University Of Alaska Anchorage: Honoring UAA’s Diverse Communities Kicks Off With Latinx Heritage Month – Patch.com

September 15, 2021

With fall semester in full swing, it's time to start celebrating! From Sept. 15 toOct. 15, UAA is honoring the diverse culture, people and places of Latin America withLatinx Heritage Month.

This year's event is a mix of in-person and virtual events, kicking off with a takeoverof Student Life and Leadership's Instagram page, followed by educational opportunities and lectures, trivia, a screening and discussionof In the Heights, and of course, food.

The event is being organized by the YouAA Committee, headed by Cuckoo Gupta, student activities civic engagement and diversity coordinatorin UAA's Student Life and Leadership Office.

Fairly new to Alaska and UAA, Gupta said the YouAA Committee is also a relativelynew university organization that focuses on the history and heritage months; the universitycelebrates each year, invites the campus community together to offer unique perspectiveson how to honor a group's heritage and culture during their respective celebrationmonths.

"The idea is that YouAA is a one-stop-shop for our faculty, staff and students tocome together and celebrate the you in UAA," said Gupta. "And to include the uniqueperspective that our campus community members bring as a part of their identity, culturalheritage and how we can celebrate that uniqueness through our programming."

In addition to harnessing the power of the community to plan programming for thisevent and following heritage months this fall and winter, the committee also re-consideredlast year's name of Hispanic Heritage Month and opted for the more inclusive LatinxHeritage Month. Gupta said the committee felt Latinx covered the broader Latino identifyingcommunity, including LGBTQ2+ and the Indigenous peoples of Latin America.

"We did a lot of research on what other universities in the Lower 48 are doing," saidGupta of the name change. Additionally, the YouAA Committee also reached out to theLatinx Anchorage community to get their input on the name change. "We also did thislast year with Women's History Month, with the added 'X' in women our goal at theend of the day is to be equitable and inclusive."

Jennifer Booz, UAA's chief diversity officer, said this has been an important topicrecently. In addition to her participation on the committee, she is creating educationalmaterials to inspire critical discussions on terminology shifts that the Hispanicand Latino communities are currently facing.

"We will be having discussions at some of these dialogue events, what the trend isand why some groups in the community are claiming some terms and others are claimingsomething different," said Booz. "There are difficult conversations to have, and weneed to get comfortable with being uncomfortable sometimes. But it's a learning processand experience for students and all of us."

In addition to lectures and critical dialogue discussions, there are also more lightheartedevents for students, staff and faculty to enjoy, like a trivia night, an opportunityfor students to win a free meal from local restaurant Xalos and an artist lectureand workshop with George Rodriguez.

Gupta said she is excited about the upcoming event and is looking forward to a mixof both in-person and online events. She said if there are any students, faculty orstaff interested in helping to plan subsequent events, that the YouAA Committee iswelcoming new members. She said members can be involved with as much or as littleplanning as they want or only volunteer for a particular month or event.

"Something that I really like about the committee is that it's intentional," saidGupta. "We celebrate our community's diversity, heritage and cultural identities,but the YouAA Committee makes it more intentional."

This press release was produced by the University of Alaska Anchorage. The views expressed here are the author's own.

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University Of Alaska Anchorage: Honoring UAA's Diverse Communities Kicks Off With Latinx Heritage Month - Patch.com