With Hispanic Heritage Month kicking off on the 15th of September, Equity Club, in collaboration with the Latinos Unidos club, invites you to join them in a month of celebrating culture, history, and community. With plenty of activities and events to be a part of, everyone will find something to enjoy and celebrate. From candy, trivia, and movies during lunch, to an afternoon full of festivities with food, vendors, and music!

Make sure you don’t miss out on the biggest event of the month! On the 26th of September, the Equity team, along with Latinos Unidos, are hosting a celebration of Latino and Hispanic culture. The festival is located outside of Mayo High School in front of the stadium. With a wide selection of traditional food, vendors, and music, this event is not only a celebration but also a chance to learn more about the diverse cultures that make up the Latino community.

One of the most exciting features of this celebration is the inclusion of the recently established Latinos Unidos Club! Created last February with the support of Christina Freund, a Spanish teacher at Mayo High School and one of the club’s supervisors. Latinos Unidos was created on the idea of celebrating Latino culture and promoting the success of Latino students. When asked about Hispanic Heritage Month, Señora Freund spoke about how the club wants to bring attention to the Latino and Hispanic communities. “[L]ots of times what we see in Hispanic Heritage Month is we talk about other countries, and it’s like no. Hispanic Heritage Month is about American Latinos and Hispanic people. It’s not about what they do in Chile; it’s not what they do in Mexico; it’s about what we do here.”  

The Equity Club has been a staple of Mayo High School for years. Organizing events and spreading awareness of the different cultures in our community. When asked, Sude Kilickaya, President of the Equity Club, expressed her excitement about the upcoming event, saying, “I’m so excited to be able to host our Hispanic Heritage celebration and to be able to organize it!”

Sude, like many others, wasn’t born in the U.S.; she moved here from Türkiye two years ago during her sophomore year of high school. She began her journey by joining the Equity Club and eventually became its president! Throughout this process, Sude has worked to share her culture and connect with others who share similar experiences.

If you’re curious about joining the equity team or attending an interest meeting, during Hispanic Heritage Month they meet every Friday at 8:20 am in the Mohlke Center, but once the month wraps up they meet every other Friday.

Let’s dive into the details! Hispanic Heritage Month spans from September 15th to October 15th. Already, in the lunchroom during 4A and 5B lunches, Equity members are selling delicious candy from Latin America every other day. While candy isn’t being sold, the booth will test your knowledge of Latino and Hispanic culture using trivia made in collaboration with the Latinos Unidos club. Keep an eye out for a booth in the lunchroom, and don’t forget about the movies either, which are being shown every lunch period in the cafeteria! The movies include Coco, Blue Beetle, Book of Life, and many more!

Señora Freund hopes that as Latinos Unidos grows, they will be able to take on a greater role in Hispanic Heritage Month along with continuing to celebrate Latino and Hispanic culture. She invites everyone, no matter what ethnicity, to join them Thursdays after school in the cafeteria from 3:30pm to 5pm. 

The futures of Mayo High Schools Equity Club and Latinos Unidos Club are bright. Both clubs are committed to their individual goals of celebrating and raising awareness of cultures from around the world. Ahmed Yahye, the Equity Specialist at Mayo High School, said it best when asked about what he wants for the future of Hispanic Heritage Month. “I hope we thrive and continue to grow. I hope that the students here in Mayo High School take the lead on it, take ownership of it, and especially our Hispanic students can lead us and show us what it means to them.”

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 26th and don’t miss out on all the amazing activities by the Equity Club and Latinos Unidos! With one last message from Sude: “Be there!”