Latinx Heritage Month began with a kickoff cookout, with food like pupusas and tamales, last Friday at 30 College Street. Photos by Louis Mendez ’19
The month is sponsored by the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and the Student Center for Multicultural Life (SCML). Working over the summer, LASO members and Benjamin Harris, the director of the Student Center for Multicultural Life, planned events and coordinated speakers from as far as Arizona and California.
“Our goal is to create an informative and welcoming place for people to come and learn more about our heritage,” said LASO president Cristina Tamay ’18. “For Latinx students, we want to show that Bowdoin will go out of its way to make you feel at home. We also want others to come, enjoy our food and have an educational experience.”
For Harris, the month of programming is emblematic of students’ drive to promote a richer campus community. His job is to listen to students’ ideas for “programs that they think their peers should see,” and to “bring those visions to life.”
Events to come include a lecture on “Latinx College Students: Stress, Resilience, and Mental Health,” by Dr. Yolanda Garcia, president of the National Latino/a Psychological Association; a presentation on “Disagreement, Diversity, and the Politics of Being Reasonable in Education Settings”; and an evening with slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.
