In front of Bascom Hall on Sept. 18, drizzly skies did not stop flags from flying at March Up Bascom, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s iconic annual Latine Heritage Month kickoff event. The celebratory march followed by a Carnaval was just a few of many events spread throughout the holiday.
Latine Heritage Month spans between Sep. 15 and Oct. 15 — the recognition overlaps two months to include the Independence Days of eight countries within its timeframe.
During this time, the Latine Heritage Month Planning Committee has brought a packed calendar of events to UW-Madison. Latine Cultural Center (LCC) members expressed particular excitement for March Up Bascom, a community bonfire at Picnic Point called Raíces y Fogata, and the Latine Ball, the final event of the month.
For LCC Programming Intern Carmen Alvarez, the Latine Ball’s welcoming nature makes her contributions to Latine Heritage Month plans feel especially impactful.
“I've attended [the Latine Ball] since my freshman year, and I've seen it just get bigger and bigger,” Alvarez told The Daily Cardinal. “There’s such a diverse audience that comes … and just because you’re not Latine doesn’t mean you’re not welcome.”
The Latine Heritage Month Planning Committee began planning festivities in February. Inspired by common familial and artistic experiences, the committee settled on the theme Woven in Our Worth.
Woven in Our Worth “reinvents the histories, struggles and dreams of Latin American cultures, weaving them into a shared tapestry of fortitude and ambition,” according to the UW-Madison Latine Heritage Month homepage.
Kalani Rodriguez, the LCC’s other programming intern, supported the theme idea because of how it synthesized different cultural experiences into one artistic view of tradition.
“There’s a lot of weaving and tapestry that ties into Latine cultures, across all of them,” Rodriguez told the Cardinal. “They’re all so different, [but] a lot of them are similar, too, so it’s great to be able to put them all together and find something new.”
Alvarez believed Woven in Our Worth inspired reflection and gratitude for one’s support system.
“Storytelling is very embedded within our culture, and we are now building onto those stories,” Alvarez said. “And a lot of the time, we are doing things that have not been done within our family trees before.”
Alvarez also said the theme’s artistic nature helped contrast more athletics-heavy events in last year’s program, allowing for different celebrations to meet students’ individual needs and interests.
While the Woven in Our Worth principle carries through every Latine Heritage Month event, the theme was physically represented at Pieces of Us, a community quilt event where students created a personally significant quilt square to become part of one large art piece.
The theme’s visuals also took extensive thought from the Latine Heritage Month Planning Committee. The Woven in Our Worth logo depicts a cookie tin containing sewing materials, a reference shared by many LCC members.
“I would say [it’s] a common memory for a lot of Latines who grew up with abuelitas or abuelitos; you usually open the cookie tin hoping there’s cookies inside, but you always find something else,” Rodriguez said.
In her opinion, the theme references not only a shared joke but also a common appreciation for family.
“It’s just a really good way to remember that they’re always with us and they’re the ones who gave us the opportunities to be in these spaces,” she said.
Lizbeth Ramos, the Woven in Our Worth logo artist, felt connected to the theme in multiple ways.
“My grandma taught me how to weave, embroider, crochet, sew, knit, and everything in between,” she told the Cardinal.
Ramos noted that as a personal touch, the scissors in her logo do not match the rest of the color palette.
“I incorporated that color. Those are the exact scissors that I just vividly remember always having around,” Ramos said.
Through every event, guest speaker and celebration, the Latine Heritage Month Planning Committee is devoted to helping UW-Madison students find their community.
Rodriguez said attending a primarily white institute as a Latine student can be difficult, but she believes it is “important to let them know that there is a community here that they can lean on if they need it.”
Alvarez said she is thankful Latine Heritage Month occurs in the fall because it allows the LCC to take in new students who are looking for a welcoming space on campus.
“Finding these events, finding people that reflect the home away from home…” she said. “It reminds me that I’m meant to be here.”
