Grasping his Puerto Rican identity at Mizzou

Nathan Cordero, an MU sophomore journalism major, never needed to count the Latinos around him in Chicago. But as soon as he came to Mizzou, the way he thought about his identity shifted. Now Nathan is a newly inducted member of Lambda Theta Phi, the single Latino fraternity at Mizzou, where he and his brothers recognize the importance of la familia in a town like Columbia.

"Mizzou changed me more than I thought it ever would. Coming into the University of Missouri I had no real expectations. I told myself that I am just continuing my education and going to be at the best journalism school in the world, do my time, get a degree, and then a job in my desired field."

"While I never for a second felt homesick, it did feel weird growing up a kid in the streets of Chicago to now be in this small town of Columbia, being one of the very few minorities around. And among minorities, even fewer being Latino like myself."

"I never had a desire growing up to be around people who looked like me. That's 'cause I never needed too, there is a plethora of Latinx people in Chicago. So although I was slightly aware to belonging to a marginalized identity I never truly grasped it until I came to Mizzou. That's what made me gravitate towards the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), where there were people from similar backgrounds to me. There was an empowering of Latin American culture."

"Then after personally experiencing acts of racism directed towards me and also seeing how black students were being treated (especially last fall), I felt I needed to become more socially aware and take part in advocating for change. It's weird 'cause while my first semester at Mizzou was a time when many students, faculty, and parents of students questioned whether to leave Mizzou due to events such as how Tim Wolfe's resignation unfolded and events related building up to that, my stance was never so. I thought to myself, I have to stay put."

"Being on a primarily white campus, not all these students understand perspectives from people of color or give us a fair shot. I remember speaking to a professor about some of this and saying, yeah, some students are scared and don't want to be here anymore. But I'm the opposite. I have to be here and leave this place better than I found it. So that led me to join the executive board of ALAS. Fast-forward now and I'm the VP!"

"I belong to Lambda Theta Phi. I didn't think I would end up belonging to a fraternity. Originally after meeting some members I thought I would check it out and saw it as a chance to interact with more Latinos. In the end I got so much more out of it. We are a true brotherhood of men that are leaders advocating for changes in our communities. A lot of fraternities on Mizzou's campus you see hundreds of guys belonging to them and the fancy house and all that. Underground parking garages and other luxurious things. Those things don't really speak to me though. I've never really had a lavish lifestyle and also doubted if I'm in a house with 100 dudes that I would feel like "brothers" with all of them. Lambda Theta Phi didn't have any of those things. At our chapter currently we only have 7 members but the true sense of brotherhood is there. I would go to hell and back for my brothers. We are a true familia!"

"My goals in the journalism school at Mizzou are not super defined at this point. I'm still figuring things out but I know I want to be able to tell stories, others' stories and my own. I want to speak through the lens of not just a journalist but a Latino journalist. When I tell people that I want to be a journalist, especially when I tell Latinx my interest is sports journalism, they often just say, oh, like Jorge Ramos? While I have no problems with Ramos it's sad to me that he is the only name that comes up. I'm sure other Latinx kids have the desire to be on ESPN one day like myself. But they watch the sports networks and they rarely see anybody who is Latinx. There are so few role models who can speak to their experience. Especially for me going to a school in a rough neighborhood in Chicago for K-8th grade I remember in 6th grade my teacher said, you kids aren't going to amount to anything. You're worthless. That was a teacher, someone you are supposed to listen to and respect. A lot of kids with rough childhoods in that room, some of them listened to that message. I can't blame them either, especially at that young age you really do just try to do what your instructor says. So some unfortunately took that message to heart."

"I knew I couldn't listen to that bullshit though. At 12-years-old I said, nah, she ain't talking about me. She doesn't know how hard I'm gonna work. She doesn't know the first burning up inside of me to be successful. I didn't know it at the time but around my senior year of high school one day I said, hold up...I did some reflecting. My mom has never really supported my aspirations for journalism but my dad does. He would always tell me, son, your grades are your grades, you earned them, they're not for us. What you do with your life is what you do. Keep your head up. While there is a lot of truth in that I said this whole dream to make it as a journalist ain't just about me. Growing up in Chicago I saw a lot of kids growing up in the hood, fed with negative messages from schools, parents, the news, and everyone else. Hell, I just pointed out that I was one of them. So I decided that one day, once I start making it in the industry, have some success and some people actually know who Nathan Cordero is, I have to go back to these kids growing up in the hood, the ones who were just like me and tell them, hey, I made it here and so can you."