Students filled Latinx Heritage Month with Sun Devil spirit

Celebrating each other’s cultures and learning more and more about them is important in bringing us all a bit closer together and honoring the multifaceted beauty of our shared humanity.  

Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month is observed at ASU from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, and every year students lead events to connect and celebrate the culture and contributions of the Latinx and Hispanic community, along with honoring Latinx history. 

El Concilio is the Hispanic and Latinx student coalition at ASU, and earlier in the month they put on an event called Diablos Unidos, which is an annual fall welcome event featuring games, food and camaraderie. 

Diane Solorio became involved with El Concilio her sophomore year, first as an intern and is now the president. She was excited to see so many Sun Devils come out to celebrate, including many of the student organizations that make up El Concilio. 

“There’s a lot of people here who are ready to have fun, get together and socialize. There’s a lot of community here to be built as well, so I’m excited!” she said. 

Solorio emphasized that it’s great to see everyone’s faces again at events and to see groups from all campuses join in the fun. Other student-led events during the month of celebrations included the Salsa y Salsa dancing event, Taco Tidbit at the Downtown campus and poetry readings with Pulitzer Prize winning poet and ASU Associate Professor Natalie Diaz.  

Changemaker Central @ ASU also hosted an event, Night of Inclusion, on Oct. 7 at the Polytechnic campus on the Lantana Lawn. Night of Inclusion was a celebration of diversity in the ASU community. At the event, participants tried a variety of food and snacks from around the globe, watched music performances and other entertainment, as well as learned more about cultural and community representation. Student organizations and coalitions were there to share about their cultures and resources as well as educate students on the importance of working together to enact positive social change. 

Hannah Stirewalt is the student coordinator for Changemaker Central and a fourth-year student studying applied biological sciences. She said that it’s important to create opportunities for community building on campus after the disruption of the past few years. 

“We feel it is more important than ever to create a sense of community and belonging on campus and in the ASU community. In this time as well, there has been a lot of social and structural change that has opened the door to positive social change, which is why this year’s event theme is Current Issues Impacting Social Change,” Stirewalt said. 

Some of the social issues that Changemaker and partnering organizations will be advocating for include inclusive learning and accessibility, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Stop Asian Hate Movement, advocacy for women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights and raising awareness and spreading education on missing and murdered indigenous women and children, to name a few. 

For more information and to get connected, follow El Concilio and Changemaker Central.