Hispanic Heritage Month allows ASU's Hispanic community to celebrate its history and share its culture with the rest of campus.
From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, El Concilio, an ASU organization, will host multiple events inclusive to all of the University.
El Concilio focuses on uniting other Latinx, Chicanx and Hispanic organizations in order to promote awareness and spark interest about cultural diversity at ASU.
The month started off on Sept. 14 with the third annual Diablos Unidos: Una Celebraciòn de la Herencia event, where Hispanic organizations unite fellow Hispanic students with resources and help students form a community with food and music.
ASU's West campus is hosting "Stories in Color: The Art of Oliverio Balcells," which is a reflection of Hispanic experiences through the art of Tempe-based painter Oliverio Balcells. The art will be on display for the entire month in the Fletcher library.
Fiesta De La Noche will take place on the Polytechnic campus on Sept. 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. At the gathering, students can celebrate cultures from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
Evelin Cruz, a senior studying transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and the co-facilitator and vice president of El Concilio, said that when she first arrived at ASU, she needed to be involved in a community.
“I truly felt alone,” she said. “Luckily, my advisor from the School of Transborder Studies connected me with great opportunities that were going on within the Hispanic, Chicanx, Latinx, community on campus."
Bianca Arellano, a transborder studies senior, said she enjoys the Chicano/a Research Collection in the Hayden Library because it makes people more aware of how large the Mexican-American population is at ASU.
“I really love Hispanic Heritage month because it’s something I carry every day being Mexican. I get this special time to celebrate and engage other students that are not Mexican-American in the culture,” she said.
The ASU Latina History Tour will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 11. The tour commemorates the history of the Chicanx and Latinx communities at ASU. It will start at the Interdisciplinary Building B in Tempe and end with a reception at Hayden Library.
Christine Marín, the founder of the Chicano/a Research Collection, leads the tour each year and takes students on a history-filled walk down Cady Mall. The tour is open to all students but is recommended for freshmen.
“What’s a better way to introduce them to ASU than show them the established presence of Hispanic culture here since 1888,” she said.
Reach the reporter at slapprod@asu.edu or follow @sarahlapp14 on Twitter.
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