During Hispanic Heritage Month Latino Alliance co-president, Adilene Vega, stresses the importance of celebration and shares the goals of Latino Alliance.
Transcript:
0:08: Welcome back to the Chronicle Conversations.
0:10: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman.
0:12: This week on Chronversations, I am joined by Latino Alliance co-president Adilene Vega, who shares the significance of Hispanic Heritage Month and why it is important to celebrate.
0:22: Yeah, so Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15th, and it’s meant to commemorate countries getting independence from Spain.
0:31: So we start off on the 15th with, I think we have Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and I think Nicaragua and then 16th is Mexico, Chile is tomorrow and so on, but it’s really just to commemorate that
0:43: like culture that unites us, like, yeah, I think in the U.S. especially we’ve kind of rebranded to do Latine Heritage Month, which I think is great.
0:51: I think I like that every country gets to showcase their food and their music, their dancing, there’s independence parades, especially in Chicago, Mexico is a big one, so really just spreading the love. I think
1:04: because it becomes more of a protest, especially for first gens who were born here in the U.S. and can stand up for the rights of those who came before us and don’t have the same privileges to be able to go onto the street and celebrate and protest, especially, like you said, the communities, the Latino community at large is being targeted by the administration and
1:21: to show that we’re here and we’re not going to back down I think it’s really important. It also just shows like the number of us that we are and that we contribute to this country every single day whether it be through our education, through our labor, the way that we bond through communities and so I think visibility is extremely important and that shows solidarity.
1:38: Adilene also takes us through the community building goals of Latino Alliance and emphasized that anyone from any background can join.
1:46: Latino Alliance is a student-run org for people who identify as Latino or people who just want to show support to the community and so we’re always open to everybody.
1:54: I feel like that’s a big misconception.
1:56: They’re like, “oh, I don’t wanna join Latino Alliance because I’m not Latino,” but that’s not a requirement.
2:00: We’re just a big student body that wants to show community on campus because we are an HSI recognized school which we can go into later, but, you know, there’s so many of us that we want to feel represented
2:11: and showcase our cultures and that’s why we do large scale events every year, but especially this year coming back, we’re really focused on creating connection with students and making them feel seen and heard and cared for because it’s kind of scary for students who are coming away from home and they’re dealing with, especially what’s going on right now in Chicago.
2:29: It feels dangerous to walk down the streets sometimes and so making sure that they know that we’re looking out for them and we’re providing resources.
2:35: We have a Linkree up on our Insta
2:37: with know your rights information as well as other like community building things, so I think it’s very important for us to put ourselves out there and to have that space every week for people to come and decompress.
2:47: We do big collaborations with SDI, so every year we collaborate for Movimiento Martes, which is like a dance class every Tuesday, and I believe those are happening in the garden from 6:30 to 7:30.
2:57: So SDI kind of takes the lead, but Latino Alliance is always there, showing our support, and then we
3:02: we have a Jaripeo coming up with Mi Gente Renegades, which is our Latin dance club, and that’s gonna be September 26th, which is a Friday, also in the garden and there’s gonna be food.
3:13: Latino Alliance independently, we have our own weekly meetings.
3:16: We do it throughout the year, but this month we focus more heavily on like getting to know each other because it’s the start of the semester, but also like highlighting different cultures.
3:24: We watch movies sometimes, and then also
3:28: I think the student body does an amazing job of representing themselves.
3:31: Last year at manifest, we were able to secure a spot with the Alianza faculty group and we had an HSI commemorating event
3:40: and the president, the new president actually stepped out and she gave a few words.
3:43: So I hope to continue to see that support from administration, but I think it’s amazing that students have taken it upon themselves to represent themselves.
3:50: HJC coming back, I think is great, but I think that we definitely make our presence seem.
3:57: That’s all for this week.
3:58: Make sure to stay up to date with our campus and metro news and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on Columbia Chronicle.com.
4:04: I’m Aaron Guzman.
4:06: Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
