Photo credit: Zoe Gazzuolo

Hermanas Unidas member Maia Alvarez (’24) prepares servings of arroz con leche during the Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month festival. The celebration took place Friday, Oct. 13, during lunch and aimed to educate community members on Hispanic and Latine culture.

Faculty-run dance lessons. Lotería. Paper flower making. These are all activities Hermanas Unidas featured in their annual Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month festival. They held the festival to share and celebrate their culture with the Archer community Friday, Oct. 13, during lunch in the courtyard.

Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, and recognizes and honors the history, culture and contributions of Hispanic and Latine individuals. To celebrate the month’s commencement, Grupo Folklórico La Rosa visited Archer Friday, Sept. 15, and performed traditional Mexican folk dances.

The Hermanas Unidas Executive Board later led presentations teaching the Archer community about Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month. They shared media surrounding Hispanic and Latine culture for students to engage with. Finally, they hosted a festival in the courtyard filled with music, food and games to mark the month’s conclusion.

Hermanas Unidas Executive Board member Kay Bruce (’24) cooked around 90 tacos with their family and brought agua fresca to display and share at the event. They said Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month allows them to be particularly proud of their identity and share the history of their culture.

“Being able to just be confident and share my identity is so beautiful to me because it’s something that I’ve always wanted to be able to do,” Bruce said. “I’m really grateful to have a platform like Archer, where I can make presentations and have this festival so we can display our culture.”

Every year, Hermanas Unidas chooses a theme to center their work around. This year’s theme is “Flipping the Script,” which aims to highlight Hispanic and Latine celebrities for steps they are taking to benefit society. World language teacher and one of Hermanas Unidas’ faculty advisers Annie Santana-Grush said the idea of the theme is to learn more about these figures beyond their career and spotlight sides of them that typically go unseen.

“The idea is, these are people that you already know, these are things they’re doing to contribute to our society. For example, there’s a Spanish chef who is world-renowned, and he was also considered for a Nobel Peace Prize because of how he feeds people in need when there’s a natural disaster,” Santana said. “So it’s like, you have one idea of who this person is — let’s talk about this other side that’s benefiting society as a whole.”

The festival included student performances, food made by members of Hermanas Unidas, booths that highlighted aspects of Hispanic and Latine culture and faculty-run dance lessons. Bruce said one of their biggest goals for the celebration was to give students a better understanding of Hispanic and Latine culture. 

“We have tons and tons of food. We have music. We have arts and crafts and games. With all the food that we’re giving out, we have little cards that explain what the dish is and what its significance is,” Bruce said. “We want to not only show our culture, but to educate people.”

Fellow Hermanas Unidas board member Emily Hernandez (’24) led the paper-flower-making booth. The decorations are usually displayed for Día de los Muertos to commemorate loved ones who have passed away. Hernandez said Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month brings people together, with the festival allowing her to share her culture with peers. 

“It’s really about being able to embrace and share our culture with community and loved ones,” Hernandez said. “It’s also a great way to get together and connect with people through food, dance and games.” 

Santana said seeing students and faculty participating, engaging and enjoying themselves during the festival and feeling their joy is what the celebration is all about for her.

“With the large number of people who are of Hispanic or Latino descent in Los Angeles, the culture is all around us. Our community is filled with people that identify this way, and so [Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month] is sharing and enjoying the culture, the food and the music together,” Santana said. “It’s bringing us together through this joint appreciation and celebration of a culture that is a huge part of our community and that we all experience on a daily basis.”