Georgia Norton
It was early Tuesday morning when Ms. Salichs came into the newspaper room, full of energy, as she pitched us an article on Hispanic Heritage month. “We’ve got a lot planned this year,” she said, leaning forward excitedly in a green swivel chair, “Would you guys be interested?”
Hispanic Heritage month is celebrated every year at Lovett, though it rarely gets the acknowledgement it deserves. This year, however, Lovett is putting extra emphasis on it. “We’ve got activities planned all throughout the month in each school so that everyone can get involved,” Ms. Salichs explained. She and Margarita Pina, Lovett’s Director for Hispanic Student Outreach and Support, have been working non-stop to organize events to make sure everyone can celebrate.
“Our month is a little bit strange, since it goes from the middle of one month to another,” Ms. Pina explained to me one morning in the upper school hall, flipping through a manilla folder of Hispanic Heritage month articles, notes, and lists. She handed me an article to read.
“It’s from the 15th of September to the 15th of October because countries like Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and a few others gained freedom on or around the 15th,” she said. The article explained how the month became officially recognized in 1988 under President Reagan, and how 18%, or 57.7 million people in the US today, are Hispanic, making up one of the larger ethnicities in the country.
“I think this needs to be recognized because people don’t realize how much the Hispanic community has done for this country,” Ms. Pina said. “We only hear about the negatives, when in actuality Hispanic people have influenced so much of what people take for granted.”
She pointed out how half of the US belonged to Mexico only a few hundred years ago. “Hispanic people aren’t foreigners, we’ve always been here and we’ve influenced a lot of the culture in the US today. San Francisco, Florida, San Diego– it’s all Hispanic.”
While the goal is to increase awareness, Ms. Pina said that the celebrations will be understated. Ms. Salichs said that they want to “make sure it was convenient and worked with everyone’s schedule so it isn’t an inconvenience; we want people to want to take part.”
For example, every morning meeting there will be Hispanic music playing, with the songs chosen by Hispanic staff at Lovett. On October 1st, the Ellington band will be playing Oyo Como Va as students walk in.
In the cafeteria later this month, there will be a Latin Taste Celebration in which ten Hispanic countries will be featured with different dishes and ingredients to honor the ten Hispanic countries represented in Lovett’s staff, including Peru, Mexico, and Colombia.
If you prefer to sleep in on Mondays or grab a pizza in the cafe, there are still ways to get involved, like salsa dancing and watching Coco with the Essence club, or submitting photos to the upper school photo contest.
The contest has the theme “One Endless Voice to Enhance Our Traditions,” which is also the national slogan for Hispanic Heritage Month this year, and the rules are simple: you can submit any photo of a Hispanic country you’ve visited–including Lovett’s Siempre Verde campus–or a photo of something you feel captures an aspect of Hispanic culture. The winner will receive a free dinner for them and three friends at a Hispanic restaurant of their choice, though Ms. Pina suggests Plaza Fiesta market on Buford Highway if you’re indecisive.“You can find anything there– it’s a lot of fun!” she said.
Younger students will also participate in the month. The lower school will hold a recipe contest and taste test with the theme of “Rice Across Cultures” with the winning dish featured in the cafeteria one day, and they will create a Wall of Nations to be shown off at Worldfest displaying the many backgrounds of lower school families. In the middle school, Mr. Aker’s Spanish class plans to sing three Spanish songs in assembly, and students will color Hispanic-themed pictures during advisory on Mindfulness Fridays.
When I asked Ms. Salichs which of the many activities she’s most excited for, she replied “just being able to celebrate my heritage and celebrate with others. I share a lot about it in my classroom; I’m very proud of my heritage, and I love that everyone else can share in that.”
But, it’s not only about Hispanics.
“It’s more important though that we recognize each component of community here,” Ms. Salichs urged, leaning back in her seat decidedly, “because we’re a lot more multicultural than we realize. I think if we start putting out opportunities for other people to recognize not only their own heritage but the other cultures at Lovett, it promotes an understanding, and this is just a jumping-off point for that. This way when we encounter something new we’re not so abrasive, hesitant, or quick to judge.”
Her words stuck with me, and I wondered: maybe it’s not only understanding our past but understanding where everyone around us comes from that allows us to progress, and, if so, then embracing this Hispanic Heritage month is the perfect place to start.
