Student organizations will celebrate their Latin and Hispanic culture and traditions in an annual monthlong celebration after student leaders refurbished the event planning process to include events from a wider range of student groups.
This year’s Latin Heritage Celebration, centered around the theme, “Herencia Unites, Cultura Ignites,” launched Sept. 15 with a kickoff event titled “Meet La Familia,” a Latin and Hispanic student organization fair, where students met many cultural student organizations on campus. Adriana Hernandez Jimenez, the president of the Organization of Latin American Students, said the LHC planning committee started planning this year’s celebration last semester instead of the beginning of the school year like previous years to allow more opportunities for more student groups to participate and acquire funding and spaces on campus.
The heritage celebration will culminate with “Fiestasa” on Oct. 19, a party at Opera Ultra Lounge, hosted by OLAS.
Hernandez said her organization began reaching out to Latin-based organizations like LATAM@GW and UndocuGW last semester to form this year’s committee and to get a head start on planning the celebration. She added that OLAS realized that starting the planning process for LHC during the same semester as the event takes place did not provide enough time to coordinate logistics like booking spaces and acquiring money for the events.
“We noticed the year before that when it came to LHC planning, since we’re just starting celebratory month or heritage month, we have minimal planning time if we start during the regular school year,” Hernandez said. “So school starts in August, but then we only have about a month and then our celebration starts, so that leaves us with a very tight turnaround to both plan events, ask for funding and reserve spaces.”
Hernandez said LHC is designed to give students the space to embrace their Latin backgrounds and identities, as well as establish a presence of Latin Americans on campus.
“When it comes to OLAS, it’s really aligned with our mission of uniting students with a community,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said having grown up in a predominantly Mexican community, she enjoys the opportunity to learn more about the “cohesion” of Latin cultures between other students because they have different experiences depending on which states they are from.
“Coming from the West Coast, we’re very Mexican heavy, so the East Coast definitely does show a different Latin community, and it’s been amazing to learn about different foods, different customs and different cultures as we all come together at GW,” Hernandez said.
Javier Orellana, the co-president of UndocuGW, an organization that advocates for undocumented students and students facing immigration-related issues, said the LHC planning committee worked to ensure all Latinos were included on campus by being mindful about using Hispanic, Latin and Latinx when promoting events.
“Herencia means the heritage from our ancestors and that feeling of all of us coming from one place, it sort of unites us together,” Orellana said. “Then cultura, we all know that it’s different for each country but that at the same time, it sort of ignites that unity from herencia to continue moving forward.”
Orellana said they hosted the event, “Empoderate: Latines Vote Matters” last Tuesday because UndocuGW wanted to encourage Latin American students to register to vote after the District started allowing noncitizens and international students to vote in local elections in 2022.
“Empoderate: Latines Vote Matters” took place on the first floor of the University Student Center and coincided with National Voter Registration Day, a holiday dedicated to registering people to vote in time for the upcoming election. The event featured tabling from organizations including GW Votes, a nonpartisan group that promotes voter registration and participation and free donuts, candy and stickers.
Orellana said his organization will host “Latine Heritage Month Parade Celebration” for the first time during this year’s celebration, a parade with all Latin-based student organizations on campus that will make two or three laps around Kogan Plaza.
The parade will also feature attendees sporting different Latin American flags and face painting, accompanied by live music and dance performances.
Camila Lopez, the president of LATAM@GW, an organization focused on bringing together students with an interest in Latin America and the Caribbean, said the LHC planning committee focused on highlighting the diversity of the Latin campus community in the planning process.
“Not all Latin students or Latin people in general are the same, and there’s a lot of different aspects of Latin culture that we can emphasize,” Lopez said.
Lopez said fostering community through traditions like the LHC helps students stay connected to their culture while away from home. She said participation in events this month is not limited to students of Latin American descent, and anyone with an interest in exploring the diverse cultures is encouraged to get involved.
“The first thing is just kind of building this community and making sure that people know what’s available to them, especially freshmen who are just joining campus or people who just haven’t noticed it before,” Lopez said. “Opening up the space for them to be able to truly feel at home in this month and feel like they’re connecting more to their culture.”
Avril Silva, the president of the GW Association of Hispanic Journalists and a Hatchet reporter, said her organization is planning an event called “Beyond the Classroom: Latino Student Identity and Civic Impact in Today’s America” on Sept. 27 in Jack Morton Auditorium, which will feature a panel with Omar García-Ponce, an associate professor of political science and international affairs, Antonio Lopez, the English department chair, and Priscilla Alvarez, a CNN correspondent who covers the White House. She said the panelists will discuss how Latin Americans are making significant contributions in civic and academic spheres.
“It’s really important for people to see that we are in these spaces,” Silva said. “And it’s not just for some diversity quota. It’s like, yes, they deserve to be there.”
First-year Salvador Perez said transitioning to a school with a predominantly white student body has been an adjustment since he had limited interactions with white people while growing up in New York City. Perez said he attended “Meet La Familia” because he wants to find a sense of belonging on campus.
“I just wanted to meet more Hispanic people and have a community here where I felt at home,” Perez said.
Brooke Forgette and Jennifer Igbonoba contributed reporting.
