Students of counselor and instructor Gustavo Romero were situated under the tree in front of the admissions office to explain their projects and answer any questions passers-by may have Thursday, Oct. 12.
The project assigned to them by Romero, reflected topics and social justice issues relevant to those of Hispanic and Latino heritage.
The counseling 200 students chose from the five to six subjects available, then had to conduct research and construct a poster board with the information compiled.
Topics presented included: The Chicano movement, Mujeres de Juarez, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Cuba and the Salvadorian civil war.
Biology major Raj Singh stood at the ready beside his group’s poster to answer any questions passesr-by may have had on the topic of his project.
Singh stated, “We did Chicano movement, which is also called El Movimiento, which takes place in the 1940s through 1970s; a lot of people don’t know about it.”
Romero had provided these topics specifically to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The project,” Romeo said, “Focuses on social justice issues within the Latino community (throughout Mexico, Central America, South America); and it just [explores] historical events and some temporary events that are going on.”
Romero explained that this project not only allows his students to “have some pride and also be able to educate the campus community” with the knowledge gained from research gathered while teaching the students communication skills, critical thinking skills and identity development.
Art major Alejandra Flores stated what made her stop and spend some time looking at each presented poster board, saying, “I just like history about different countries and seeing about Latin American countries caught my attention.”
The project allowed students to become vocal about social justice issues that aren’t discussed on a daily basis outside of Hispanic and Latino countries.
Biology major Denanthony and his group chose Mujeres de Juarez as their topic because “it is a big issue in just Northern Mexico” where “women are being sexually abused and abducted by narco members, undercover cops and bus drivers and not much is being done to help.”
He said,”Mujeres de Juarez is actually really one of those events that impact us because what’s going on with these women isn’t right, [so] we just want to make it clear and put it out there.”
