La Casa Cultural and student groups have organized programming, and dining halls will serve Latin American dishes on Wednesday.
Hannah Liu
Contributing Reporter
Samad Hakani, Senior Photographer
Yale groups have planned a slew of events to honor Latino culture for Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated in the United States from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
The events range from an address by Honduran writer and photojournalist Tomás Ayuso to a menu takeover on Wednesday, when Yale’s residential dining halls will serve Latin American dishes that students had been able to request during an open house at La Casa Cultural de Julia de Burgos, Yale’s Latino cultural house.
Three student organizers said that the heritage month programming helps bring together the Latino community on campus.
La Casa is coordinating or overseeing many of the activities. According to Carolina Dávila, the cultural center’s director and an assistant dean of Yale College, the center also works with 19 affiliate groups, many of which are hosting their own cultural gatherings.
“Each year, it’s both a combination of traditions that we’ve had as well as new efforts that students want to propose,” Dávila told the News.
Dávila added that she’s focused on providing a mix of both “festive and celebratory” gatherings and “more critical and analytical, scholarly” events.
Hispanic Heritage Month, originally designated as Hispanic Heritage Week, was expanded in 1988 to a month-long observance honoring Latino history, culture and contributions in the United States. The start of the month, Sept. 15, coincides with the Independence Days of many Latin American nations.
“Latinidad is such a complex topic,” Samantha Suavo ’26, the co-founder and co-president of the pre-law group Yale Lawtinas, said, using the Spanish word for Latino culture and experience. “This month is about honoring that layered history, celebrating the culture and making sure that there is a safe space for complex conversations about how this impacts our communities.”
Yale Lawtinas, established last spring as Yale’s first Latina pre-law organization, is hosting a documentary screening event in the Silliman College movie theater on Friday, Oct. 10, in collaboration with a Yale-affiliated Latina sorority.
Suavo and Lawtinas co-president Charlize Leon Mata ’26 told the News that they hope to bring together Latino students across organizations through this Hispanic Heritage Month collaboration.
“Latinos are such a diverse group of people, but the warmth visible in every Latino household that I’ve had the privilege of being part of is such a beautiful strength,” Leon Mata said. “There’s a sense of community that comes from Latinidad I have not experienced elsewhere, a sort of vibrancy and joy that I really admire about my culture.”
Yale students were able to engage with the greater New Haven community through Fiesta Latina, an annual New Haven cultural celebration that took place over the weekend — a partnership between Yale’s Peabody Museum and Junta for Progressive Action, a local civic organization focused on Hispanic and immigrant communities.
La Casa student coordinator Darren Paredes ’29 said he appreciates how the diversity of Latino culture is reflected in La Casa’s programming.
“I think I had a very specific understanding of what it meant to be Latino and I was kind of uncomfortable with how I fit into that,” Paredes said. “But La Casa is a space for truly everybody at Yale. Each country has some culture and even within that, different distinct cultural groups.”
La Casa is located at 301 Crown St.