population at Yale through food, music, culture, and activism, while aiming to drive social, racial and economic change on campus and in the larger Puerto Rican community.
DSA: Yale Dominican Student Association
The Dominican Student Association – QuisqueYalies (DSA) at Yale University was founded in 2005 by a small contingent of Dominican students that found themselves without a place to remind them of home. Their solution was the creation of the Dominican Student Association – QuisqueYalies, now an organization boasting both high levels of energetic membership and the active participation of non-Dominican students. One year after the organization’s inception, the idea of a National Dominican Student Conference was birthed on our very own campus, a tradition that has not lost its fervor as it continues to be an annual national event.
The Dominican Student Association, candidly known as the QuisqueYalies, is an organization boasting both energetic membership and the active participation of Dominican and non-Dominican students on Yale’s campus. Since its inception, DSA has sought to fulfill its mission of bringing Dominican cultural awareness and exploration to Yale’s campus. This mission manifests itself in the form of our new annual Afro-Latinx series, movie screenings and discussions, panels, game nights and dominó chats, folkloric Dominican music and bailes típicos, a lot of cooking and eating of traditional Dominican cuisine, Dominican “Word of the Week,” and still aspire for more!
Instagram: quisqueyalies
ECUAU: Ecuatorianos y Amigos Unidos
Founded by sisters Shannon and Leslie Guerra during the pandemic, Ecuatorianos y Amigos Unidos is an undergraduate organization at Yale aiming to promote Ecuadorian culture on campus. The club unites Ecuadorian and Ecuadorian American students, as well as those interested in Ecuadorian culture. It offers a warm community and regular opportunities to discuss traditional cuisine, music, and social and environmental causes unique to Ecuador. Join us for movie nights, speaker events, intellectual debates, art and cooking experiences, and many more!
Instagram: @Yaleecuau
LUL: La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc.
La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Incorporated primarily seeks to take a leadership role in meeting the needs of the Latino community through academic achievement, cultural awareness, community service and promotion of the Latino culture and people. They strive to become the premier Latino Fraternity in the country. More specifically, they strive to become a nationally recognized Latino fraternal organization comprised of the best and brightest leaders committed to excellence in service and education.
Since its inception in 1982, La Unidad Latina has remained on the vanguard of political and community empowerment by developing influential leaders that strive to exert knowledge and power into its peers in order to attain mutual success. They commit themselves to academic excellence, leadership development and cultural enlightenment, enhanced by a diverse cognizant membership. La Hermandad strives to preserve and promote an inclusive intellectual environment for its members, in addition to the general community.
LWAY: Latina Women at Yale
LWAY is an organization that strives to create a strong and comforting community for Latina women at Yale through academic, social, and professional events. Social events are focused on fostering meaningful relationships and peer mentorship opportunities. Academic events help students succeed in the academic rigor of Yale whilst highlighting the importance of physical and mental health. Lastly, professional events prepare Latina women at Yale for employment opportunities throughout and after their undergraduate career. This growing network is providing Latina women the opportunities they require to feel embraced by the overall Yale community.
Mariachi Lux Et Veritas
Mariachi Lux Et Veritas is a Yale undergraduate traditional Mariachi group revived in 2022 for Latine students and the Yale campus at large to participate, celebrate, appreciate, and bring awareness to the beauty of Mexican culture through music. Our mission is to empower and inspire students through cultural representation and enrichment, performing and hosting educational events for the entire Yale campus and surrounding Connecticut community to explore Mexican heritage, customs, and histories. We welcome any and all musical backgrounds from both Yale College and Yale University at large! We cannot wait to see you at our serenatas!
Mecha de Yale, established in 1969, is an organization of students of different ethnic and racial backgrounds who have come together in pursuit of social justice, community empowerment, and cultural awareness.
The organization is composed of students on campus who are politically conscious and sensitive to the issues affecting underrepresented peoples of our communities and our nation. We seek to strengthen our ties with the New Haven population through communication and cooperation to stand in solidarity with each other.
Mecha de Yale promotes and supports the pursuit of education as a means to achieve self-empowerment. Our social and political activism is a direct response to the problems that affect the Latine population and other communities of struggle locally, nationally, and globally.
