Cambio conference heralds change

Growing community tackles problems, fleshes out ideas

By Diego Sorbara and Cristina García
Adelante staff writers

JULIO URDANETA/Adelante Cambio de Colores III drew more than 300. From left: University of Nevada law professor Sylvia Lazos, conference co-chair Kay Gasen, UM Extension Director Tom Henderson, co-chair Domingo Martinez and UM President Elson Floyd.

St. Louis stood at a crossroads on March 12, 1803, when it was passed from Spain to France and then to the United States. The anniversary of that momentous shift served as the start and the symbolic frame for the third annual Cambio de Colores conference as more than 300 academics, policymakers and grassroots activists met to take a hard look at the issues confronting the state’s growing Hispanic population.
From racial profiling to an incipient problem with gang violence, speakers detailed the problems and issued a call to action. But beyond the bad news, the conference was the springboard for action and for new ideas. MU President Elson Floyd used the occasion to announce that discussions have begun about creating a Latino studies program at the university. Missouri Assistant Attorney General James Klahr was there, committing to work with Latino leaders to combat racial profiling. And the growing numbers of attendees — this year’s participant list exceeded last year’s by 50 — reflected an increasingly influential Latino support community.
That community includes everyone working on immigrant issues, “whether you’re brown on the outside or brown on the inside,” in the words of University of Nevada law professor Sylvia Lazos. The conference has served to foster that community on many levels, said Lazos, who co-founded the Cambio de Colores project as a visiting professor at the University of Missouri.
“The process of building community is a process of building knowledge, and it’s a process of building a community of action,” Lazos told the group. “Believe me, those words are not in law books — I come to learn from you, and you come to learn from me; you learn a couple of legal words and I learn a couple of help words and all together this type of knowledge spills over to all of our lives. I hope each of you who comes to these conferences takes this home with you and puts it into action.”
Some of those who have already taken action shared their stories — people like Mayor Patricia York from St. Charles, Mo., who co-founded the Amigos of St. Charles project in an effort to embrace the rapid influx of Latino immigrants in that area. And people like Janette García, who built a thriving network of Latina Girl Scouts across Central Missouri in just a year.
“People are learning what has worked in a particular community,” said Dolores Arce-Kaptain, who co-chaired last year’s conference in Kansas City. “They do lots of great networking, learn what’s working and take it back to their community.”
Christina Vásquez Case said the results speak to the success of the conference.
She said people took the research that was presented in the first and second year of the conference and have gotten grants and have made policy changes.
“It’s making a difference,” Case said with a smile as she packed up after the conference.

For a collection of panelists, programs and papers emanating from the Cambio de Colores series, see www.cambiodecolores.org.