Letter from the Editor: Continuing HPLR’s Mission

Dear HPLR staff,

The moment I stepped onto Columbia campus, it felt like home. Perhaps it was the emblematic school colors that reflected off the expansive blue sky, the campus edifices mirroring classic Greek architecture, or the diverse student body to which I’m proud to share these delights. However, I soon came to realize the beauty of this campus we call home is in the staggering array of voices that resides within its gates. 

Yet a home is more than a comfortable place to stay, but one that  holds many responsibilities. We all reside under the same roof, held up by the architecture of the law, which exists beyond our politics and governments. The law is insular, yet it implicates all facets of life in its intricacies. When we debate the law, we debate our personal morals and philosophies, as well as the shared values that keep our home intact. 

In our Hispanic  communities, the law has often existed as collective trauma, something unapproachable, futile, and in a way Kafka-esque. One of my goals as Co-Editor-In-Chief is to help you make the law approachable, for ourselves, and for those we love and strive to impact. As an outlet and a benchmark, each published work, each conversation we share, brings us one step closer to the “American Dream,” a tale long told by our ancestors for generations. 

My time as an English major at Columbia has taught me to listen carefully to the tales of the greats, and equally to those of my peers. As an Editor-In-Chief of HPLR, I serve to listen to those voices, heard and unheard, and to guide you in your pursuits of what the law is, and what it maintains. Once we recognize and acknowledge the law is our own, we have an obligation to tend to it, criticize it, and strive to perfect its recognition of all walks of life. I pledge to work alongside you as we move from being residents of this system, and become architects of our own spaces. 

Abrazos, 

Rafael Vanuno

Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Hispanic Pre-Law Review