Multicultural Greek Traditions/Terms

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 20
Occupation: Research Coordinator
Residence: N/A USC
Performance Date: 4/20/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

The participant is marked as X. I am marked as LJ.

LJ: What can you tell me about Latino Greek Organizations.

X: So, Multicultural Greek Organizations, not all of them, but some of them…have historically been founded with the help of the National Pan Hellenic Council or people who are members of the National Pan Hellenic Council…also known as the Divine 9. So the original 9 historically black Creek lettered organizations, um…so what separates multicultural Greek organizations and the or you see on the Row are that…the multicultural organizations are culturally based. so, their practices and the things that they work on are in relation to their cultural heritage. This can be in the programs that they put on or in the values that they live on.

And within these, um, organizations there this certain slang that is used. There’s an entire culture. but part of the slang is burning sands. Sands are people from different organizations that become members in the same semester and year…this is also known as crossing

Context:

The participant and I were having a general conversation when this came up. This was recorded then.

The participant is part of the Multicultural Greek community and has first hand knowledge about how to use these terms.

Background:

The participant is a student at the University of Southern California. They were raised in a Mexican/Catholic household.

Analysis:

 There is a lot of different levels to the terms that Latino/Multicultural Greek Organization use. It helps differentiate between who is part of the Greek and non-Greek communities. The traditional “on the Row”  Greeks may fall within the non-Greek sphere for some since so many of the traditions are so different. These organizations have a deep history and pride in their own traditions that do  not belong to other organizations.

There is also an obvious link between the traditionally Black Greek Organizations and the Latino based ones. It parallels the dual cultures that have emerged as these two groups have constantly been near each other and have had to fight similar battles.