On Thursday October 20th, Upper School students filed into the auditorium for the Latino Heritage assembly. Organized by SUME (Students United for Multicultural Education) and the Hispanic-Latino Alliance, the assembly introduced students to many topics surrounding Latino culture. Students were educated on the statistics surrounding Latino representation in the media, such as characters in TV shows and movies.
There are more shows with all-Hispanic main casts now than ever. “I purposely stayed up late as a kid to watch George Lopez and I used to watch Dora the Explorer,” said Ciara Cury (VI) on the increasing presence of Latinos in Hollywood. “And although I haven’t started Jane the Virgin, I really want to because it feels so great to see Latinx people on screen represented positively.”
When Latin music came into discussion, Suavemente by Elvis Crespo played from the speakers, reigniting the childhood memories of those speaking. Latino literature and Latino writers such as Sandra Cisneros were brought up because of their valuable contributions to the world of literature.
Despite Latinx influence in the humanities, there are many Latinx students at Fieldston who still feel marginalized in classes. “I felt as though what I was experiencing in my own life wasn’t important enough,” said Ariana Baez (V) in regard to the fact that books in the English curriculum are almost never based around Latino families.
In fact, there are many negative connotations towards the Latinx community in America, as demonstrated by senior Enrique Rosado and Spanish teacher Sra. Lorena Rodas-Ramirez, who presented a skit towards the end of the assembly. The skit tackled the notion that seeing a Hispanic teenager with a baby does not mean that the baby is theirs, but rather a sibling or cousin. Enrique and Sra. Rodas-Ramirez squashed the assumption that because a Latino is an immigrant, they do not pay taxes and they are illegal and undocumented. Lately, there have been many rough and anti-Latinx rhetorics that need to be deflected in and out of our community. This assembly was a perfect opportunity to radiate more positivity about discrimination against the Latinx community.
The assembly had many focuses. The speakers did everything they could to educate students on the important aspects of the Latinx community. “My main objective in running this assembly was to leave the audience thinking not only about how they see Latinx people but also about how much we’ve done and the positive influence we’ve had,” said Ciara Cury (VI) about her personal goal for the assembly, and how she wanted to impact the community long after the assembly was over. It was a time consuming process; faculty wrote speeches, students wrote speeches, many hours of editing were put into the slideshow. The assembly was not only about circulating Latinx positivity during the assembly – it was to spur a discussion about how Latinx culture is missing from our curriculum. It all paid off. The students put together a wonderful assembly that was informative yet not repetitive, and because of it, there is no doubt that our community will be discussing Latinx culture again.
