No fewer than 30 El Camino students, faculty and staff from the Social Justice Center are organizing events honoring Hispanic Heritage this semester.
From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 the center will host several events including a Hispanic speaker series featuring the first Salvadoran woman to climb Mt. Everest.
“We’re really hoping to shed some light on our largest population here on campus,” Social Justice Program Coordinator Monica Delgado said, adding that 52% of the El Camino student population is Hispanic.
Prior to the opening of the Social Justice Center Delgado said she doesn’t remember El Camino hosting many events celebrating Hispanic Heritage.
“I’ve been here I think seven years and I don’t remember there being any kind of formal, concerted efforts,” she said.
A new center called “Mi Casa” will be opening up within a few weeks on the second floor of the old Communications Center.
This space will be dedicated to Hispanic students and faculty on campus, Xocoyotzin Herrera, associate professor of ethnic studies and history, said.
Mi Casa will allow students to hang out, congregate, host club meetings or attend professors’ office hours.
In the meantime, there will be free coffee and conchas outside the Student Services Building on Sept. 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Hispanic counselors will be available to answer students questions.
The Social Justice Center lounge will also be hosting Lotería night on Oct. 4 from 4 to 6 p.m., with a slight twist.
Lotería is a traditional Mexican game similar to Bingo, except with pictures instead of numbers or letters. The player who gets four images in a row wins.
Instead of traditional pictures such as a parrot, mermaid, or mandolin, these player boards will feature familiar faces from El Camino’s faculty.
A day before the center’s one-year anniversary, Herrera will be hosting a Q&A session after the film screening of Dolores, a documentary about human rights activist Dolores Huerta.
The film will be shown at no cost to students in the Social Justice Center lounge on Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m. Herrera will be joined by Spanish professor Argelia Andrade.
Elsewhere in the college, other activities are lined up for Hispanic Heritage Month.
On Sept. 19, the Art Gallery will be hosting a culinary tasting featuring Mexican food such as “ensalada de nopales” (cactus salad) and guacamole, starting at 1 p.m. in the new Arts Complex.
“It’s not just a taste of Mexico, it’s whoever wants to come and share something in honor of this month,” Dulce Stein, an anthropology major and art curator for El Camino’s Art Gallery, said.
The Art Gallery hosts monthly “Culinary Stories with Tasting,” where faculty members tell stories about different cultural foods and have students taste them.
“The more that we share about our traditions, the more we learn not only about others but also about ourselves,” Stein said.
There are more events happening throughout September and October in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month including a Guatemalan food truck, “El Fogón,” coming to campus Sept. 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. outside the Social Justice Center.
“This is something that I hope goes on for the rest of El Camino’s life. We really haven’t had a centralized place that is in charge of making sure we’re celebrating different people here,” Delgado said.
Herrera said these events are an important way for other cultures to learn about Hispanic Heritage, but it’s good for Hispanic people as well.
“It’s very important for Latinos to understand that for themselves, you have to educate yourself, you have to become aware, you have to become in tune with your cultural essence,” he said.
For more information visit the El Camino website.
Editor’s Note: Additional information regarding the amount of Social Justice Center organizers involved in planning events was added to article on Sept. 22, at 12:58 a.m.
