A heartfelt welcome event for Latino Bruins puts focus on joy and community

Hours before Wilson Plaza became a bustling community gathering, basked in golden hour light and echoing with the laughter of line dancers galloping to Caballo Dorado's "Payaso de Rodeo," UCLA parent Elva Neyoy darted among tables set out for the event's auxiliary resource fair. Neyoy had place cards that needed placing, and a good three dozen tables left to mark.

If you had asked her several months ago what she'd be doing on Tuesday, Oct. 15th, the Pomona resident would not have said volunteering for UCLA's third annual Latinx Welcome. But after attending an August Spanish-language orientation with her daughter, Genesis, a transfer student from Mt. San Antonio College in East L.A. County, Neyoy said she wanted to get more involved.

"They had it in Spanish - in my own language," Neyoy said. "They gave us really delicious food, and that's just awesome. They really know our culture."

As students, faculty, staff, alumni and families trickled in ahead of the welcome event's kickoff, members of UCLA's Mariachi de Uclatlán ensemble tuned their instruments along with guest band, Buyepongo. Lines formed for the burritos and pupusas provided by Pinches Tacos and El Zunzal, and just like that, the event was in full bloom.

Titled "Celebrando el poder de nuestra comunidad y corazones" ("Celebrating the Power of Our Community and Hearts"), this year's Latinx Welcome mixed dancing, music, food and networking while introducing new Bruins to more than 100 academic and co-curricular organizations and campus departments.

The event was hosted again by the UCLA Hispanic-Serving Institution team and a dozen other groups at UCLA. Fiscal sponsors included UCLA External Affairs, UCLA College Division of Social Sciences, UCLA Student Affairs, Strategic Communications and the Division of Undergraduate Education.

Featured speakers at the event included UCLA's Tracy Johnson, dean of life sciences, and Adriana Galván, dean of undergraduate education; as well as students, Latinx Welcome planning committee members and alumni. UCLA faculty and staff who are dedicated to providing a supportive community for Latino students were also present.

Cheers erupted when Galván announced the upcoming opening of the Latinx Resource Center this fall. The center, which has been envisioned by a student-centered task force in partnership with UCLA's Hispanic-Serving Institution, or HSI, initiative, will serve as a physical resource hub and gathering space.

Elizabeth Gonzalez, the inaugural director of the HSI initiative, was among several speakers at Tuesday's event. Since 2022, Gonzalez's team has been driving UCLA's efforts to earn the federal designation as a HSI by 2025.

"This event is coming from the corazones (hearts) of over 11 departments and units across campus," said Gonzalez, who also oversees the event's planning committee. "We know that for our community, the path forward is together. And in these moments, we need moments of joy and we need moments of healing."

Master of ceremonies Jose Edmundo Arianza, a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, reiterated Gonzalez's sentiments by example. Between animated speaker introductions and acknowledgments, Arianza addressed Latino students at UCLA.

"We put together this event because we want you to know that we see you, that you matter to all of us," Arianza said. "We all encourage you. Your success is our success."

Arianza's message reflects, in part, how an HSI designation would further signal to current and prospective Latino students, as well as their communities, that they have a home at UCLA. If federally designated, UCLA would be eligible for a range of government grants to bolster educational programs, research training and academic attainment for Latino, low-income and other underrepresented students. For UCLA to be designated an HSI, 25% of its students must identify as Latino and 35% of all undergraduates must be Pell Grant recipients.

Diego Bollo, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council and a speaker at Tuesday's event, says this quarter marks an important milestone for these goals.

"This is just a momentous point for UCLA history as we enter the turning era for an HSI and see that we're on track to reach the 2025 goal set by the university," Bollo said.

As the danzantes (dancers) of Uclatlán performed in traditional folkloric vestuario (dress) to son jalisciense music, a crowd of jubilant students gathered to watch. Among them was Sarah Soto, a second-year civil engineering major who remembers what attending her first Latinx Welcome in 2023 meant to her. She fondly remembers the dance party at the end.

"Coming to this big college, I didn't know what to expect," said Soto, whose father emigrated to the U.S. from Mexicali, Mexico. Soto is the first in her family to go to college. "Seeing my culture being represented on campus, and dancing the traditional songs and all these things, it's really inspiring and hopeful for me."

Tuesday's event reprised the dance party Soto so fondly remembers from last year, with DJ Olea, for the third year in a row, spinning popular Latino hits through the ages. As event organizers gave out orange carnations to student groups tabling at the still-packed resource fair, the air filled with the sweet, peppery aroma of the flower which is a staple in many Central and South American countries.

"It's really a great thing for me to see that there is a future for me here," Soto said, scanning the plaza on what was coincidently the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month. "I deserve space - I can take up space - as long as I'm with other people in my culture."