La Bienvenida at Hofstra was designed to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month as part of the Identities at Hofstra event series. // Photo courtesy of Christian Lanoix.
La Bienvenida at Hofstra took place on Monday, Sept. 26 in the David and Sondra S. Mack Student Center. This event was facilitated by the Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion (IEI) office at Hofstra.
Organizations and departments on campus like Hofstra’s Organization of Latin Americans (HOLA), Student Government Association (SGA), the Cultural Center, the Event Management Office, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice, Latin America and Caribbean Studies and the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication also sponsored the event. Any student or staff member was welcome to attend and did not have to be of Latin American descent.
“It’s good to have the representation of Latin Americans here on campus, giving us a voice,” said Bryan Perez, a senior global science major and president of HOLA. “I’m just glad that HOLA was able to be a part of this.”
The event had music, food, networking, games, prizes and lots of laughs. At the beginning, staff in attendance took the microphone to introduce themselves to students, fitting the event title of “La Bienvenida at Hofstra,” which translates to “The Welcome at Hofstra.” Student government representatives, including SGA president Will Germaine, took the stage to introduce themselves as well.
Hugo Morales, assistant director of the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, moderated the event. He encouraged students to walk around and meet new people by playing La Bienvenida Bingo. In order to win, students had to have all their boxes signed by different people in the room who could answer a particular question.
“You’re going to walk around, get up from your desk after you finish your meal and start connecting with people and mixing and mingling,” Morales said.
Students like Jayven Cruz, a freshman biology major, attended the event to connect with people on campus that are Latin American.
“I came to this event because I’m Puerto Rican, and I wanted to meet more people who come from a similar background, meet more Hispanics and find my community,” Cruz said.
La Bienvenida at Hofstra has only taken place twice, but it certainly is very popular, with more attendance this year. A little over 50 people RSVP’d to the event, and that was about the number of people who were present.
“I was very satisfied with the turnout,” Perez said. “It was good to see a lot of people here, not only students but professors and faculty getting together to celebrate Hispanic heritage.”
Cruz said that he thoroughly enjoyed the event. “I think the school should have more events like this for us and for other communities,” he said. “It’s nice to know that there is a space available for me.”
Organizations like IEI and HOLA look to build off this event and continue to spread the word to everyone at the university for future events.
“Look out for future events that we have coming up at the end of the semester and for the spring semester,” Morales said.
