Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebration of culture underway

The UTRGV Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies, Center for Mexican American Studies, Center for Latin American Arts, Department of Theatre and more will host lectures, concerts, exhibits and workshops in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Amy Cummins, an English professor at UTRGV, said the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies will host lectures by author Viola Canales and Gabriela Baeza Ventura, an associate professor of U.S. Latina/o Literature at the University of Houston and a co-director of the U.S. Latino Digital Humanities Center.

Cummins said she reached out to Canales and Baeza Ventura because she loves their work and wants to “build pride and knowledge about achievements of writers with Mexican American heritage and expand conversations about the centrality of Latina, Latino people.”

Canales will talk about her creative process in writing her books, such as “The Tequila Worm,” (Wendy Lamb Books, 2007) from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday via Zoom. The meeting ID is 838 6056 0271.

Baeza Ventura, an executive director of Arte Público Press, will talk about the publisher’s history with Latino/a literature from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Oct. 4 via Zoom. The meeting ID is 869 5263 8802.

Canales said she is excited about the lecture.

“It’s like coming home because all my books and writings are and have been inspired by the culture of the Rio Grande Valley,” she told The Rider in a phone interview last Tuesday.

Canales, a McAllen native, left home after she received a scholarship to attend St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin when she was 15 and said that she felt homesick. 

She wanted to keep the traditions, culture and the people that were dear to her alive in some way.

“It was then that I started to write stories to conjure up that culture and that’s how I became a writer,” Canales said.

She wants people to be proud of their culture and to find the magic in who they are.

“There’s a Mexican saying that my mother used to always say, which is, ‘Cada cabeza es su mundo.’ Every head is its own world, and I think it’s so important,” Canales said. 

The Rider asked Canales what advice she would give to students.

 “You’re living your own life and finding the magic and power and uniqueness in who you are and creating that world and then sharing it with other people,” she said. 

Taylor Seaver, a first-year graduate student in Mexican American Studies and the historian for La Unión Chicanx Hijxs de Aztlán, has attended and volunteered at past events for Hispanic Heritage Month. 

“It’s really fun because we have all these events like just meshing together the entire fall,” she said. 

Seaver said she will attend the opening reception for “Civil Rights in the Rio Grande Valley,” a traveling museum exhibit, organized by the Center of Mexican American Studies and Nosotrxs Por El Valle. The reception will take place at 6 p.m. today in the Visual Arts Building, 2412 U.S. Business Hwy. 281 in Edinburg.

Seaver said one thing she loves about Hispanic culture is the community involvement and how

“I love [that] the community we’re in is able to embrace these roots together and we’re able to celebrate our struggles but also celebrate our joy,” she said.

The Latino Theatre Initiative Program will host Fiesta Latina from  5:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Liberal Arts Building South Studio 107. The celebration will feature karaoke, improv, lotería and more.

The Center for Mexican American Studies has also collaborated with the Center for Latin American Arts to organize two events:

–a research workshop, “Surrounding Mexican American Life, Music and Art,” with guest speaker Nadine Hubbs, a professor of Women’s & Gender Studies & Music and faculty associate in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Guest panelists will be Christen Garcia, an assistant professor in UTRGV Art Department, and Teresita Lozano, an assistant professor in the UTRGV Music Department. The workshop is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 3 in University Library Room 2.114 on the Edinburg campus.

–The Texas Sweethearts and local bands will perform at 4 p.m. Oct. 4 in the University Library on the Edinburg campus, followed by a lecture by Hubbs in the Library foyer.

For more information on Hispanic Heritage Month events, visit the UTRGV events calendar.