On a night filled with music, poetry and dance, students from the Spanish programs at San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco came together on Friday to share their Latine culture at the first-ever event jointly organized by both universities. Ana Luengo, a Spanish professor at SFSU, and Nadina Olmedo, a professor of Latin American studies at USF, organized the event with the aim to create a space for Latine students from both institutions to express themselves.
“In these times we’re living in, I imagine many people feel a certain anxiety,” Luengo said. “That’s why we thought coming together in a space, spending a few communal hours could be something that gives us strength, energy, and reminds us that we’re not as alone as we might sometimes feel.”
Students, faculty and writers shared their writing, poetry and dances.
Aris Stauffer-Barney, a child adolescent development student at SFSU who performed “Ojos Del Sol” by Y La Bamba at the event, said participating gave them the space to express themselves in their preferred medium.
“Within all of the things that I could do like reading a poem or an art project, music is just the way that I connect with people,” Stauffer-Barney said. “Taking that and doing it in Spanish and doing it from a Latina composer, I think it gives the importance of what we’re doing here in the medium that’s my own.”
Bárbara Abadía-Rexach, professor of Latino/a Studies at SFSU, said that although there is a large Latine population on campus, students often don’t know each other.
“I feel like there’s a lack of unity,” Abadía-Rexach said. “So much is required of the Latine community to survive in this country and I think we’re still very separated. We need to focus more on what we have in common beyond just the language — if we look at music, food, there are many things that bring us together.”
Abadía-Rexach also read a passage from her book, “Afrofeminista: Raza y Mujer en Puerto Rico.” The excerpt, titled “Yo Soy Negra” (“I Am Black”), unpacks how racism is perpetuated in our language and culture.
“Culture is created by us as a community,” Abadía-Rexach said. “It’s not something that should be static. I feel that events like this help us have a broader sense of Latinidad, without necessarily thinking about what divides us or what makes us different or unique.”
For Isabel Parrado, a philosophy student at SFSU, having community at school is what makes her feel comfortable. Parrado is the treasurer of La Raza, a student organization dedicated to educating students on social justice issues.
“I feel like I’d be isolated if I didn’t seek out community,” Parrado said. “I come from a very close-knit family, so I need that kind of cultural connection and interaction with people who have similar backgrounds or who are interested in my culture and know how to relate to it.”
In addition to poetry and music, the event also featured two workshops: one for making mini poetry notebooks and another on arpilleras. Arpilleras, traditional in Chile, were a form of resistance during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. In the 1970s, groups of women would gather to create hand-sewn pieces, blending domestic skills with their political and social emotions, according to Violeta Parra, a Chilean folk singer and composer who created her own arpilleras as a form of resistance.
“I think it’s important to highlight how we can keep emulating these kinds of initiatives,” Abadía-Rexach said. “To me, the value of events like this is that they bring us together, more people get involved, and we get support from the institution — not just the space, but the presence and backing for conversations, workshops and shared experiences.”
