Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month 2024 honors the pioneers of change—recognizing trailblazers who have paved the way for us to shape the future together.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the history and breadth of cultures that make up the second largest ethnic group in the US. It’s a month when we remember and honor our cultures—and the hardships many of our ancestors had to overcome.
The Multicultural and Identity Centers on each FRCC campus play a huge part in this month’s celebration. They are known for being vital in fostering inclusive and diverse communities.
My role at the college—as a bilingual cultural and leadership programs coordinator—is to celebrate the cultural diversity of our students and employees by providing information, a safe space and helping to build cultural awareness.
Discovering Ourselves… and Others
A significant aspect of the college experience too often goes unnoticed or is not effectively provided the level of transparency that it requires and deserves. I am speaking of the educational experience of discovering oneself in a new way through cultural exploration.
What I mean is that for many people, including myself, our cultural heritage is often reduced in our learning experiences starting in grade school. For people and communities whose identities have been marginalized—or reduced to brief paragraphs in history books— success requires a thorough understanding of one’s true self. We need to explore how our heritage will communicate with the world and with people who have different identities from our own.
Ways to Learn About Different Cultures
As students navigate higher learning institutions, we can provide them opportunities for self-discovery, for meaningful understanding and a true connection with cultural heritage and personal identity. This kind of exploration can occur through:
- Ethnic studies courses in the classroom
- Clubs and activities on campus
- Supportive programs such as our Latinx Excellence Achievement Development Scholars (LEADS)
However students approach this learning, the ability to explore—and to find important links between their past and their present—truly gets them onto the best path toward their individual and collective futures.
Representation Matters
It is for this reason that Multicultural and Identity Centers are so critical at our college. Multicultural representation is visible in our student population, and it requires us as an institution to not only be aware of these identities, but to also understand how to effectively honor them. We need to provide thorough support that truly addresses any and all gaps that misinterpret our culture, our cultural values and our heritage.
It is not enough to simply hang banners and flags or dedicate a month to celebrate any single identity. On the contrary, we need to ensure that our institutions reflect these identities regularly—all year long. FRCC staff and students do our due diligence to approach these experiences with dignity, respect and curiosity in order to broaden our own horizons through a multicultural lens.
Walking the Walk
We cannot only say we honor multiculturalism. We must become knowledgeable and be mindful of our own biases and confusions. We must strive to become anti-racist and reach for true equity—not just equality.
This is what we strive for in creating a true multicultural space. Embracing our student body’s diverse identities helps us to wholly encompasses what it means to be multicultural.
A Work in Progress
For this reason, I am proud to serve at an institution that not only provides programming to promote learning and understanding of a variety of cultures, but that is constantly progressing in its journey to be representative of our entire student body and staff. At FRCC we don’t just do this through events celebrating particular days or months, but through dedicated curriculum and programs throughout the year. As the Cultural Coordinator it is my role to show and honor different cultures and traditions and I am just getting started by showing part of my culture with Hispanic Heritage Month.
I feel honored to be a part of these efforts at FRCC.
