Photo and story by Ray Kirsch

Transcript:

Ray Kirsch: Students gathered at the bottom of Bascom Hill to march up together in celebration of the start of Latinx Heritage Month. The month formally started today and goes until October 15. At UW, this is the sixth year of the march. 

RK: Rachelle Eilers, academic advising manager for the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies program, organized the march with three others. 

Rachelle Eilers: We created this event six years ago to kind of showcase and highlight the differences in our Latin@ community—there's a lot of Latin@s here, but we don't all come together. 

RK: The march up Bascom Hill had an important meaning to Eilers. 

RE: So we're on native land, so I think it's fair to acknowledge and be grateful for the native people that allowed us to be on this land, first off—first and foremost. And secondly, it's also really important, again, to showcase that there are Latin@s here. We're all in different pockets and it's such a decentralized campus, so the importance of “let's go to the biggest monument on campus and show our presence.” We start at the bottom and kind of walk up as a symbolism of how far our community's come. At the top, we gather and we have community building. 

RK: After marching up the hill, the group gathered to take a photo, listened to a land acknowledgment and had a moment of silence. Afterward, they went into their first activity—a game of rock, paper, scissors. 

RK: Many students excitedly took photos with each other, holding their flags and socializing. Eilers spoke to the importance of community and how she hopes coverage of the event will get more students to come. 

RE: I'm so grateful that you're here and that we're getting more coverage at this event because we want it to keep going. I meet so many students throughout the year that are like “oh I didn't know about it,” so we want to get everyone. Hopefully with more coverage, we can become more visible. 

RK: For WSUM News, I'm Ray Kirsch.