The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will celebrate Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month with food, music, literature, and a movie throughout the month
of September.
The monthlong observance is an opportunity for students to celebrate and learn about various Latin American cultures and interact with students of those cultures.
Raul Leal, a program coordinator for Leadership and Mentoring, said the month is important for students to learn about themselves and the cultures represented in Latin American countries.
“I think it is important for us as individuals to really know who we are, especially once we graduate as students and we’re trying to engage in positions of power when we get jobs, and we are moving up in our lives, to really remember where we came from,” Leal said. “I think that it’s important for students, while they’re here at the university, to really be provided with an opportunity to reflect on the importance of really being Hispanic or Latinx identifying, especially within a Hispanic-serving institution.”
Vanessa Sandoval, a program coordinator for Leadership and Mentoring, said the month allows students to see a different perspective of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“It really opens up the mindset to see, it’s beyond just Mexican-American,” Sandoval said. “It’s different cultures, so we may not be highlighting a certain culture this year, but we’re getting it started.”
The annual celebration was previously known as Hispanic Heritage Month. Leal said the name was updated to be more inclusive of other Latin American nationalities and of gender identities.
“When we all came to the table, we were kind of discussing the importance of the way that we titled the month,” he said. “And so, there were some students, some individuals who thought that leaving it just as Hispanic Heritage Month wasn’t as inclusive for students who might not necessarily feel like they identify with the term Hispanic, but feel that they do identify with Latino, or Latina or Latinx based off of the regions that they came from.”
There will be five events throughout the month of September that celebrate Hispanic and Latin heritage.
Fiestas Patrias kicks off the celebrations from 4 to 7 p.m. today on the Brownsville Student Union lawn. The event will take place at the same time on Wednesday at the Quad on the Edinburg campus.
It is sponsored by the Campus Activities Board and designed to celebrate Mexican-American heritage and Mexico’s Independence Day.
“Fiestas Patrias will be on both campuses for Edinburg and Brownsville,” Sandoval said about the event. “They’ll be having, celebrating the Mexican-American heritage, showcasing the Mexican-American culture to the campus community. They’re going to be providing food. [Organizations] are providing, they’re invited to promote themselves. They’re actually hosting a costume contest also. So, students can go and sign up through Vlink, and they’re able to participate in both campuses for that.”
Café Latino Americano will be hosted by Leadership and Mentoring and CAB from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Edinburg Ballroom and from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 24 in Brownsville Music, Science and Learning Center 1.105.
The event celebrates Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month with cuisines from Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico and El Salvador.
“We provide information about those countries,” Leal said. “We give students the opportunity to really immerse themselves in the cultures of those countries but then understanding that each Latin American country is as unique as also the individuals are.”
A cultural movie screening will show “The Way He Looks,” which is a “sweet and tender story about friendship and the complications of young love,” according to event descriptions provided by Leadership and Mentoring.
Leadership and Mentoring will host the screening from 12:20 to 2 p.m. Tuesday in Brownsville Music, Science and Learning Center 1.105 and from 3:45 to 6 p.m. Sept. 26 in the Student Academic Center 1.112ABC on the Edinburg campus.
Inqspot Book Club is participating in the celebration of the month by discussing “Bodega Dreams,” a novel by Ernesto Quiñonez that combines the “gritty rhythms” of Junot Diaz and “noir genius” of Walter Mosley, according to event descriptions provided by Leadership and Mentoring.
The book club will meet at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 25 in the Loft on the Edinburg campus and La Sala on the Brownsville campus, and is a collaboration between Inqspot Book Club, Student Union and Writing and Language Studies.
Celebrando Latinx Music & Poetry in the RGV will take place from 5 to 10 p.m. Sept. 27 on the Chapel lawn on the Edinburg campus.
It is a collaboration between Leadership and Mentoring, First Year Experience, Student Union, Center for Mexican American Studies, Student Activities and Gallery magazine.
The event will consist of performances by Amalia Ortiz, Jo C. and UTRGV poets. There will be a DJ and students can sign up for the poetry open mic to perform their work.
Amalia Ortiz is performing her book “The Canción Cannibal Cabaret, A Punk Rock Musical” with her band Las Hijas de la Madre.
Emmy Perez, a creative writing professor and co-organizer of the event, said they wanted students to have a place to show their work and hear an accomplished UTRGV graduate.
“The month is important because we need to celebrate the beauty and the complexity and the artistic and historical and institutional accomplishments of Latinx people,” Perez said, “especially during times when the borderlands are being vilified by other people.”
She said the event is important to demonstrate how powerful individual voices can be.
Perez said arts are a way to draw people in.
“It’s another way for us to learn about history, about contemporary issues in a very engaging way,” she said.
Sandoval hopes for more collaborations in the future such as the music and the fine arts departments.
Leal encourages students to attend the events.
“I just think that our staff across our entire university are taking a lot of intentional time to build and create these pieces and these events for our students to feel represented in different ways,” he said.
