Latino Student Organizations Celebrate Culture on Campus

Empanadas, papel picado and colorful Lotería cards were just a few of the things decorating the tables of events held by various Latino student organizations between Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. 

These clubs were all commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month, a celebration of Hispanic and Latino American culture in the United States which also honors Latino contributions to American culture, according to the National Museum of the American Latino.

The inclusion of different identities within the Hispanic community is something Elizabeth Marquez, the president of Loyola’s Latin American Student Organization, or LASO, said she hopes to emphasize throughout her tenure.

“I think sometimes we only see surface-level things and we think that being Latino or being Latina looks the same or has the same traditions across all cultures, but that’s never really the case,” Marquez said. 

The fourth-year said it’s important to consider Latino culture beyond what it offers to others, emphasizing the importance of considering lived experiences.

“I think it’s important to just realize that Latinos are way more than just a Latin American History class that happens Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” Marquez said. “And we’re much more than cultural foods like tacos or tamales.” 

The celebration begins annually Sept. 15 with the anniversary of the “Grito de Dolores,” the declaration launching the Mexican fight for independence against Spain in 1810, according to the Associated Press.

While Mexico officially celebrates its independence Sept. 16, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua all celebrate their independence Sept. 15. Many other Latin American countries also celebrate their independence throughout Hispanic Heritage Month.

For these clubs and organizations, celebrating Latino heritage isn’t just a month-long event but a constant celebration and push for representation.  

“Just keep talking to your peers, even if you don’t 100% sort of find yourself having anything in common,” Marquez said of continuing to be aware of the Latino experience. “I think, just sharing experiences is how you get to learn and you get to sort of share that joy about ‘Oh, like, you know what, I don’t have that in my culture, but it’s really cool that you have that or that’s really interesting.’”

For LASO, the biggest way the club intends to continue celebrating Latino culture is by advocating for the needs of the Hispanic community at Loyola. Evelyn Cruz, the marketing director for LASO, outlined the club’s current efforts on campus. 

“We’ve also had our president representatives in several meetings with, like, staff and e-board where we have been asking for tutoring for Spanish speaking students so they can have that flexibility to not just be with an English tutor, but also a Spanish tutor,” Cruz said. 

The club is also pushing for Spanish-speaking campus tours and is working with student government and administration to implement tours, Marquez said. 

One of Marquez’s wider goals for LASO and aid in the continuing celebration of the Latino identity beyond Hispanic Heritage Month is to showcase Latinos in positions of leadership. 

To do this, LASO will be hosting Rick Gomez, executive vice president and chief food and beverage officer of Target Oct. 18 in the Regis multi-purpose room from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., as well as his communications staff member Chris Christopher. 

For Latinos and other marginalized communities on campus to see themselves in leadership positions is something that’s very important for Marquez, who said she didn’t expect to get her position within the club or recognition for anything she had accomplished. 

“Having faculty or anyone’s recognize that it was a shocker to me, and I wish it wasn’t because for other people, I think acknowledgement and recognition for, sort of, our white counterparts is much more prominent on campus,” Marquez said.

MASA, the Mexican American Student Association, held its first event the day before Mexican Independence Day in conjunction with Loyola’s chapter of Alpha Psi Lambda, a co-ed Latino fraternity. The event featured a station where attendees could make papel picado, a colorful string of intricately cut paper banners used as decoration.

Fourth-year Alyssa Suarez attended a Lotería night held by MASA in 2021 and remembers it as her first club event. Suarez said the club was welcoming and made sure to emphasize that everyone was invited to join — regardless of their background.

Second-year Anna Bullock wasn’t sure she would find Hispanic friends at Loyola but said joining MASA gave her a chance to connect with people who share part of her identity.

“When I found that there was a Mexican American Student Association, I was really happy because it’s something I could connect with and find little, small, familiar things there,” Bullock said. 

Marquez said she hopes to recreate an event LASO held last year, the Latinx Student and Faculty Discussion. In a discussion for Latino campus members led by Dr. Christian Paredes, students and faculty were able to share different experiences related to being Latino on campus, according to the LUCommunity page for the event. 

Marquez said she wanted to give students the ability to discuss their experiences, as that’s something she found helpful in the past. 

“I think I hit a lot of my obstacles and my unseen ones just because they didn’t think that faculty or even just the Loyola community was interested in seeing that part of my resilience as a student,” Marquez said.

Cruz said she found it hard to adapt to being at a predominately white institution after being at a very diverse high school. Cruz said was able to find community in organizations like LASO and MASA. 

“My way of finding security was going to these orgs like LASO, Salsa Club, MASA, LUCES, to really identify my culture in this community,” Cruz said.

Part of her mission as a member of the executive board of the club is creating the environment she was able to find in these organizations for other students looking for community, Cruz said.

Astrid Béltran, the assistant vice president for diversity and student engagement, works to implement and promote equity and inclusion initiatives at all levels of Loyola’s administration. 

In partnership with the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Béltran’s Center for Student Engagement held a “Latine Heritage Month Celebration” Oct. 2. 

The event featured cultural dishes from a variety of Hispanic countries, including tacos, pupusas and empanadas. A mariachi performed traditional Mexican songs as well as songs from different Latino cultures to ensure all cultures were represented at the event, Béltran said.

Béltran wanted to highlight the inclusion of different Latino cultures, from the food served to the centerpieces on the tables, which were artifacts from 11 different countries.

“Our learning outcomes was to bring people together to celebrate and to connect and get to know each other, to learn something new of the heritage if you’re — if you’re not familiar with and then also to hopefully see your heritage there, seen,” Béltran said.

Featured image by Hanna Houser / The Phoenix