ΦIA
The Beta Iota Chapter at The University of South Carolina
Origins
The roots of Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity were implanted at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY in 1898. A group of Latin American students organized the Union Hispano Americana as a cultural and intellectual secret society based on the ideology of Pan-Americanism. The immediate goals of the UHA were to provide a cultural environment for students of Latin America and Spain. The UHA was the first association of Latin American students ever founded in the United States. In the northeastern part of the United States, a group of Latin American students decided to organize a cultural and intellectual fraternity, as a result Pi Delta Phi Latino Fraternity was founded at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916. Shortly after its foundation, Pi Delta Phi initiated a search to expand to other colleges and universities where they became aware of the existence of other similar organizations.
Pi Delta Phi then established communications with Phi Lambda Alpha Latino Fraternity, which had been recently founded in 1919 at the University of California, at Berkeley. As a result of intensive correspondence and various interviews, the three organizations merged. In their merger agreement, the three organizations adopted the name of Phi Lambda Alpha Latino Fraternity, with the distinctive emblem & constitution of Pi Delta Phi, and the goals & motto of the UHA. Meanwhile, in the southern part of the U.S. another similar organization was under development. Sigma Iota was founded on November 27, 1904 in Louisiana State University as a secret society for Spanish-American students under the name La Colonia Hispano-Americana. They decided to officially changed its name to Sigma Iota Fraternity. This name change allowed for the official transformation from a Latin American social club to Latin American Greek Lettered Fraternity. Between 1912 and 1925, Sigma Iota expanded very rapidly and thereby became the first international latino fraternity of Latin American students.
Consolidation
Founding
In December of 1931, the most profound historical event in the history of Latino Fraternities took place in Troy, NY. Delegates from Phi Lambda Alpha Latino Fraternity and Sigma Iota Latino Fraternity assembled with the objective of forming a strong and extensive Fraternity to address the needs of Latin Americans in universities in the U.S. On December 26, 1931, the first day of a three-day convention, Phi Iota Alpha Latino Fraternity was born as both groups agreed on the merger contract to unify under one name, one banner, one organization and one ideal.
