By JOYA SAXENA

Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month was celebrated around the nation from September 15 to October 15, including at our very own Beloit College.  Beloit College has a vibrant and robust Latinx community, making up approximately 16% of the college population.  Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month was an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the unique voices and experiences of Hispanic/Latinx Americans and recognize their histories, journeys, and achievements, including those of Latinx Beloit College students. Latinx Beloit College students have made unique contributions to our campus community, including creating an identity-based club dedicated to Latinx students now known as Latinx Voices. This year, Hispanic Heritage Month at Beloit College was spearheaded by students Franccesca Mamani‘24 and Rafael Cervantes Jr.‘25 in collaboration with multiple groups and organizations, including Latinx Voices, the Student Success, Equity, and Community Office, the Health & Wellness Center, Spanish Club, and Clay Club.  

Hispanic Heritage Month behind-the-scenes work began with Cervantes. “I already had the plan to be more involved on campus and really get my name out there outside of football,” says Cervantes. “While talking to [Associate Dean of Student Success, Equity, and Community Gloria Bradley], she kind of told me, ‘OK, let’s get together and plan some events for Hispanic Heritage Month.’ She wanted me to get people together who had the same ideas or would be willing to work together towards getting events together and [Mamani] came somewhere. I got in contact with [Mamani] and obviously, she was very happy to hear that and was really willing to work on the programming for this year. So that’s kind of how it started.” Mamani added, “We had even made a group chat with people that we would just be interested in getting ideas from over the summer. This was before we came on campus just to get a sense of what people would be interested in. So that’s how we did some of the events that we did over the month.”  When asked about the idea for Hispanic Heritage Month and the implications on the Latinx community at Beloit College, Mamani stated, “Originally, when we were coming up with events and stuff, we wanted to show our culture from various countries and different ways people celebrate this in these countries, but also here in the United States to show what that looks like. So fixing both cultures. In terms of working with others on campus like Latinx Voices, I give them props because they were so supportive of making stuff happen with ideas that we had and we want people to know about why we celebrate gaining independence in different countries. That’s why it starts in the middle of September and ends in the middle of October. We’re such a small community so we should be able to be proud, educate others, and have people experience the different things that we offer.”

On September 7, there was a meeting between Mamani and the executive board of Latinx Voices.  This is when Mamani presented a document with all the event ideas she came up with alongside Cervantes, Dean Bradley, and other peers. Latinx Voices decided to support Mamani with physical aid in setting up events regarding funds, promotion, and space bookings.  Latinx Voices also provided ideas regarding the organization, planning, and execution of each event in the program.  The first event of Hispanic Heritage Month was Archive Night, which took place on September 18 at 7 p.m. at the Latinx Voices house.  During the week of September 11-15, Mamani, along with Adrian Santiago ‘27, conducted interviews with students for an oral presentation on what it meant to be Latinx at Beloit College.  Interviews were usually five to seven minutes long and they consisted of questions such as, “Where do you and your family come from,” “Describe the culture from back home,” “How do you feel about attending a Predominantly White Institution (PWI),” “Did you experience any culture shock when coming to Beloit,” “How do you connect with your culture while being at Beloit College,” and “What are some of the things you miss from back home?”  Meanwhile, Aliza Ayala ‘24, the President of Latinx Voices, set out to find all information regarding the history of Latinx students at Beloit College.  Ayala had to search online due to the school’s limited information.  What Ayala gathered related to prior Latinx Voices clubs.  On the night of Archive Night, all the information Ayala gathered was hung on the walls in chronological order with descriptions of the photos. During the event, Mamani and Santiago set up a TV and played a videotape of the interviews of Latinx students. The turnout of Archive Night was roughly 30 people.

