Multicultural Festivities and Events Held

Fundraisers, film and Dia de los Muertos planned Naushaba KhanTHE SANTA CLARAOctober 24, 2013The Chicano and Latino populations in the United States are continually growing, making our country more and more diverse. Programs and events are occurring campus-wide in honor of Chicano/Latino Heritage Month. Students and faculty are encouraged to celebrate, learn and become  more active throughout the month. “It’s critical now more than ever that we are knowledgeable and passionate to learn about the communities and histories of various groups,” said Jade Agua, the program director in the Office for Multicultural Learning. Agua stressed the influence that religious, social, socioeconomic and political issues have on our communities. She believes that if we wish to work together towards a brighter future, it is in the community’s best interests to have a breadth and depth of understanding about these issues and the growing cultural diversity. The OML worked closely with Somos Mayfair to put on the first two events of the month. Somos Mayfair is a community-based organization established to help build healthier families through cultural activism. The first event, Gracias a la Vida, provided students with the opportunity to volunteer at Somos Mayfair’s annual fundraising event held at Mexican Heritage Plaza in east San Jose, Calif.  on Thursday, Oct. 17. The second event was a film screening of the movie “Walkout” that was held on Tuesday in the Benson Memorial Center.The events were purposed toward creating awareness and to close the reading achievement gap among third-graders in San Jose’s Mayfair neighborhood, which includes generations of Latino immigrants. The film “Walkout” portrays the circumstances that provoked the estimated 10,000 students to walk out of five high schools in 1968. The film identifies a variety of holes in the nation’s public education system and celebrates the work of Sal Castro. Castro, who passed away earlier this year, was a social studies teacher and mentor for the group of students who walked at the time. The film screening was followed by a brief discussion.Agua suggests compounding the two examples — the walkouts in 1968 and the slowly developing education system in Mayfair — to form a debatable issue for the OML discussion led by Adrian Felix from the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, which will take place Oct. 24 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Parlor B of Benson Memorial Center. OML seeks to encourage critical thinking about our current communal statutes by opening the floor to discuss the United States’ outdated public education system within our community. The goal is to bring as many minds of the community together to explore creative solutions to such systematic issues.OML will also celebrate El Día de los Muertos on Tuesday, Oct. 29 An altar will be set up in memory of loved ones who have passed. OML welcomes students to bring any photos or memorial pieces of loved ones to help enrich the altar. Pan dulce, Mexican hot chocolate, and calavera painting will take place. Contact Naushaba Khan at nkahn@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.