The Latinx Cultural Center at the University of Wisconsin honors Latinx Heritage Month with campus events between Sept. 15-Oct. 15 centered around this year’s theme “Transplanting Traditions.”
“Latinx Heritage Month is unique to each individual person, but it is a way for us all to come together and celebrate our joined cultures,” UW student and Latinx Heritage Month Planning Committee member Elias Moore-Barbosa said in an email statement to The Badger Herald.
Moore-Barbosa said the committee has been working throughout the school year and summer to plan events highlighting the Latinx community.
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This year’s theme for month-long celebration — “Transplanting Traditions” — honors Latinx traditions and raises awareness of their presence in all facets of society, according to the Latinx Heritage Month website. The theme aims to recognize the many current music, food and beauty trends created by Latinx communities that have been adopted by mainstream society.
“We [Latinx people] are made of a lot of different countries which means different dialects of Spanish, different cultures, different traditions, and that we should … really just lift up one another,” UW student and Latinx Heritage Month Planning Committee member Leslie Mendoza-Villanueva said.
The keynote speaker for this year’s program is Isaias Hernandez, the creator of the platform Queer Brown Vegan. Herndandez will be at the Union Play Circle Theater in Memorial Union on Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.
Upcoming events include a gallery night titled “Spreading our Wings” on Sept. 25 at the Red Gym 1973 Art Gallery at 6 p.m. This event will honor the new undergraduate major in Chican@ and Latin@ Studies, offered by the College of Letters and Sciences for the first time in Fall 2023, according to the event’s website.
“Mastering Mesa,” a cooking class in collaboration with WUD Cuisine will also be held Oct. 2 at 5 p.m. at Babcock Hall, according to the flyer.
The month will conclude with the Latine Ball at 6 p.m. at the Pyle Center Oct. 14.
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“Topics surrounding Latinx Heritage Month bring on further conversations that delve deeper into the richness of our people and our history, bringing on topics around terms used and the whole idea that Latin America, though with many similarities joining us together, also has a lot of diversity throughout,” Moore-Barbosa said.
Events for Latinx Heritage Month began Sept. 15 with the annual march up Bascom Hill. UW students and faculty carried flags up the hill while music played, and were met with food, games and an opportunity to connect with the UW Latinx community once reaching the top, according to UW News.
The Latinx Cultural Center is located on the second floor of the Red Gym and is a space for Latinx students to connect with their identity and form a greater community at UW through academic and social opportunities, according to the Latinx Cultural Center’s website.
“I feel like that’s our big goal, making sure Latine students, whether they’re new or been around their campus now for a year, get to know other Latine students,” Mendoza-Villanueva said. “We’re here, you’re not alone on this big campus.”
