Latinx Heritage Month lasts from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, and Eastern is hosting events to honor it.

The events that are being held or have been held include: 

• Taco Giveaway Kickoff at Doudna Fine Arts at noon on Sept. 15
• Grand Opening of the Latinx and Special Language Academic Hub at Coleman Hall Room 1150 at noon on Sept. 21
• Latina/o, Latinx, Latine, Hispanic: What Do We Call Ourselves? at Coleman Hall Room 1150 at 5 p.m. on Sept. 21
• What is it like to be a Latina/x/o/e in the LGBTQ+ Community? at Coleman Hall Room 1150 at 5 p.m. on Sept. 22
• What I Wish I Knew as a First-Generation Student at Coleman Hall Room 1150 at 5 p.m. on today
• What Is It Like to be Undocumented as a Student and Professional? at Coleman Hall Room 1150 at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5
• The Experience of Latina/x/o/e Students with Disabilities at Colman Hall 1150 at 5 p.m. on Oct. 6
• Dia de los Muertos Gala at the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Grand Ballroom at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5

Yesenia Muruato, an education specialist for the office of inclusion and academic engagement and the chair of Latinx Heritage Month. Muruato is in charge of coordinating events and selecting members for the committee.  

The taco giveaway took place in the South Quad by the library and in Doudna Fine Arts Center Muruato said. The event took place in Doudna as an introduction to upcoming events and what to expect, Muruato said.

The Latina/o, Latinx, Latine, Hispanic: What Do We Call Ourselves? event was a way for students and community members to understand why they call each other different names. 

“For the upcoming year, we are hoping to change the name from Latino Heritage Month to Latina/o, Latinx, Latine, Heritage Month,” Muruato said. “The reason that we want to change it to that is because we want to be inclusive.” 

Muruato expressed that she did not want there to be any pushback against the name change and wanted to make sure that members would be in agreement.  

The What is it like to be a Latina/x/o/e in the LGBTQ+ Community? was a way for people to talk about often forgotten members such as the LGBTQ, undocumented, and disabled communities.  

“We want to address these communities and create workshops for people to get informed about these smaller communities within the whole Latinx community because for our theme, we kind of want to tie it back to our theme which is Unidos, which basically translates to united,” Muruato said.  

What I Wish I Knew as a First-Generation Student will also be combined with the grand opening of the Latinx and Spanish language academic hub.    

The What Is It Like to be Undocumented as a Student and Professional? and The Experience of Latina/x/o/e Students with Disabilities will also be held to honor the month on Oct. 5.  

Another event that will be held is the Dia de los Muertos Gala, which will take place on Nov. 5 in the MLK Jr Union Grand Ballroom from 7 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. 

A gala is an event to honor ancestors, Muruato said.  

“[Gala] is the day of the dead,” Muruato said. “It’s traditionally celebrated Nov. 1 through the second, but we’re pushing it back a little bit, celebrating it on Nov. 5, and we will be giving out awards to students, faculty, staff and community members.”

In the beginning of the semester, emails were sent out to all the resident assistants to participate in a bulletin board contest, and awards will be given out to participants of that, Muruato said.  

“This is just us trying to share culture and teach other people about our traditions,” Muruato said. 

At the event, students will be performing a balle folklórico, which is a traditional dance from Latin America. 

Cam’ron Hardy can be reached at 581-2812 or at cahardy@eiu.edu.