Walking up to The Quad Wednesday evening, you could feel the cool 65 degree Fahrenheit breeze across your face. The smell of chips and salsa wafts towards your nose. A group of friends and strangers laugh like old friends bonding over their love and celebration of culture. 

You have just walked upon USI’s first Latinx Heritage Festival. 

The Student Government Association, Panamanian Association and Multicultural Center collaborated on The Quad Wednesday evening to host campus’ first Latinx Heritage Festival. SGA’s first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee organized the festival making it the committee’s first event.

The event took place to honor National Hispanic Heritage Month, a national holiday observed from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 to celebrate the culture and history of American citizens whose ancestors are from Central and South America, Spain and Mexico, according to HispanicHeritageMonth.gov.

The festival consisted of free chips and salsa, music and games. The organizations each had a table set up with information to provide to students who may have questions regarding the event or their organization. 

Adrianna Garcia, administrative vice president of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee for SGA, said she was excited for the event and would already like to host the event again next year. 

“We’re collaborating with a bunch of different clubs and getting all of our names out there and showing we are super inclusive,” Garcia said. 

Garcia is the first SGA administrative vice president for the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, which was a position SGA created in Spring 2022.

César Berríos, assistant director of the Multicultural Center, said, “We’re here supporting SGA and their initiative to have a Latinx event.”

“I hope they can learn more about the Latinx heritage and about what Latinx Heritage month means, and they can learn more about the different clubs that are Latinx affiliated,” Berríos said.

Berríos said he hopes students gained a sense of community at the event. He said he thinks many students feel like they can not celebrate Latinx Heritage Month if they do not identify as part of the Latino community, or they cannot participate in this event, but that is not the case. 

“This is an opportunity for them to come and celebrate, and if they don’t know about it, they can learn a little bit more about what it means to celebrate the occasion,” Berríos said. 

Noelle Santonastaso, freshman undecided major, said the purpose of the event was to get people to see the Latinx culture on campus. She said the food brought to the event came from a local cultural store. Santonastaso said she helped Garcia with the brainstorming of the event, but Garcia carried the event. 

Santonastaso said she hopes students “get to see the diversity of USI and experience people who are different from them and be able to appreciate that.” 

She said, “I think we all know diversity is out there, but being able to see and experience it with different food and fun facts about the Latinx countries isn’t something you get to do everyday or everywhere.”

Yoel Alvarez, sophomore psychology major, said he wants students to know there are not just American students on campus. 

“Especially in this month, when we are celebrating Latinx Heritage Month, to know more about us and our culture is one thing to gain from this,” Alvarez said.

Ashley Patino, junior biochemistry major, said she attended the event because she is from Panama and she heard the Panamanian Association would be there. Patino said she wanted to see them and meet new people. She said other students should attend events similar to this one because they can meet new people and learn about new cultures.

Students who attended the event said they would like to see more students take an active role in learning about diversity, equity and inclusion. 

“I feel like it’s lacking,” Garcia said. “It definitely isn’t where it should be. But, I feel like having the EDI committee for SGA and getting these clubs together will definitely raise inclusivity awareness.”

Catalina Baker, junior sociology and Spanish major, said, “I don’t think there is a lot of diversity. The minority population tries to share their culture because this is a predominantly white area.”

“I feel like it’s somewhat there, but I think there’s more to go,” said Justin Samson, junior psychology major. “Considering that we’re a campus of 15,000 students and it’s mostly Latinx here right now, I think there could be more participation here right now. We need to have more culture and more unity.”

According to University Communications, students of color and international students make up 16.9% of the Fall 2022 enrolled students. This is the highest percentage of students of color and international students in the university’s history. According to the USI Fact Book, 3.9% of the students enrolled in Fall 2021 identified as Hispanic.

Samson said he attended the event to learn about the Panamanians and the other cultures represented at the event. 

“I’m passionate about other cultures and I want to learn more about other cultures than my own,” Samson said. “I am just a cis-white man, and my culture has taken over all the other cultures and white-washed them.” 

Samson said he encourages students to come to more events like the Latinx Heritage Festival. 

“The worst you could do is say something stupid and someone says, ‘no, I don’t think that’s okay,’” Samson said. “That’s part of learning, learning what not to say and how to interact with different cultures if you’re not familiar with that.”