Hispanic Heritage Month at East

By Mattie Nunez

On October 3rd, Latino Students United (LSU) not only organized but also performed a phenomenal Hispanic Heritage Month assembly at East High School. From the incredible Aztec dancers, Grupo Tlaloc Danza Azteca, to the impactful words of keynote speaker and executive director of the Latinas First Foundation, Elena Mendoza, it educated East students about Hispanic and Latino culture, ae well as getting to see and hear the varieties Latin and Hispanic culture brings to East’s very own melting pot.

With such a significant performance representing the second largest demographic at East (Hispanic students making a sum of 22.8% of the student body)  one would imagine that pillars of support would also be there to aid the LSU club throughout the duration of the celebratory month. 

Principal Walker vocalized, “I would think that people would want to feel seen and feel supported through the things that make their particular group special.” However, LSU club President Kim Lopez, expressed her disappointment with East’s support systems for the Hispanic community saying, “I feel like East definitely leaves the responsibility of celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month onto the LSU club and the language and culture teachers.” 

After asking what East sponsored events were being hosted at the school during Hispanic Heritage Month, Ms. Ariel, the Dean of Culture, mentioned, “We do Noche de Familias night,” but briefly paused to take a quick moment to correct herself, “nope, not during this month. It’s November 15th, so a month after Hispanic Heritage Month.” The only events that were announced by East were in the Friday Newsletter that was shared on September 27th that showed what Anythink Library was doing for Hispanic Heritage Month. However, all the locations for the library are not near the school.

The scarcity of representation for the Hispanic and Latino community doesn’t stop there. During the ethnic celebratory month, there were no announcements made over the PA. Principal Walker stated, “I thought about including announcements over the PA and I was like, ‘I wonder if [LSU] would be interested’, and that’s totally my fault because I thought about it and by the time I realized I needed to act on that, it was October 7th.” In addition to the absence of announcements, there were also no posters hung in the hall that celebrated influential Latino or Hispanic people either. 

The LSU sponsor, Mrs.Tenorio, also expressed her hope for change stating: “I hope that we can get Hispanic Heritage Month recognized at the same level of Black History Month. I think that would ultimately be the goal, so I think that is something our school should shoot for.” 

While it isn’t possible to please everyone, not accurately representing the second largest demographic at East, and the largest minority group at that, is inexcusable. There has to be a change not only in how Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated and approached, but also in the support that the Hispanic community should receive.

It isn’t fair to the Hispanic community that other cultures get their time to fairly be represented and be proud of their culture while Latinos and Hispanics are left with the responsibility to be fairly represented by themselves. It should not be up to the Language department or any Hispanic staff, for that matter, to carry the slack that others can not pick up themselves.

The biggest obstacle separating the ability for change is the collaborative environment that needs to be made between supporting admin and the Hispanic faculty that produce Hispanic Heritage Month and the LSU assembly. Principal Walker said it best that we need to do more “collaboration in terms of thinking what Hispanic Heritage Month can look like.” One group of people, whether admin or staff, should not be left with the burden to construct a domain where the Hispanic community can finally feel seen and heard by our school.