The Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration kicks off Thursday with a new look this year, focusing on trending issues such as immigration and health care while addressing and celebrating the cultural similarities and differences of Latin America and the U.S.

Many departments and service centers around Grand Valley State University have partnered up to sponsor the celebration while a committee with representatives from the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Modern Languages Department, Office of Student Life, Latin American Studies Department and the Women’s Center has organized a series of events that will run between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

“This year, the event series is hoping to raise awareness about Hispanic cultures through music, art and literature while also delving into deeper issues of immigration and health concerns,” said Danny Ha, program coordinator at the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

“What we were looking to do this year with the Hispanic Heritage Month is to diversify the types of programming that we were hosting,” Ha said. “We didn’t want straight lectures or presenters. We really wanted to look at the different components of the Hispanic culture but also talk about the hot topics such as immigration and health care issues.”

The event series will begin Friday at 6 p.m. with Caribbean Night-Noche Caribe?±a at the DeVos Center Courtyard on the Pew Campus. Group Ay?©, a troup of Latin-Caribbean musicians, will offer a taste of salsa, bachata, meringue and Latin jazz mixed into Afro-Cuban music.

A program aimed at addressing the misconceptions of health care in the Latino community, entitled Latin@s Health Services in Grand Rapids, will run on Sept. 20 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Cook-Dewitt Center on the Allendale campus.

On Sept. 29, visiting Professor Bob Neustadt will come to the Allendale campus at the bequest of the Latin American Studies department to speak in the Cook-Dewitt Center from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Neustadt, a renowned author of Latin-American music and art, will give a lecture, “Looking Through The Wall: Exploring Immigration on the Border With Students,” basing the subject matter on projects he has done with his own students at Northern Arizona University.

Zulema Moret, director of Latin American Studies at GVSU, has organized for several projects on Argentine photography and tango workshops to be included in the celebration. A photography expedition featuring the work of young Argentine photographers will travel to Chicago after being showcased throughout Grand Rapids in cooperation with the celebration.

Moret has worked extensively, in conjuncture with the other departments, to make the celebration not only easily accessible and enjoyable for GVSU students and faculty, but for the Grand Rapids community as a whole.

“For me, the Hispanic Heritage Celebration is about the richness of the cultures we have in 20 countries in Latin America,” she said. “When people come to the United States, they assimilate, but they keep their traditions, they keep their cultures and mix it with the American one and you can have some very interesting productions. We invite the students to be part of these events and the community from outside as well as other professors from other campuses.”

The celebration will wind down in mid-October with films and music, but also an important debate on immigration, “Immigration’s True Impact on Higher Education in the United States,” in the Grand River Room on the Allendale Campus from 2-4 p.m. on Oct. 13.

The committee has worked extensively to promote an even-keeled schedule of events that focus on the similarities between the Latino and American cultures, while also hitting home on health concerns and immigration, said Natalia Gòmez, associate professor of modern languages.

“There is a misconception about immigration and we want to open the channels and make sure that students listen to different voices and are educated in different views of these major issues of the political arena in the United States,” Gòmez said.

The celebration will also offer students a unique look into Hispanic cultures while applying it to their studies.

“My hope is that the students will take advantage of the diversity in the program because a lot of the things that are available have a direct relation to what they are learning about in their classes,” Gòmez said.

For the complete list of events during, please check the listings available online at the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Latin American studies websites.

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