When you walk into the Latinx Student Union (LSU), you can always feel the positive energy around the room and see all the different students from different cultural backgrounds come together. Students are always eager to talk about their roots and culture, so opportunities to learn something new are plentiful, activities director, junior Stepanie Nuno said.

“We are hoping for members to feel welcome in a place where we have gone through similar experiences that have happened to us in HHS or just in general,” Nuno said. “We hope to talk about our differences as well.” 

LSU officers do their best to incorporate different Latino cultures into club meetings in hopes of educating club members in multiple ways, treasurer junior Maritza Lopez said.

“We dedicate almost every meeting to introducing some Latinx culture our members are interested in,” Lopez said. “We talk about that culture’s history, food and traditions.”

This year, LSU is making an emphasis on members being able to feel the community environment when interacting with one another, activities director, senior Sebastian Segovia said. 

The officers hope to work towards building a community by encouraging members to share similar experiences that in the end can offer support to other students, Nuno said.

Similarly, Lopez said a major change to the club includes helping more students find their community now that school is back in person and anyone curious about the club can come check it out now that we are not virtual. 

“This will make it easier for people to come in and check out our events,” Lopez said. “And it’ll help create a community. However, from what we did last year, I would like to keep our creativity and our way of teaching students about different cultures.”

LSU officers have been consistently planning for the year and coming up with potential events for the club to try this year in person that are both social and cultural like the teaching behind a folklorico dance, Nuno said.

“The significance of holding events to celebrate different Latinx cultures is that people are able to get a better understanding of that specific Latinx culture instead of thinking that all cultures are the same,” Lopez said.

The main goal this year is to help everyone feel included, some of the officers in the past have felt like they didn’t have someone like them to relate to, Lopez said.

“LSU has helped me grow and accept my cultural roots. I feel more confident and educated on my own culture, as well as others I didn’t know about. I found a community of people I can lean on and I know will understand my background,” Nuno said.