PORTLAND STATE STUDENTS CELEBRATE
DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS LA CASA LATINA RETURNS TO IN-PERSON EVENTS VICTORIA CALDERON When it comes to the decade-long support La Casa Latina Student Center has provided for students, a physical space on campus for students to reconnect with and bond over their culture is just the beginning. Each year, the space welcomes all people from differing socioeconomic classes and connects students with career opportunities, mentorship and mental health resources. After students around campus celebrated Halloween, La Casa Latina started their yearly celebration of Día De Los Muertos for the ninth year in a row. This year’s celebration looked much different than last year’s remote event, which occurred during the
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height of the pandemic. Despite this, because of the isolation everyone felt, La Casa Latina tried their best to work with the limitations. In 2020, students hopped on Zoom, shared their own altars for Día De Los Muertos and walked everyone through their culture—a unique connection never done for prior events. Historically, the celebration would have taken place with live music and shared food eaten together. Even though campus is back to in-person events, Portland State University’s current guidelines require checking vaccination status and tracking if there are any people who are not students attending, since vac-
cinations are mandatory for students. Additionally, because eating or drinking is not allowed in non-specified areas, catering was a challenge. With COVID -19, the Center itself changed greatly, as much of the programming team from the last year have graduated, and some of the current team will graduate this coming year. The programming team is used to a constant rotation, but this term is looking to be the last with one of the community staples—Pedro Torres, the current Senior Programming Coordinator at La Casa Latina. While difficult, Torres has continually given back to his community. Torres said he is looking forward to
the future for Casa when he passes on his role. “I’ve learned that there are many ways to celebrate one’s culture and identity,” Torres said. “Something else I have learned is that, as a culture, we are very resilient—and I know that term gets used a lot but I feel that at the same time Latinx students are some of the best student leaders.” For campus after COVID-19, Torres expressed hope that the Latinx community at PSU will continue to build relationships and “take an even bigger leadership role on campus, whether students, staff or faculty.” In addition, Portland State is the only place in Oregon where students can earn a
PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
