Hispanic Heritage Fiesta to celebrate culture

Riverside, Calif. (Oct. 10, 2022) – California Baptist University will hold its annual Hispanic Heritage Fiesta on Oct. 11. This event, scheduled during Hispanic Heritage Month, aims to provide an opportunity for Hispanic students to express themselves and share their culture with fellow CBU students.

“This event is to educate, bring awareness and celebrate cultures within the Hispanic heritage,” said Emilee Thomas, assistant director of campus activities. “We have partnered with our student body to create a fun event that celebrates our Hispanic culture on campus.”

To prep for the event, Community Life connected with Latino students on campus to ensure the event accurately represents the Hispanic community at CBU. Eric Schmidt, a junior software engineering major, is one of the Community Life interns involved in planning the event.

“We put a lot of time, preparation and thought into this event because it means a lot,” Schmidt said. “It’s an event where we celebrate culture and history, something that is super important to me and to a lot of others on the team.”

Having conversations with Latino students on campus about their culture was a vital part of the process.

“We were able to have some really good conversations about what they would love to have here … to make them feel at home,” Schmidt said. “I think that’s the goal: to make a lot of our Hispanic students on campus feel at home.”

Schmidt said that the planning team settled on three aspects of Hispanic culture to highlight: food, music and people. At the event, students will have the opportunity to try food from many different Latin American countries, participate in salsa dancing, listen to music and make arts and crafts inspired by Hispanic culture.

Schmidt said he hopes Latino students see that the CBU community cherishes their culture and will have the opportunity to connect with other Latino students. For non-Latino students, he would like this event to provide some insight into and understanding of Hispanic culture.

“I’m looking forward mostly to seeing students’ reactions to the event and to seeing students smile, especially the Hispanic students, and to know they feel at home,” Schmidt said.

Ultimately, the event is to foster connections and encourage understanding of different cultural backgrounds, especially as CBU grows, Thomas said.

“For this event, we want to educate, bring awareness to and celebrate Hispanic cultures on our campus,” Thomas said. “As we continue to grow in our diversity, we want to make sure that our student population is being seen.”

Hispanic Heritage Fiesta
When: 7-9 p.m. Oct. 11
Where: Lancer Plaza