NMSU celebrates Latiné Heritage Month with special campus events

NMSU observes Latiné Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. This year, several campus organizations will host special events that celebrate and honor Latiné culture.

Source: NMSU Newsroom
By Carlos Carrillo López
Images: Courtesy

Celebrations for Latiné Heritage Month are underway at New Mexico State University, a designated Hispanic-serving institution with a student population that is 60% Hispanic.

NMSU observes Latiné Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. This year, several campus organizations will host special events that celebrate and honor Latiné culture.

At the end of September, NMSU’s College Assistance Migrant Program celebrated 25 years of supporting students and their families. CAMP hosted a special talk with NMSU alumnus and CAMP graduate Manuel “Manny” Serrano.  Serrano is a three-time Aggie graduate from Hatch, New Mexico, who earned three degrees from NMSU and now serves as a senior research-and-development mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories.

CAMP also hosted a keynote speech with Richard Louis Leza, an NMSU alumnus, entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and advocate for education.

CAMP families, alumni, community members and friends were invited to join both events.

NMSU’s Latin American Programs, or LAP, and Zuhl Library hosted its latest “Conchas y Co-Work” event. Free coffee and conchas, a Mexican sweet bread known for its colorful, shell-like topping, was available for all those studying and working at the library that evening.

In October, LAP and NMSU’s LGBT+ Programs will be among the many organizations participating in the Southern New Mexico Pride Parade in downtown Las Cruces Oct. 3, starting at 4 p.m. LAP and LGBT+ Program invite NMSU students, staff and faculty to show their support for LGBTQ+ community and join the parade.

Taos restaurant in Corbett Center Student Union will host a Latiné lunch celebration Oct. 4 in collaboration with LAP, starting at 11 a.m. The menu will include cuisines from Central, South and Caribbean Latiné nations.

To mark the 1-year birthday of the “Think Inside the Box: An Art-Installation of Local Histories, Ethnic Studies Curriculum,” the Department of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies will host a celebration at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 15 at the northeast corner of Preciado Park on NMSU’s Las Cruces campus. The mobile museum is a project by the BEST Research Center that highlights the often-omitted histories of the borderland region in K-12 curriculum.

Latiné Heritage Month will conclude Oct. 16 with “Música y Movimiento para Midterms,” hosted by LAP. Students, staff and faculty are invited to join a night of live music by local mariachi bands, grupos, conjuntos and dance performers. The festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. at Preciado Park.

For more information, about Latiné Heritage Month events at NMSU, follow @nmsu_lap on Instagram.