The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity invites the campus community to participate in NC State’s 2019 Latinx Heritage Month Celebration. Multicultural Student Affairs will host several programs and will promote events with various campus partners to commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 – October 15, 2019.

The month celebrates the important presence of Latin American immigrants in the U.S. and recognizes the histories that each community carries with them. Additionally, we recognize the unique cultures created by the blending of Latin American heritage and U.S. experiences. We take this time each year to recognize the issues facing our people and the future of what it means to be Latinx.

At NC State, we name the celebration Latinx Heritage Month to be inclusive of the experiences and identities of our students, staff, faculty and community. Latinx is the broadest way for folks of any gender within Latin American and Caribbean lineage to identify with.

I spoke to two students in their third year at NC State to ask what Latinx Heritage Month meant to them. One student said:

“This time of year is about embracing my culture in a way that is more natural and fluid. In high school, I didn’t really have a group to connect my culture with. Coming to State, I was able to find people who understood me and my experiences.”

The other student shared:

“Latinx Heritage Month is being able to celebrate my culture and who we are and where we’re coming from. We are such a small group within the population of 36,000, but this is our time to party and be recognized; who we are, and doing so unapologetically.”

This year, a committee of students, chaired by Sidney Uriarte, came together to develop our theme to make sure it was relevant to their lived experiences. Our theme this year, LatinXistence, centers current realities of being a young Latinx person in the U.S. We want to share our experiences and LatinXsistence!

The artwork was created by Carmen Nurinda, a fourth-year student in the Poole College of Management, in continuation of the popular phrase, “They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds”. Our students are no longer just seedlings, they’re growing and becoming flowers. 

Come join us this month at any of our many events. If you have any questions please reach out to Marcela Torres Cervantes via email at matorres@ncsu.edu.

Marcela Torres-Cervantes is assistant director of community outreach and engagement in Multicultural Student Affairs.