Growing up in Hamilton, Rosita Merlos Gonzales didn't have a Latin American community at school.
That changed at McMaster. Last week, Gonzales was one of hundreds of students, staff, faculty and community members who gathered to celebrate Latin American Heritage Month.
"It's been important for me to come here and actually see myself represented in postsecondary education, knowing that I'm not alone and that there is a community of people who understand my experience," Gonzales said.
Associations like LANMU (the Latin American Network of McMaster University) and clubs like the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) will hopefully encourage other Latinx Hamiltonians to come to the university with the knowledge that there will be a community here for them, said Gonzalez, who is also pursuing a minor in Latin American and Latinx studies.
The celebration of Latin American Heritage Month brought together a diversity of experiences and voices to rejoice in the power of community.
The Oct. 8 event at CIBC Hall, hosted by LANMU, was brimming with joy and love through song, dance, and good food shared among McMaster students, staff and faculty, as well as family and friends from the broader Hamilton community.
There has been significant growth in Hamilton's Latin American community in the last couple of years, said master of ceremonies Nicole Taís Fröhlich, a master's student in neuroscience at McMaster. Despite that, she said Latin American students continue to face barriers in education and are underrepresented at McMaster.
"This is why LANMU is here to empower our current students and create a systematic change so that in 10 years from now, we can see Latin American and Latinx students in every program, in every faculty at this university," Fröhlich said in her opening remarks. "That is why it's also important to celebrate who we are - our unique and collective stories."
This year, the LANMU celebration featured lively dancing from the Asociacion Fraternidad Hispana (AFH) and the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area (SACHA), with dancers weaving through the crowd and inspiriting dozens of people to join them for a group dance.
For a second year, the event also highlighted research from Latin American students at McMaster in a showcase that delved into subjects ranging from migrant farm worker justice in Niagara to mental health, belonging and identity among Canadian-born Latin American students.
LANMU is hosting several other events throughout the month of October, including a fireside chat with Alejandro Adem, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), about inspiring the next generation of Latin American researchers.
Fourth-year Nursing student Maya Lopez got involved to ensure there will be a thriving and vibrant environment for the generations to come.
"Once I learned about this community through the Latin American Heritage Month celebration, I immediately started coming up with ideas about how to collaborate and how we can make things better," said Lopez, who is co-president of OLAS.
"We're not only doing this for ourselves and for our families and our friends; we're doing it for people who are coming after us. For all Latin students out there who want to choose McMaster not just for our great academic reputation, but also because there are so many resources and community here for them."
LANMU will also host a screening on Oct. 29 of Karuara, People of the River, an award-winning documentary about the Amazon's Marañón River, which was the first river in Peru to be given personhood.
The diversity of experience within the Latin American community is an essential part of the month's celebrations, said Helena Cordeiro, a fourth-year psychology student from Brazil who heads up the McMaster chapter of the Brazilian Students Association (BRASA).
"I find that a lot of hesitation from students in allowing themselves to be seen and take up space as a Latin American is based in a feeling that they don't fit a specific idea of what a Latino is, but you don't have to look a certain way, you don't have to speak Spanish or Portuguese or French or whatever language," said Cordeiro.
"You are Latino and that's enough."
Click here to see photos from the event.