On September 21 from 7 to 9 p.m., the next event took place, which was the screening of the movie “Encanto.” Mamani was able to request the Weissberg Auditorium as space and Dean Bradley helped Latinx Voices and Mamani get approved to screen the film.  Latinx Voices created a poster, promoted the event, and provided students who attended with popcorn and drinks.  On October 7 from 4 to 6 p.m., there was a Hispanic/Latinx Celebration that took place in the Carson Club Hub in the Powerhouse.  This event was in collaboration with Mamani, Cervantes, the Health & Wellness Center, Latinx Voices, Spanish Club, and Clay Club.  The event came about through the initiative of Mateo Marek‘25, the Marketing Manager of the Spanish Club and a founding member of the Clay Club. Marek reached out to Ayala and asked to collaborate with Latinx Voices.  From there, Ayala brought up the idea of having all the clubs work together with the Health & Wellness Center as suggested by Mamani. Spanish Club provided fruits, and Clay Club provided clay and tools to make alebrijes, brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures that symbolize the spirits that guide, accompany, and protect humans throughout our lives. The Health & Wellness Center provided aid, support, and promotion of this event. Latinx Voices provided a South American dessert called Alfajores and, with Mamani’s help, created a slideshow describing traditional home remedies. To conclude the month-long festivities, there was a final event on October 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Aldrich Field with a bonfire, fruits, drinks, and music, all funded by Mamani and Latinx Voices.

As with all programming, there were obstacles to overcome. Cervantes points out the time constraints with planning. “I feel like time was kind of against the process. I feel like there was very little time and we didn’t even get to do everything we wanted to do, which kind of sucked,” says Cervantes. Mamani added, “Aside from trying to find ways for people to be in the space that we are making these events in, we’re taking account of people who are athletes, people who have other responsibilities like work, or people who have classes during the time. We were trying to make it so it was as accessible as possible for people to go to aside from other events that are going on on campus as well. In addition, not having full information on certain things was a bit of a setback in terms of budgeting, making sure we had the right materials, and having the space for it. So that was kind of tough to navigate.” However, Mamani acknowledged that “it helped a lot with getting a lot of the materials from [Latinx Voices] budget, Spanish club, Clay club, and the Health and Wellness Center also helped with [the Hispanic/Latinx Celebration on October 7] and making sure that any student who was interested in putting help into it.”  

When asked about the overall success of Hispanic Heritage Month, Cervantes stated, “I do feel like it was successful because, before this, I feel like there weren’t even a lot of events going on so I think this year set a base going forward that we could build on. For future events, we know what to do now, who to work with, and how to go about things. So I feel like it was successful.” Mamani added, “I’m a senior, so I have been here since 2020. As Rafa said, there weren’t that many events advertised, if there were any events, and even if it was an e-mail from the Dean of Students or the SSEC sending out religious or cultural emails, I feel like those emails weren’t as helpful because they weren’t as informative of why the celebration is what it is. So by having events like this, we could show why we’re proud of where we come from and show different representation. It’s not just Hispanic, Latinx, Chicana, Chicano, Chicanx, whatever. There are other countries out there that we should be proud of as well. But yeah, there was a huge turnout, especially for Archive Night. That was good. People becoming involved in Beloit’s history, specifically for Latinx students, I think that was huge.” Latinx Voices Vice President Frida Morales‘24 stated, “From my time in the club this was the first student-led program I’ve experienced and I enjoyed it very much! Due to [Mamani’s] initiative to reach out to us, we were able to have collaborative events that got people interested in the experiences of our Latinx students at Beloit College. I believe this is what our club was meant to do. To educate but also be a supporting organization in realizing the ideas of our Latinx students. Being able to do these events for HHM, I believe, really brought a sense of community that in many cases and for many people can get lost for Latinx students at a PWI.” Ayala adds, “I’m super happy that [Mamani] had reached out to LV about helping out for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month. We haven’t done something like this before, so being able to be heavily involved was an honor. My one big thing is hoping that the students really enjoyed it because there’s always a thought in the back of your mind about programming being good enough, but I think it turned out great! I hope this month-long celebration gets picked up for the years to come.”

Featured Image Credit: City of Dallas