For the first time in three years, AACC’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration will include in-person events. 

Student success and retention adviser Samuel Cordero-Puchales said this year’s celebration will feature a poetry slam for the first time. A poetry slam is like an open mic event for students and others who would like to read poetry to an audience. 

“Everybody not relying on technologies [and] being just face to face is a different perspective,” Cordero, who advises the Latinx Club, said. “You know, you get to see people share expressions. … Our conversation here has a sense of feeling of, you know, we’re together here, to share a similar experience.” 

The campus celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month every year.

 “We’re looking at the perspective of our nation, we share things in common,” Cordero said, “but this is the foundation of our nation. The freedom of speech, the freedom that you can be with somebody even though having different points of view, you know, we come together. We all celebrate an event, we celebrate something that has an impact, you know, going back again to how we are as Americans”

Over the next month seven events will include four in-person events on the Arnold and Glen Burnie campuses as well as three online events through Zoom and Google Meet. The Latinx club will host a Kickoff to begin the celebrations, as well as a Pinata workshop, where students are invited to create their own pinatas, and a fiesta to end the month. Online Cordero will host a “Let’s Talk” event, which gives the community the opportunity to learn about hispanic culture and ask questions. Guest speaker assistant director of Princeton’s office of diversity and inclusion, Eric Anglero, will speak on “Deconstructing Machismo for Gender Inclusivity in Latinx spaces” on zoom as well.  

“There’s a lot of things that you can still learn more about,” Cordero said. “The cuisines that we learn, but also aspects of poetry, history, things we have contributed [to] in areas of education. We’re going to have an art exposition. … you can learn and see these other areas from the Latinx culture.”

Cordero advised students of all cultures to “expose yourself to learn about a culture… Inclusivity for a stronger nation, that’s how you make it right because we are stronger from different aspects in a very diverse environment.”

Cordero said he encourages all students to participate in this month’s festivities and campus life. 

“Once students get involved in events and activities, they can even expose some skills such as leadership skills, and any scholarships that will help them at one point in their career,” Cordero said. 

Students said celebrating diversity is important to the AACC community and they are interested in upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month events.

“It’s good because it’s representing different cultures that people might not know about,” first-year undecided student Travis Peach said. 

Second-year student Julie Lemus agreed. “I think it’s beneficial just because it helps increase the diversity,” Lemus said. 

Ashley Flores-Gonzalez, who is the first member of her family to attend college, said the month’s activities will help her non-Hispanic classmates learn more about her culture.

“It is also like, good for us as Hispanic kids show other people like what our culture is about, you know, just to share it, you know, yeah. You know, just everybody having fun and feeling accepted,” Florez-Gonzalez said. “I think people can feel included”

Flores-Gonzales added: “We’re all humans with differences, you know … but that’s what makes us unique, basically.”