In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we take a look at the different Hispanic heritages on campus.
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Even though the celebration of heritage ended yesterday, students and professors at Ohio University reflect on the cultures and traditions that form who they are and inform how they interact with others on campus.
Emilia Alonso Sameño and Alex Marks
Heritage isn’t just something a person is born into, it’s shaped by where they live, at least, that’s what Emilia Alonso Sameño, professor of Spanish and graduate chair, believes.
Born and raised in Seville, Spain, Sameño considers herself Spanish, but she has lived in Athens since 1996 and became a United States citizen in 2012.
“I feel like an American, and I’ve connected to life here,” she said. “If you move to another place, and you don’t live in the other country and experience it fully, you miss out on so much. I don’t think people can be happy if they don’t connect with where they’re at.”
Heritage is something that is lived daily, Sameño explained.
“The way I move, the way I express myself, the way I dress, the way I do things; it reveals where I’m from.”
Defining what it means to be Hispanic or trying to describe how someone is ‘supposed’ to look is impossible, she said.
“We are so varied in our own countries and spread out around the world; There is no ‘look.’”
Someone’s heritage isn’t something you realize upon meeting him or her, said Alex Marks, a senior studying political science and Sameño’s daughter.
“If people meet me, they assume one thing, and until you’ve been in my house, you wouldn’t know I was Spanish,” she said. “You don’t get to see it every day, but it’s important. It’s something that I don’t want to lose.”
Marks said growing up in a multicultural home is an experience she wants to pass on to her future family. She said being multicultural challenges what it means to be an American and has opened her up to new experiences.
“It just makes you a more open-minded person to whatever life throws at you,” she said. “In terms of future relationships, if people can’t make an effort to learn Spanish and try to be in love with the culture as I am, that’s not going to work out.”
One of the traditions Sameño has been sure to implement at home is cooking as many traditional Spanish dishes as she can. Spanish food has a distinct flavor and smell, and Sameño said she loves to overwhelm her senses with smells from home. It is more difficult to make particular dishes in Athens, so finding substitutes is important, she added.
The traditions that are the hardest to recreate are the subtle differences in lifestyle, Sameño said.
“In our country, when we meet or greet someone, we kiss and hug, and it’s welcoming and warm,” she said. “I crave that. I call them sacred things, because you notice you don’t have them when you lose them.”
Alicia Sanchez Flores
As a graduate student from Seville, Spain who is studying Spanish, Hispanic Heritage Month is a brand new concept for Alicia Sanchez Flores.
“I am more aware of my nationality here,” she said. “We don’t celebrate a month for our heritage, since we live it day-to-day.”
She has been a student at Ohio University since 2012 and has gone home at least twice a year. She is graduating in December and will be heading back to Spain.
Since being in the states, Flores said the most common stereotype she has encountered doesn’t have to deal with immigration or a political issue, instead, it’s the belief that she is Mexican.
“It doesn’t bother me, but people ask me about that all the time, and I’m not,” she said.
Miguel Gomez
Miguel Gomez, a senior studying astrophysics, was born in Mexico City, but his parents migrated to Virginia when he was two.
“I have close relatives in Mexico City and other cities in Mexico, and the last time I went back was three years ago,” he said. “Seeing my family again, you don’t take it for granted, and whenever we all get together, we celebrate all of the birthdays we’ve missed.”
As a first-generation college student, making the transition to college and being six hours from his family was a little tough, but Gomez said staying in communication with his family made the transition easier. When he’s missing a taste of home, Gomez said he can head to Kroger for some taco ingredients, which he’s made for his roommates.
Gomez is the president of the Latino Student Union and said he hopes to promote Hispanic heritage on campus by holding events for holidays such as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which takes place Nov. 1.
Ramon Mendez
Ramon Mendez, a graduate student studying Spanish and a Spanish TA, was born in the United States but lived in Mexico for 20 years before moving back to the states five years ago for school. He first attended a community college in Texas before heading to Disney World for an eight month internship program.
While there, he met his future wife, Brittany, and they married this summer. They made the decision that Mendez would transfer to OU in 2012.
Since moving to OU, Mendez has been teaching his friends about his culture.
“I try to tell my friends about the Mexican Independence Day and try to do something to make them excited,” he said.
Teaching Spanish classes has given Mendez the opportunity to see the types of misconceptions students may have about the Spanish world, such as the very use of the word ‘Hispanic.’
The term ‘Hispanic’ generalizes all cultures in Central, Latin, South American and Spanish countries, Mendez said.
“In my classes, people assume that everyone is going to be the same, but I don’t define myself as Hispanic,” he said. “I’m Mexican, not just Hispanic, and that’s a misconception.”
Daniel Torres
Daniel Torres, an OU Spanish professor, was 23 when he first left Puerto Rico.
“I had the plan that I would finish school (in New York) in two years and go back to Puerto Rico to be a writer, but one thing led to another, and I stayed,” he said.
Now, Torres has been teaching in America for 30 years.
Though he may be far from his home in Puerto Rico, there are similarities between the Caribbean culture and the Appalachian culture, he said.
“I miss the smell of the island, the ocean and the weather, but I am from the hills in Puerto Rico and the parallel between here and there is similar,” he said. “We are not so far removed, and since we’re all humans, we have felt similar hardships.”
Torres said one of the biggest topics of conversation that happen when talking about Puerto Rico is the political status.
Puerto Rico is a free state that is a territory of the United States, so they are not independent, but they are American citizens by birth.
“We are in a political limbo,” he said. “People think we have green cards, but we have American passports and just happen to speak Spanish.”
Most of his family is in Puerto Rico, and Torres said he tries to visit as much as possible.
“It’s a privilege to be a Puerto Rican,” he said. “I am very proud (of my heritage), and wherever I go, I am first and foremost a Puerto Rican.
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