Sitting in his office on the first floor of Center Hall, Julio Enríquez-Ornelas ’08 breaks into a smile while thinking of the tasks ahead and the familiarity of what he’s trying to build.
“This is really happening,” he says. “I’ve been imagining what the day is going to be like, what the programming will look like, and thinking of how others are getting excited.”
As the College’s new director of Latino partnerships, he serves as an advisor to La Alianza, the Wabash student organization dedicated to celebrating Latin American culture. He will also direct activities at the new Latino Community Center; and works to form meaningful partnerships with Latino community members in Montgomery County.
Enríquez-Ornelas is familiar with the needs because he has a lot in common with the students he’s leading and mentoring now. Twenty years ago, he arrived on campus from Salinas, California, as a first-generation college student.
Fighting homesickness, he wasn’t thinking of building community when he got involved with Unidos Por Sangre, the campus precursor to La Alianza. He simply wanted a feeling of home, even though his home was 2,300 miles west. He joined the handful of guys who regularly came to the meetings and worked to create that feeling.
“How can I do that here at Wabash?” he asked back then.
It’s a question he is asking today as well. Enríquez-Ornelas has come a long way since uttering that question long ago. He graduated as a double major in English and Spanish; earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside; and eventually became a tenured faculty member at Millikin University.
He returned to Wabash in 2023 as a visiting associate professor of Spanish before assuming his current appointment last year. Enríquez-Ornelas knows that the recognition of La Alianza and the completion of the Latino Cultural Center in the fall of 2025 are incredibly meaningful.
“Latino students and allies have been advocating for this for a really long time,” he says. “To finally have this recognition through action, to become integrated into the community in a real and institutionalized way, is very special.”
His goal in growing the Latino Community Center and mentoring La Alianza members starts with support. Creating trust with students is the essential piece of a puzzle that includes the many needs of the community that surrounds campus.
“I want to be a point of contact, to help them brainstorm and share their dreams,” he says. “I want to support them rather than trying to push them in a particular direction. Understanding the many needs of the community is something I’m wrapping my head around, and how we represent Wabash in a way that we are building and sustaining partnerships with the community, but also sustaining our commitment to our students.”
The effort can be seen in the early programming offerings, some ongoing like the English conversation tables in partnership with the Crawfordsville Adult Resource Academy (CARA), or the outreach of individual members with bilingual classes at local elementary schools. Others, like Los Pequeños Gigantes—the Wabash mariachi ensemble—aim to form a combined group from local high schools with plans to begin practices this spring.
Enríquez-Ornelas wants students to realize that they are building community. That the effort they are putting in, no matter the size, has a lasting impact. And they are doing it right now.
The work ties him to his home state of Michoacán in Mexico and to Salinas. He remembers neighbors, teachers, and friends providing subtle reminders that they were part of a community that cares. Enríquez-Ornelas is quick to point out that he benefited from that support and learned to understand the responsibility that comes with that support.
“It’s important to love your community,” he says. “It’s important to take care of your community and to accept that responsibility.”
He takes comfort from knowing that connection to community has always been a part of his life, and as he’s grown, it’s been a staple of his work as well.
“The notion of community is always helping, looking out for one another,” he says. “If the community succeeds, you succeed. In some ways, seeing the immigrant experience of Latinos here in Crawfordsville, it makes me think of my own experience when I was an immigrant.”
Enríquez-Ornelas feels good about the progress that’s been made. He quickly points to the work of the students and to colleagues on campus who have helped with new initiatives, such as the regular Tacos with Alumni gatherings, film screenings, and a Dia de los Muertos talent show on campus, as well as support of the Montgomery County Leadership Academy and Indiana Latino Institute college and career fairs in the greater community.
“From the start, it was, ‘Let’s get going with programming,’” he says. “I want to keep this energy and momentum going. Those who are consistently a part of the things we’re doing can see the baby steps and the growth. My hope is that the work we’re doing now will serve as the foundation to how we operate as a community center.”
Interactions with students have brought Enríquez-Ornelas to a full-circle moment, in which his experiences since graduating have prepared him to impact a new generation of Wabash students and the surrounding community.
“My goals and purpose are aligned,” he explains. “I feel like I’m living the mission. Being back here, I’m living it in a meaningful way and doing it at the site where these guys are learning to impact community themselves.”
Save the date: Latino Community Center Dedication on Friday, September 26, 2025.