From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month will be observed and celebrated across the country. According to the National Museum of the American Latino, the celebration began in the ‘60s as a week-long event and was extended to a full month in 1988. Many organizations contribute to recognizing the month at Ohio University, one of which is the Latino Student Union, or LSU.
“We aim to create events and have meetings where Hispanic students can connect with each other on campus because there’s not a ton of us, but I think LSU really tries to highlight Hispanic excellence,” Fiorella Barros, a junior studying political science pre-law and Spanish and the president of LSU, said.
One of the Hispanic Heritage Month events run by LSU will be Fiesta Latina, a night of dancing and Spanish music at The Union, located at 18 W Union St. Sept. 20. Acie Clayborne III, the assistant director for multicultural student programs at OU, referred to Fiesta Latina as the signature event of the month.
“The main thing we’re trying to do with the heritage months is to provide some sort of consistent programming across all of them … the basics are going to be our opening event, we’ll have a couple recurring collaborations and then we’ll have a signature event and a closing event,” Clayborne said.
The opening event for Hispanic Heritage Month this year is a cookout on South Beach, followed by a month of movie screenings, workshops, expos and a final reception Oct. 15. There will also be Hispanic food options at dining spots across campus throughout the month, emphasizing cultural importance of cuisine that LSU hopes to celebrate through a potluck.
“We all have our native dishes so it’s fun to … learn about each other's culture, but also there’s a lot of crossover,” Barros said. “I feel like a lot of countries have a lot of dishes with plantains, and so it’s fun to see … different names for the same dishes.”
Some of the workshops throughout the month will be led by Muriel Gallego, an associate professor of applied linguistics focusing on Spanish. Among her many duties, Gallego serves on the planning committee for Hispanic Heritage Month and teaches Introduction to Latinx Studies.
“During the month we are going to watch videos and read some articles, hear some podcasts,” Gallego said. “This class does not have a textbook so I use media in general … so we’re going to be covering all that for the better part of the month.”
Gallego hopes the events she helped plan will encourage a sense of community for Hispanic students in ways that will help fight against institutionalized and societal prejudices.
“Latinx students experience a lot of racism and a lot of discrimination at OU and outside of OU, and so their strategy … is to not disclose their heritage,” Gallego said. “So my hope … is that the students feel they belong as much as anybody else at OU, so they can call OU home as much as everybody else.”
Born in Ecuador and primarily raised in New York City, Barros described moving to Ohio as a “culture shock,” affirming Gallego’s observations about the lives of Hispanic students at OU.
“Suddenly I was under this microscope and I had to be the one educating or the one that stood out essentially,” Barros said. “That didn’t always make me feel great, but now I take so much pride in my Hispanic heritage because it’s one of the most beautiful parts about myself.”
Gallego’s personal experience and relationship to her Hispanic heritage offer a different perspective, one that sheds light on the widespread societal ignorance surrounding the difference between race and ethnicity.
“My positionality in the community is that I am an immigrant but I’m also white, so it gives me privilege over other Hispanics and Latinos … so my way of celebrating is staying quiet and honoring the voices of those who are typically not heard,” Gallego said.
Clayborne hopes the events throughout the month will create a sense of community and highlight the “contributions” and “innovation” brought to the U.S. by people of Hispanic heritage. He also hopes it offers a chance for non-Hispanic students to recognize and celebrate Hispanic culture within their lives.
“I really want to be able to celebrate Hispanic and Latin heritage here because so much of it is embedded in what we already take for granted as the American experience, everybody loves a little bit of Hispanic and Latin culture whether we openly acknowledge it or not,” Clayborne said.
Barros hopes Hispanic students gain “a sense of community, a sense of closeness, a sense that you’re not alone,” and she also hopes non-Hispanic students engage in the month's events for their own education and for the enjoyment of the Hispanic community.
“If you’re rocking with us, we’re rocking with you,” Barros said. “It’s as simple as that because at the end of the day, it’s fun to educate and share your culture with others, and so I think it also makes it more fun that way.”
