La Casita

Mission

Given that CSUDH is designated as a Hispanic-Serving-Institution (HSI), La Casita embraces the HSI Servingness Model (Garcia et al., 2019) where we hope students are not only enrolled but served through holistic and humanizing approach.

La Casita serves as the cultural home to support the personal, academic, and professional success of Latina/o/x/e Students at CSU Dominguez Hills.La Casita provides peer-to-peer support, culturally affirming programs, one-on-one student consejos sessions and experiences to challenge Latinidad. Our resources include a focus on academic and career readiness, social justice, community building, and embracing our identidad, arte, and cultura.

We are located on the first floor of the LSU in room 110. Come visit us!

Vision

The LCRC or La Casita is committed to creating inclusive spaces that disrupt forms of systemic oppression, empower students in their pursuit of radical knowledge and social justice, and embrace the complexity of Latinidad and Latinx identities.

As an anti-racist center, La Casita affirms the experiences of Afro-Indigenous Peoples, Peoples from Central America, South America, the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. Inspired by El Comité, La Casita aims to prioritize student advocacy and provide student-focused support.

History

In February 2020, a group of Latinx students at California State University, Dominguez Hills formed a group called, El Comite de CSUDH to propose the development of a Resource Center for Latinx students. El Comite successfully defended their list of demands and received approval for the development of a Latinx Resource Center.

The Latinx Cultural Resource Center (LCRC) began its online programming in the Spring of 2021. As CSUDH students began to visit the LCRC, they expressed how they were reminded of their home and how the space feels warmth and welcomes all students so they decided to give a new nickname to the center, “La Casita.” 

Why we embrace Latinx Terminology:

The term “Latino” has often excluded Queer, Trans, Non-binary communities. We use the term “Latinx” as a form to create inclusivity and challenge the term itself as we move forward to create brave spaces. Additionally, the “X” in Latinx aims to disrupt the gender norms and binaries embedded within the Spanish language (Gonzalez, 2022). We encourage authenticity and invite everyone to self-identify with their own sense of being.