GSB Students Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

For the past 30 days, the GSB community has organized a variety of events and activities to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and create deeper connections with one another.

Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins annually on September 15 and ends on October 15, is a month-long long celebration to highlight the culture, achievements, and historical contributions of Hispanic Americans whose ancestors came from the Hispanic diaspora.

“I think it’s important to celebrate Hispanic Heritage because it’s a teaching moment,” said Jacqueline Herrera-Perez ’25, who is a co-leader of the upper school Hispanic Heritage Club and whose family is originally from Peru.

“A lot of times people put Hispanics and Latinos into just one group. I really enjoy teaching people about my culture and other peoples’ cultures. It’s just a great way to make a solid identity for ourselves not just as Hispanics but as people from our own countries.”

Throughout the month, students and faculty members shared stories, displayed art, and held several community activities at each school division to celebrate and build awareness for Hispanic Heritage. A few exciting activities included:

• Thoughtful book displays in our Lower, Middle, and Upper School libraries to showcase Latinx authors and Hispanic Heritage books.
• Colorful posters hung in different campus locations to spotlight impactful historical figures.
• Custom lunch menus courtesy of SAGE dining services to give students a taste of influential dishes across different Hispanic cultures.
• Poetry readings at Upper School assembly to share works from Latinx authors, including the grandfather of US English Teacher Fernando Gomez.
• Interactive Hispanic Heritage trivia games in Middle School history classes as part of students’ pretzel bowl competition.
• A student-led bake sale to benefit Hurricane relief in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
• A special Lower School assembly with the Pushcart Players to enjoy Cuentos Del Arbol, a bi-lingual musical play drawn from Spanish and Latin American folklore.

“Learning more about other people’s cultures will help someone grow as a person,” commented Nataley Kothari ’23.

A special thanks to our Middle and Upper School Hispanic Heritage Clubs for their hard work during the month and throughout the school year!