Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated from Sep 15 – Oct 15, has officially started, and many students, teachers, and residents are making an effort to emphasize Hispanic cultures, to represent the Hispanic members that have enhanced the Oswego community.
“We always need to highlight the diversity in our community,” OH junior Zaydrian Vital said. “You know, we see a lot of the majority White population, so it’s really key for other Latinos to see their representation and just see their culture throughout and feel a part of the community.”
At OH, Hispanic Heritage Month is a big deal for the Hispanic community, especially for the OH club Latin American Student Organization (LASO). They work extra hard to make this month special, hosting several events, including a spirit week.
This year, the spirit week will be Sep. 28 – Oct 2, and it always includes things that represent Hispanic culture: lazy lunes, motivacion martes, miercoles de orgullo, jersey jueves, and vaquero viernes.
“We also have the payaso de rodeo dance, which is a line dance,” Vital said. “We do a chalk [on the sidewalk outside of the school] that represents the different Latino communities and countries, and we put inspirational quotes from Hispanic role models”.
OH Spanish classes also take this time to educate on the meaning of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“In my Spanish class last year, every day we did a remembrance of all the people that passed or, like, Latino or Hispanic,” OH Junior Gabe Arch said.
Compared to other towns like Montgomery and Aurora, there are not many festivities for Hispanic Heritage month in Oswego. LASO and some schools are attempting to change that. Long Beach elementary school is planning a special Hispanic Heritage Month event for the first time this year.
“This event is being run for the first time, through our Home & School – a couple parents are leading the charge,” Long Beach Principal Phillip Murray said.
Long Beach is the first and only elementary school in SD#308 to do this, showing that the community is truly making improvements on recognizing those who may feel underrepresented.
“We feel it is important to celebrate all the different cultures that we have here at Long Beach,” Murray said.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated mid-September to -October because of the many Hispanic countries that celebrate their independence days within this time period, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, and Belize. This means that it reaches the hearts of many members of the community, helping them to commemorate their roots.
“My mom’s Mexican, so I take it very seriously. Like, growing up, I’ve always taken, like, cool, yeah, I’m Mexican, and I’m a Latino,” Arch said with pride.
Many members of the community like to celebrate Hispanic heritage because it makes them feel like they’re a part of something bigger, a community that holds itself together like a family. That’s one of the biggest focuses and highlights of Hispanic Heritage Month: making people feel welcome and celebrated.
Hi! I am Stephanie Mayorga, the Managing editor and Spanish editor for 42Fifty. I am involved in BIONIC, student council, Juniorettes, and multiple honors societies. I am a Senior and can't wait to further contribute the 42Fifty staff, and publish great pieces! You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name on the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