¡Oye! Spoken Word
¡Oye! is Yale’s first and only Latine spoken word and slam poetry group dedicated to creating a space for poetry and performance on Yale’s campus. It is dedicated to empowering students with a space and a voice to share their experiences, thoughts, and stories. It utilizes spoken word to uplift and express. We showcase poets from all different backgrounds to reflect campus diversity. Oye meets on Mondays every week at La Casa to write and share poetry together. Anyone, including undergrads, grad students, and Yale affiliates, is welcome to attend these meetings and become a member of Oye.
Link to our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/oyespokenword/
Sabrosura: Yale’s Undergraduate Premiere Latin Dance Team
Sabrosura is Yale’s Premier Latin Dance Team. Affectionately known as Sabro, Sabrosura is first and foremost a dance family. Founded in 2009 by members of the Dominican Students Association, Sabrosura aims to encourage and celebrate cultural expression through dance styles that largely originate from the Caribbean. We strive to create a space for students interested in Latin dance to learn, create, and teach with the Yale and New Haven communities.
Sabrosura brings together students interested in Latin American dance for the purpose of creating solidarity amongst the various cultures of Latin America. Sabrosura is a student-run organization whose performances feature a variety of musical genres and subgenres, such as salsa, merengue, bachata, and cumbia. Sabrosura culminates each semester in a showcase that features undergraduate students from all across Yale University who are passionate about Latin American dance and committed to enhancing cultural understanding within the Yale community. Auditions are held annually in September.
Yale SACNAS Chapter: Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
The Yale SACNAS chapter is an inclusive group dedicated to fostering the success of URM BIPOC groups, Chicanos/Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, women, gender minorities, and allies from college students to professionals, in attaining advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in STEM.
Contact: ysacnas@gmail.com
Website: https://ysacnas.wixsite.com/ysacnas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ysacnas/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YSACNAS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YSACNAS/
Yale Connect: https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/GSASORGSACNAS/club_signup
SHPE: Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (inactive at La Casa as of Spring 2023)
Hello, we are SHPE, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers chapter at Yale. SHPE is a national organization that connects us and provides amazing opportunities and resources for hispanic engineers. The group is open to all latine STEM students, not only engineering students.
Our goal is to connect with fellow Hispanic STEM students at Yale and promote STEM outreach in the broader New Haven community. We aim to facilitate networking among minorities in STEM majors as well as empower the Hispanic community in New Haven to pursue careers in engineering and the sciences.
SMH: Students of Mixed Heritage (inactive at La Casa as of Fall 2020)
Yale Students of Mixed Heritage is intended to be a space wherein students of more than one heritage, however they choose to self-identify (whether that be racial, ethnic, cultural, national, etc) feel welcome and included in the fullness of their identity. To that end, we are committed to being a bridge between the various cultural houses and student organizations of which our members belong while also creating a space to celebrate the identity unique to being blended or mixed. Our emphasis this year will be on building community.
Sube: Yale Latinx Pre-Professional Student Association
Sube is a student-run organization focused on empowering the Hispanic/Latine community of Yale University to develop professional pursuits in fields where, conventionally, Hispanic and Latine students are underrepresented. Finding a path in the professional world can be both arduous and perplexing, especially when the pool of role models in an industry of choice is saturated with people from dissimilar backgrounds. For this reason, Sube acts as a hub for cultivating interest in various fields and provides resources to its members in an effort to contribute to a new generation of Hispanic/Latine leaders.
Teatro de Yale - Undergraduate Latine Productions
Founded on the principle that the stage is a powerful medium for cultural expression, Teatro de Yale is dedicated to the exploration of Latinidad in the context of the performing arts. Our mission is to amplify the voices of diverse Latino dramatists, offering a platform for their narratives to resonate. Our stage is a space for community, empowerment, and the continual celebration of our cultural tapestry.
Tertulia: La Orquesta Tertulia
La Orquesta Tertulia, in its decades long history, has spread the music, the joy, the vibes of Latin America across Yale and New Haven. Tertulia plays both salsa and merengue, and the band welcomes and celebrates folks of absolutely all cultural and musical backgrounds. We encourage everyone, especially those who have never played or sung salsa or merengue, to join us in exploring and uplifting these beautiful genres and the cultures in which they originate!
