Latino Heritage Month starts at ECC
With the theme "honoring our past and shaping our future," Elgin Community College and the City of Elgin hosted a breakfast Friday at the college to kick off Latino Heritage Month.
Noting that Hispanics now make up "the largest ethnic minority in both Kane County and the City of Elgin," Mayor David Kaptain read a proclamation of support.
Events from Sept. 22-Oct. 14 will include the sharing of local Latinos' life stories, a "Music of the Americas" day, an Indigenous People's Day that some hope will replace Columbus Day on the second Monday of October, and a "Dia de la Familia" to expose Latino families to the college and encourage young Hispanics to enroll.
As political debate makes many undocumented immigrants uneasy, this year the college has replaced its usual panel discussion by undocumented students with a four-hour interactive training session on Oct. 14 to show ECC faculty and staff members how to work with such students and, in the words of Student Life Director Amybeth Maurer, to "streamline support and resources for undocumented students."
Maurer said she is unsure how many ECC students are undocumented.
"We don't ask that when they enroll, and some would be fearful about letting their status be known," she said.
Friday's event included a salute to ECC alum Ricardo Gasca, the prevention coordinator at the Renz Addiction Counseling Center, and a keynote by ECC alumna and Kane County Board member Cristina Castro. Both focused on thanking teachers and relatives who encouraged them to demand more of themselves and aim high in life.
"Elgin, South Elgin was as far south as I ever went," Gasca said, until his involvement with Organization of Latin American Students at the college in the 1980s took him to conventions in Los Angeles and Detroit. "Elgin Community College and OLAS transformed my life."
He then provoked the biggest audience reaction of the morning by taking off the souvenir T-shirt from one of his 1980s OLAS trips and presenting it to Valentina Charria, the president of this year's chapter of OLAS at ECC.
"There will be a lot hard work, and you'll have to overcome a lot of obstacles," Gasca said to Charria and other younger Latinos. "But you can do it."
Castro, whose parents were both Mexican-Americans born in Texas, said her mother would tell fond stories of her childhood but her father and aunt, like some war veterans, seemed afraid to remember what they had gone through.
"From what I do know, when (my father and aunt) were very young, they lived for a period of time in Mexico and they barely survived into their teens," Castro said. "My father briefly recounted a story of having a young sibling die in his arms of starvation."
Though her mother had only a second-grade education and her father left school after 10th grade, Castro said, "They taught us that education was the way to a better life. They didn't want us to struggle as they did."
After going through college while working full-time, she now holds a bachelor's degree in marketing and a Master's of Business Administration.
Latin American History Month
Events are at Elgin Community College, 1700 Spartan Drive. Admission to all events is free.
• Musica de la Americas, a celebration of dance and music from 11 a.m. to noon Thursday, Sept. 22, in the Jobe Lounge.
• Students and visitors tell their life stories at Platicas de Historias from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the Jobe Lounge.
• Dia de la Familia includes campus tours and resources to help get into college from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, in the Jobe Lounge.
• Indigenous People's Day aims to help participants learn more about the history of the indigenous peoples of this country from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in the Jobe Lounge.
• UndocuPeers: Liberating Campus Climate, is a four-hour interactive training program to help people work with undocumented students on Friday, Oct. 4. For details, email Amybeth Maurer at amaurer@elgin.edu.