By Zuleika Rodriguez Garcia

Friday, September 15, marked the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. Stockton University kicked off the month’s celebrations with the Los Latinos Unidos flag-raising in the Arts and Sciences Circle. 

The event started with a roll call to bring attention to the diversity among the Hispanic community within the crowd. This was followed by remarks from several corners of the Stockton community, including an inspirational speech from Los Latinos Unidos President, Juan Diego Chaparro. “Aqui estoy, y aqui pertenezco (here I am, and here I belong)”, said Chaparro, as he went on to detail his experience as a Venezuelan immigrant, coming to the United States in 2017 with the goal of pursuing a higher education. 

This was followed by an emotional speech from Student Senate President Andrea Sandoval, who shared her experience as a bisexual Mexican woman. She recounted the way it felt to walk into testing rooms for higher-level classes and to not see anyone who looked like her, and the racism that she experienced following the 2016 presidential election. She described how those experiences made her feel embarrassed to say she was Mexican, but how coming to Stockton and finding accepting spaces has changed that. 

There were also speeches from Dr. Ana Edmonson, and Staff Advisor to Los Latinos Unidos, Michelle Puerta. “We are very diverse, we are multilingual, we are multi-ethnic, we are Afro-Caribbean, we are Caribeños, we are Central American, we are Latino-Americanos, we are Hispanic,” said retired professor of Spanish, Arnaldo Cordero-Roman, who returned to campus for the occasion. Jovin Fernandez, director of the Multicultural Center, recounted her experiences as a Latina-American growing up in New Jersey. She explained that academics did not take a leading role in her life; emphasis instead was placed on having a job and putting dinner on the table. “The F’s on my report card stood for Fernandez,” she said. She is now getting ready to defend her doctoral thesis and hopes to join the 2% of Latinas who have earned doctorates. She encouraged students to do the same and to follow the path of where higher education can take you. 

The flag raising itself was accompanied by a student rendition of Natalia Lafourcade’s song, ‘Hasta La Raíz’. Immediately after the flag-raising was the Latinx Luncheon, which took place at the Multicultural Center. This was a packed event that included music and of course, food, which consisted of traditional Dominican cuisine. Heather Medina, Director of Admissions, spoke to the luncheon crowd. She reminisced on the times when there were only ten students, including herself, at the raising of the Hispanic Heritage Flag. 

For a full list of Hispanic Heritage Month programming at Stockton, visit: https://stockton.edu/student-development/programs-initiatives/hispanic_heritage_month.html