Andres Galindo

UWRT 1101-041
Mrs. Thomas
18 November, 2014

LASO, the Latino Organization.

There was not much I had to change about my paper. I had to develop a little more in certain
parts of my paper. There were a couple of other things I had to add to this paper and there were
things I had to cross out because they affected the flow of my paper.

The Latin America student organization, best known as LASO is a UNCC-based

discourse community whose main purpose is to help Latin American students to succeed in
college, while representing the Latin American culture in UNCC. This organization meets every
Tuesday at 7pm at the Student Union. Not many people know about the existence of this
organization, nor do they know about the goals and requirements within it. The first time I heard
about LASO was during my freshman orientation, I signed up because I was interested in being
part of this group. However, when the semester started I was not able to attend the meetings
since I had a really busy schedule and I was trying to adjust to college. Now, as I have adjusted
to college, Im able to attend more meetings than before. The reason I chose to write a paper on
this discourse community is that I have a profound interest on being a member of this group
since Im also Latin American, and would like to share a bond with the people from my own
culture. My goal is to analyze this group as a discourse community by applying Swales six
characteristics, attending the weekly meetings, and making interviews in order to explain this
groups goals and get rid of any misconceptions about this group.

During the meetings I went to, I had the chance to interview the president of LASO,
Evelyn Cordero, and some of the members of the organization. She was a really nice, young lady
from Nicaragua. Cordero told me about all the opportunities that LASO offers for Latin
American students at UNCC, and how they were trying to gather more and more Latinos in order
to strengthened the Latino Community at Charlotte. From what I heard, about 2000 Latinos
attend UNCC, which according to what Cordero said, was a higher number than previous years.
However, many of these students drop out of school early in their college career which leads to
the creation of special organizations such as LASO to help them succeed. Another thing that
LASO does, according to Cordero, is providing a lot of community service in order to help those
who are in need. Cordero explained that homelessness is a fast-growing problem in Charlotte and
that help must be provided for those who, for one reason or another, lost their home.
When I attended LASOs meeting for the first time, I felt like I was walking to a
completely different world. Latin music was being used as the background in the room and some
people were singing while others were having conversations. Handouts were given to the people
as they entered the room, and a sign-up sheet was in the table for those who wanted to provide
their emails. The room was full of joy and happiness, but I still felt like an outsider since I did
not know anyone in the group. However, as time progressed in the meeting, I started to feel more
comfortable with the members of the group. During the meeting, I saw that the members
gathered several cans of food that were directed to a shelter in Charlotte. On top of that, some
things were discussed between the president and the organizations members. Apparently,
elections are coming up in LASO, the position of historian and coordinator of social media are
open for those who want to take charge of those positions. Another thing I observed while being

in the meeting is that there are people from different ethnicities, not only Latinos. LASO is open
to anyone who wants to join, not only Latin American students.
LASO works well as a discourse community for several reasons. Ever since I started
going to LASO, I was able to recognize the common goals of this group. Although I mentioned
them before, I would like to clarify them in a deeper way for emphasis purposes. The overall
goal of this group is to promote the Latin American culture in the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte. While doing this, LASO also creates bonds between Latin American students in order
to make them feel as if they are not alone and they have people from the same culture around
them. LASO not only provides help for Latinos but also helps to form a unified community by
helping people to succeed.
There are also many misconceptions that people have toward this type of organization.
For example, they think that this organization is only for Hispanics. For this reason, many people
are afraid of joining groups like this. However, this is a false idea because LASO is open to
everyone who desires to participate in this group. Another misconception that people might have
is that they think that everything that happens in LASO is said in Spanish. This is not true since
many of the Latinos in LASO were actually born in The United States and speak fluently in both
English and Spanish.
LASO is a very organized group; the leaders make sure that all of the members within the
group are aware of what events are happening on a certain week. Also, LASO always keeps its
members informed about the meetings and how to prepare for the meetings prior attending. Since
its not easy to keep everyone informed, the leaders of LASO make sure to keep track of all the
emails of its members. Even if someone is not a member of LASO, they give you the option to

provide your email. They do not force you to provide your email unless you are really interested
in participating in the group.
Not everyone that goes to the meeting is a member of LASO. Theres a fee you have to
pay in order to be a member. Of course, when you pay the fee and become a member of LASO
you still have to go to the meetings at least once a month. The membership allows you to
participate in every activity that LASO does, whether that be going to help people in a shelter or
going to an event that LASO hosts. Another benefit of being a member of LASO and attending
the meeting is that you can obtain experience and leadership skills that are needed in your job
and career. All of this would be, as Swales would say, a participatory mechanism for this group.
LASO utilizes different genres to communicate its goals and activities to its members and
to people who want join this organization. For example, LASO has a website which contains
information concerning the purpose of LASO and the people that run this group. LASO also has
a Twitter page (@lasouncc), Facebook page, and Instagram page to show pictures and comments
about the events LASO organizes. While being at the meetings I could see that, from time to
time, they used words that Im not used to hear all the time. Swales would call this specific
lexis, it does not necessarily mean that I had no idea of what they were talking about, but since
a lot of people in that group are from different Latin American countries, there are certain words
in Spanish that are different from country to country. For example, in Ecuador the word pana
means Friend but in other parts of Latin America the same word does not have any meaning.
Furthermore, in LASO theres a good amount of people that have been part of the
organization for 2 or 3 years, and theres people that are new to the organization. When I was in
the meeting, there were about 10 people that were previously in the group and about 16 that were
new. Usually the new people are freshman that joined this year, and the people that have been in

LASO for a longer time are usually upperclassmen. I got the chance to interview one of the
newbies. Her name is Destiny Green and she is a freshman that decided to join this organization
at the beginning of the year. I asked her to give me a general idea of what the meetings consisted
of, to what she responded: We talk about Latinos in general, things that are good for us, and
things that can challenge us. We host events and we get back to the community. She seemed
really excited and proud of forming part of LASO. I also asked her what her future was going to
be like as a part of LASO, she responded that: I want to stay in LASO my 4 years of college,
and next year I want to try for a position within this group.
In conclusion, after reviewing Swales characteristics of a discourse community, and
after attending meetings and making interviews with members of LASO, I can attest that LASO
is a good example of a discourse community. It follows all the characteristics necessary and
forms a community of people who have a similar purpose, which is to represent the Latin
American culture in our society and help Latin American students to develop as individuals at
this University.

Works Cited
Cordero, Evelyn. LASO, the Latino organization. Personal interview. 11. Nov.2014
Green, Destiny. LASO, the Latino organization. Personal interview. 7Nov. 2014
Swales, John. The concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Workplace settings. Boston, Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.