Home Madison UW’s Latinx Heritage Month Celebrates “La Communidad Sin Fronteras”

UW’s Latinx Heritage Month Celebrates “La Communidad Sin Fronteras”

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Garnished with Latin American flags that circle its gallery and through its hall, all who enter the Multicultural Student Center are forced to recognize the diversity of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Latinx community.

“My family is from a small central American country that doesn’t really get a lot recognition and to be able to see the flag on the wall at this university really means the world to me,” Jonas Tijerino, UW-Madison junior and vice president of student organization Latinx Badgers, said.

In observation of this year’s Latinx Heritage Month, which ran from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, UW-Madison students celebrated the breadth of their Latinx culture, history and identity.  

Nationally recognized as Hispanic Heritage Month, the month-long period begins on the independence day of five Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The observation also falls across the independence days of Mexico, September 16, and Chile, September 18.

From the flyer, decorated with hues of brown, to the parade of flags in the MSC, UW-Madison’s Latinx Heritage Month celebration was guided by its theme, “La Comunidad Sin Fronteras”—a community without borders – centered on recognizing the wide range of identities encompassed by the gender-neutral term, Latinx.

“The idea of the term Latinx versus the term Hispanic, Latinx is definitely more inclusive of the people in Latin America, whereas, Hispanic is kind of reminiscent of Spain,” Tijerino said.

The month began with a kick-off event, titled The March up Bascom, where students were given paletas and flags representing Latin American countries to hold with pride.

“When they did the flag march up Bascom, I thought that was a really nice event where everybody got to have their flag. We all walked up as a community and enjoyed some paletas on top of Bascom Hill,” Jesse Ocanas, UW-Madison senior and president of Latinx Badgers, said. “It was such a cool event, it was nice to see all the people come out—it was a lot of fun.”

The Multicultural Student Center’s Organizational Development Specialist, Arturo Tito Diaz, oversaw much of the heritage month planning.

“I was a student here and there wasn’t that much programming or events that the university was putting on. Now that I’m able to be in this role, I can advocate for those things not only for Latinx students but for other multicultural students,” Diaz said. When I was a student we were really self-reliant on student orgs putting on cultural programming. Now that we’re in places that can provide that support to students and take that burden off of them a little bit is a good thing I think.”

In collaboration with Diaz, the Latinx Heritage Month Planning committee, comprised of students representing an array of student organizations on campus, also spearheaded much of the month’s programming.

The committee, which eventually transitioned into the Latinx Ball committee, brought notable names to campus, such as Representative Jocasta Zamarripa, who is Wisconsin’s first Latina state legislator.

Zamarripa gave an empowering keynote at the Latinx Ball, highlighting the power within Wisconsin’s Latinx community,

“Our time is coming. We are the future. We are the fastest growing constituency group in Wisconsin and we are young,” Zamarripa said.

After informing attendees of anti-immigration Senate Bill 275, the representative called students to action, asking them to make sure the bill never comes to law by calling the state senator.

She concluded her speech by telling students to continue to lift each other up and to continue to celebrate themselves, “haters gonna hate, now let us celebrate,” she said.

Zamarripa’s speech was followed by an awards and recognition ceremony that acknowledged all the folks who contributed to the successful month of celebration and the community at large.

The month’s programming also included discussion groups such as Tu Voz and Sisters in Solidarity, which are intentional spaces dedicated to creating a space where people who share the same identities can come and discuss topics relevant to them.

Chican@/Latin@ Studies Program held an open house for students to learn more about the classes it offers as well as their weekly community gathering for students to fellowship over food and conversation.

“I really hope the community was able to engage and really see the work that the students put into it to making this heritage month what it could be,” Diaz said. This was the fourth year that we’ve attempted to do a heritage month.