Mi Gente strives to educate Jewell community about Latino culture

Krista Halstead — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 13:00:00 +0000

Mi Gente table in Yates-GIll Union with Olga Morales, sophomore public relations and theater major. Photo by Catherine Dema.

On campus at William Jewell College, Mi Gente is striving to provide a place of community – bringing together all people to celebrate Latino culture.

When asked about the mission of Mi Gente, Olga Morales, sophomore public relations and theatre major and social media coordinator of the club, emphasized Mi Gente’s goal to educate the Jewell community about Latino culture.

“On our Instagram page, we’re always open to teach and educate people about the Latino experience. Especially being in such a small demographic here at Jewell, we’re not limited to just the Latino community but to everyone here at Jewell,” said Morales.

Christian Santiago, sophomore history and political science major and secretary of the club, elaborated on the importance of inclusion.

“I would say that the primary draw for us is not only getting the word out there about what Hispanic and Latino cultures have to offer [to] a broader community that may not be as well informed on it, but also there’s a strong emphasis on the sense of inclusion. Never for a second would we want to give off the impression that Mi Gente is a Hispanic club for [only] Hispanics. It’s about building community and bringing people in to educate and celebrate [Latino culture] along with us,” said Santiago.

After being founded in 2015, Mi Gente is still trying to increase its visibility through its own projects as well as collaborations with other organizations on campus.

“[When] we started in 2015, there were like five members in the club originally and now we have about 33 members in the club, so we have increased a lot. We’re still not as visible [as clubs like BSA and QUILTBAG], but we’re getting enough visibility to the point we’re getting new members. Last year we started a social media page where we got over 200 followers from Jewell’s campus and people [who have different] perspectives so I think we are still growing and it’s going in a good direction,” said Morales.

Santiago explained the collaborations between clubs on campus and the importance of that camaraderie.

“I think there is a good emphasis there on our kind of assimilated involvement with organizations like the BSA and QUILTBAG and those kinds of, I suppose, culture minority clubs on campus. It has been really helpful on our part to interact with one another and kind of piggyback off of one another to kind of help strengthen all three of us collectively,” Santiago said.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, Mi Gente has only been able to hold one event, but they have several projects coming up in the near future.

“Our first event was the ‘meet Mi Gente,’ so it was our very first event and we’re having two events coming up soon. We are planning to work along with [the] digital media communications class to do like a Halloween event, and we are planning to do a Day of the Dead event where we teach and educate people about Day of the Dead [and] even put an ofrenda in the union where people can give peace to the loved ones they’ve lost,” said Morales.

Mi Gente was planning to highlight Day of the Dead in their Halloween collaboration with digital media communications, but they instead used the event as an opportunity to educate the Jewell community on the difference between Halloween and Day of the Dead.

“We were planning to [highlight] Day of the Dead [during the Halloween event], but I feel like it would be out of theme with Halloween. A lot of people tend to associate Day of the Dead with Halloween, which [are] two different things. We’re going to do something that is scary in the Latino community and do a selfie background as well as posters and stuff like that [but] try to associate Day of the Dead with itself rather than with Halloween,” stated Morales.

Another project for Mi Gente is focused on the Latino faculty and staff at Jewell. In order to show the Latino staff on campus that they are appreciated, Mi Gente will be putting together and delivering goodie bags with items like candy and hand sanitizer.

“We thought it would be a good idea as kind of an activity together as an organization for the semester to work on making goodie bags for all of the Latino workers on campus just as an appreciation for all that they are doing. [It’s] just a good way to show to them that they are appreciated on campus,” said Sierra Sanchez, junior biochemistry major and vice president of the club.

Throughout the rest of the fall semester and into the spring, Mi Gente will continue to focus on increasing visibility on Jewell’s campus as well as educating the community on Latino culture.

Mi Gente’s cabinet consists of President Patrick Rohlfing, senior philosophy and religion major; Vice President Sanchez; Secretary Santiago; and Social Media Coordinator Morales. Mi Gente can be found through their Instagram page.

According to statistics from Dr. Andy Pratt, vice president for social responsibility and engagement, out of 997 students at William Jewell College this year, 785 are white.

Of the remaining students, 43 identify as two or more races, 41 are Hispanic/Latinx, 40 are Black/African-American, 25 are unknown, 12 are Asian, one is Indigenous American/Indigenous Alaskan and one is Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

Each year, using this data, the college calculates a diversity percentage. The percentage is the non-Caucasian students—excluding the non-residential and unknown categories—divided by the total number of students. In 2014, the percentage was 16.1 (20.5 including non-residential students. In 2015, the percentage was 15.2 (19.75 including non-residential students) and in 2016, the diversity of the college was 13.8 percent (18.8 percent including non-residential students).

