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More than 50 alumni from the United States, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Brazil gathered for "Café con Leche" with the Cornell Latino Alumni Association in Miami April 21.

More than 50 Cornell Latino alumni and friends gathered in Miami for a "Café con Leche with CLAA" (Cornell Latino Alumni Association) networking event April 21.

"Café con Leche" was held in conjunction with the Cornell Law School and the Samuel C. Johnson Graduate School of Management-sponsored Cornell Latin America Alumni Symposium. This third biannual symposium, which attracted alumni from the United States, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Brazil, focused on diverse business, legal and social issues in the region.

While enjoying complimentary Cuban coffee and snacks typical of Miami, "Café con Leche" attendees networked with local and international Latino alumni professionals and learned more about CLAA, which was founded in 1994 to represent and promote the needs and interests of Latino alumni at Cornell and beyond. CLAA's constituency encompasses Cornell's Latino American, Latino Caribbean, Latin American and Latino European alumni, which collectively comprise about 10 percent of the total alumni population, according to CLAA leaders.

Attendees also learned more about the new CLAA executive board members -- those located in Miami: Jonathan Kracer '07, president; Sasha Lopez '10, secretary; and Nicholas Diaz '10, external relations chair; as well as those located in New York: David Suriel '07, vice president; and Kervin Pillot '06, webmaster.

The three Miami executive board members are also on the board of the Cornell Club of Greater Miami and the Florida Keys (CCM), which has about 1,200 members; they worked closely with the CCM to attract local diverse alumni to "Café con Leche."

Sponsored by Cornell's Diversity Alumni Programs and International Alumni Programs, "Café con Leche" welcomed Yve-Car Momperousse, director of Cornell's diversity alumni programs, and Hongnan Ma, director of Cornell's international alumni programs.

"This is a natural progression for Cornell, as it has always been a global institution," said Gladys Margarita Diaz-Jourdain, AAP '81 and '82, a university council member. "Engaging the alumni in this hemisphere will strengthen ties between Cornellians in North and Central America, South America and the Caribbean. It will also provide a platform to expand Latino leadership."

The event also featured remarks by Gustavo Arnavat '84, U.S. executive director of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, with a strong commitment to sustainable development in the region and the reduction of poverty and inequality. Arnavat discussed the importance of the IDB's role, his journey as a Latino Cornellian to his leadership position and how his efforts and activities at the IDB correlate with CLAA's goals of representing and fostering the interests of a broad and diverse Latino constituency.

Jonathan Kracer '07 is president of the Cornell Latino Alumni Association.