La Eracra Coordinator Kamille Anaya ’27 on Mentorship Work and Collaborating with LVL

Nick Cimillo ’26

Managing Editor

Located at 69 Vernon St., La Eracra is one of three cultural houses at Trinity, opened in 1999 as a space for members of Hispanic/Latino communities from on and off-campus to gather, discuss their histories and celebrate their cultures. Overseeing these efforts is the role of La Eracra’s cultural house coordinator, who (as for coordinators of Trinity’s other cultural houses) resides in the house and is responsible for planning events and the space’s upkeep. The Tripod met with Kamille Anaya ’27, La Eracra’s coordinator for this year, to discuss her background, what led her to assuming her current position and what lies ahead for La Eracra. 

Anaya, a first-generation college student, was born to Mexican parents and raised in Houston, Texas. At Trinity, she is a sociology and American studies double major. “I declared sociology before I declared American studies,” she said. “Sociology is very important to me. In the simplest terms, especially when I was a first-year, it helped me understand my positionality in society: that my individual problems are connected to larger social issues.” The addition of American studies came later for Anaya, not only out of an appreciation for history but also because she discovered how well it paired with her first major: “You need to have a historical background for the contemporary issues that we see in this world,” she added.  

In addition to her current role as coordinator for La Eracra, Anaya works as a barista at the Underground Coffeehouse, helped along by her experience working at a coffee shop in Houston. She was also involved with the Hispanic/Latino identity student organization La Voz Latina (LVL) at the start of her Trinity career, when she served as a first-year representative. Despite being two separate entities, La Eracra and LVL maintain a working relationship: LVL’s e-board holds their meetings in La Eracra, and Anaya’s request to become the house’s coordinator went through LVL. “I reached out to LVL to ask for a nomination, and said why I would like to become a cultural house coordinator,” she said. “I was in LVL for a year, and later served as a first-year PRIDE leader, so I was familiar with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.”

“Becoming La Eracra’s cultural house coordinator was very exciting,” she continued, “because with last year’s coordinator, Ashley Lopez ’25, we’ve built this network of students and mentors that help make this place a home away from home. I learned from her past leadership skills and also my past mentorship roles on how to fit into this new role. And as funny as it is, Ashley’s also from Houston.” In addition to mentoring through PRIDE, Anaya does similar work through EMERGE, a Houston-based non-profit organization aimed at helping high school students get into top colleges across the nation. “Think of it like Posse, but for Houston,” she said. “EMERGE helps with things like essay writing, college search and college tours, which can start from sophomore, junior or senior year.” These mentoring efforts also continue through to when these students begin college: “We have a lot of Houston people on campus, but not as many resources,” she said,  “so I also help them navigate the space and also let them know that they have a space here.”

When asked what reasons she had for wanting to become the cultural house coordinator, Anaya said, “I wanted La Eracra to be a safe space.” One method she cited in pursuit of that goal was continuing to strengthen La Eracra’s relationship with LVL, which has already seen some headway. “I want LVL to see this as a space they can utilize,” she said. “This is the third year LVL has done their Cocinando en Casa event in the house, so I’m glad that they chose this space again to facilitate that event. It felt nice having an open house and everyone being welcomed in to grab a bite of food.”

It is community events in conjunction with LVL such as these that Anaya would like to see La Eracra used for. “As cultural house coordinator,” she said, “I would serve more as a host, while LVL can serve more as community connectivity chairs. My role involves staying open to those kinds of ideas.” In the coming days, La Eracra will take part in the College’s annual Halloween on Vernon tradition by hosting a pumpkin painting event.