To put these statistics in perspective, below are diversity statistics from two of Jewell’s aspirant schools: St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn and Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. For the year 2016, the domestic multicultural percentage for St. Olaf College was 17.7 percent “of total student body” and 19.5 “of known domestic students.” For Hendrix College, the minority enrollment for fall 2016 was 21 percent. Jewell’s diversity, based on these percentage calculations, is lower than both of these schools.

In addition to being less diverse than its aspirant colleges, Jewell’s diversity has also decreased over the last three years. While lower enrollment and higher tuition costs might account for some of this decreased diversity, they are not the only causes. The number of multicultural groups on a college campus is often a determining factor for students of color in their college decision. While Hendrix and St. Olaf College have 10 and 13 multicultural groups respectively, Jewell has three: the Black Student Association (BSA), the International Student Association (ISA) and the newly formed group for Hispanic/Latinx students, Mi Gente (Mi Gente means “my people” in Spanish). Using a wider definition of multicultural, QUILTBAG and Feminist Club would also be included on this list, bringing the total to five.

Seeing a clear need for increased representation for Hispanic/Latinx—the gender neutral term for Latino/Latina—students on campus, Abram Fernandez, senior philosophy and history double major, started and serves as president of Mi Gente, the newest multicultural group on campus.

“I think there is a problem with under representation on this campus regarding Latinos/Hispanics in general,” Fernandez said, “and I felt like there needed to be a place for other Hispanics/Latinx students on this campus to gather in solidarity with one another, especially in response to the recent political turmoil in the country.”

Fernandez is referencing the recent presidential election, in which now-President Donald Trump made several comments about Mexicans, most infamously saying “They’re [Mexicans are] rapists.”

Fernandez’s fears of political turmoil are not unfounded. As of Dec. 12, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that combats hate, has tracked 1,094 bias-related incidents since the U.S. Presidential election.

Fernandez said that he wants the club to be a space where Latinx students on campus don’t feel alone. As for long-term goals, Fernandez would like to see the club do more to promote Latinx culture.

“Long-term, I want the club to embrace Latino and Hispanic culture as a whole and bring awareness to aspects of our culture that we are proud about to this campus, as well as dealing with issues of racism towards Latinos, not only in the country, but also sorts of microaggressions this campus itself holds against us,” Fernandez said.

Microaggressions are defined as casual, often unconscious insults or dismissals that, when accrued, further systems of oppression. Examples include asking people of color where they are from or saying ladies first.

Through Mi Gente, Fernandez wants to see Jewell students come to terms with their implicit biases and microaggressions.

“It’s just the small things that they can do for individuals, like if you’re friends with a Latino or Latina or Latinx student, that’s all fine and great.” Fernandez said, “Don’t tokenize us, don’t ask us to help you with your Spanish homework out of the blue just because you find out that we are Latino, Latina, Latinx or Hispanic and automatically assume that we know Spanish or that we want to help you for free.”

Fernandez is the President of Mi Gente; the rest of the cabinet includes MaryAlice Howser as Vice-President, Daniela Huerta Marin as Secretary, Marco Antonio Martinez Lopez and Thais Valeria Quiroga as Event Coordinator. Thais Valeria Quiroga, sophomore Oxbridge history of ideas and international relations major, also spoke with the Monitor about her role as event coordinator.

“Since we became a recognized on-campus student organization, Mi Gente has focused on creating events that showcase Latin-American culture and discussed the stereotypes often associated with our culture,” Quiroga said. “In the future, we hope to establish a formal connection with Jewell’s Admission Office, to reach out to members of Latinx communities that may be interested in attending Jewell.”

Last week, for their first formal event, Mi Gente hosted a movie night. They showed “No se aceptan devoluciones” or “Instructions not Included,” a quirky but heartwarming Mexican film. The event pulled a crowd; Fernandez and Quiroga were pleased.

“Throughout the rest of the semester we are looking forward to hosting Latin-American food and game nights, watching the Mexico-Puerto Rico soccer match and creating awareness of our presence at Jewell,” said Quiroga.

Though Jewell still doesn’t meet the level of diversity or have as many multicultural groups as some of its aspirant schools, groups like Mi Gente help to create awareness of cultures many Jewell students wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise.

“We are not here to be inflammatory, we are not here to be particularly reactionary; [we are] aside from reactionary only in a sense that we are reacting to hate and aggression towards us, where we see it, but we are here to bring a wider understanding of who we are, who we see ourselves as and what our culture means to us,” Fernandez said.

Mi Gente meets on a bi-weekly basis: Wednesdays at 6pm in the PLC. For more information visit their Facebook page.

BSA meets on Thursdays at 7pm in YGSU 210.

QUILTBAG meets on Tuesdays at 8pm in the PLC.

WJC Feminists meets on Mondays at 7:15pm in YGSU 210.

More information on the International Students Association of William Jewell College can be found on their Facebook page.

mi gente – The Hilltop Monitor

Mi Gente strives to educate Jewell community about Latino culture

Mi Gente: Expanding Jewell’s multicultural groups