Marquette’s Lambda Alpha Upsilon Fraternity hosted their probate to welcome “F5 R.Y.A,” the founding class, on April 11.
Fernando Torres, president of LAU and junior in the College of Engineering, said LAU is a Latino–oriented Greek fraternity that promotes the principles of brotherhood, scholarship and community service.
“Lambda Alpha Upsilon, is a fraternity that supports not just Latinos — in terms of ourselves — but everyone else in the pursuit of higher education,” Torres said.
Mario Lopez Saldana, secretary and public relations chair of LAU and sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said their main goal is to also unite the Latino community.
“We want to invite a strong solid base for Latino culture,” Lopez Saldana said. “Supporting each other personally and academically, while establishing a professional manner and expanding our brotherhood to an international level.”
The probate that occurred on April 11, consisted of skits — that were specific to LAU mentors — and guitar and a-capella performances to help showcase LAU.
“We wanted to show the new incoming line for LAU and allow them to get to know us and see who we are,” Dorien Vazquez, social media and marketing chair of LAU and first-year in the College of Arts & Sciences. “We wanted to show where we are from and who we represent.”
Edwin Miranda, treasurer and events coordinator of LAU and sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the main goal was to truly showcase LAU’s values as a fraternity.
“We also wanted to present our cultures separately,” Miranda said. “We have one Guatemalan and four Mexicans, we wanted to express that in our new member presentation. We also kept it very traditional, and invited other organizations on campus to come in order for more people to know about us.”
“F5 R.Y.A,” was the line name chosen for this founding class. Torres said a lot of compromising and communication goes into picking the name.
“We wanted to really think about how we wanted to be represented,” Torres said. “’F5 R.Y.A,’ means ‘founding five and raíces y alas’ which means roots and wings in Spanish.”
Angel Serna Romero, vice-president of LAU and sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said Marquette’s LAU chapter came to be with the help of an academic advisor in the Educational Opportunity Program.
“We are all a group of friends, and we thought ‘this is something cool and new we can bring on campus,’” Serna Romero said. “We know that they have been wanting to bring LAU to Marquette before COVID, but we really picked up this motion last semester. It has definitely been a long journey.”
In order to become a member of LAU, Lopez Saldana said the key part is dedication and consistently upholding the values that LAU has, especially community service.
“I am passionate about a lot of things, and being able to put my passion in LAU has been great, especially because I really care about community service,” Lopez Saldana said. “Being a member and having a platform will definitely help me achieve that at a higher level.”
Now that the five members are officially in LAU, Torres said the future will be to continue to work to build a strong foundation.
“The biggest things ahead of us are becoming an official student organization on campus, working with both Greek and non-Greek organizations, participating and volunteering. We are ready to hit the ground running, and to put ourselves out there,” Torres said.
Torres also added that joining LAU was something bigger than just joining an organization on campus.
“Joining LAU in a way is tapping into another community and making sure that I can also put back into the world what I have been given. I want to be that person that members can come to me for anything.”
This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].
