Sheets of patterned scrapbook paper, colored markers and glue sticks sat neatly organized atop a wooden table in a Zell B. Miller Learning Center classroom, waiting to be used.
The Hispanic Student Association at the University of Georgia celebrated the first day of Women’s History Month on Tuesday with a meeting centered around “Las mujeres que cambian el mundo,” which translates to “The women that change the world.”
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 and Women’s History Month, HSA spotlighted Latina trailblazers with a presentation and game of Lotería, where students matched the face of a trailblazer on a card to a name announced at random. This was done in hopes of filling enough spaces to create a pattern and yell “Lotería!”
To close out the celebratory meeting, participants crafted cards for women they admire in their life.
“I wrote my letter to my mom,” HSA president Emelynn Arroyave said. “The first sentence [in the letter] says, ‘Thank you for showing me from a young age what it means to be a strong and independent woman.’”
Arroyave said her mom inspired her to pursue a career in immigration policy working within the Hispanic and Latinx community.
“[My mom] serves the Hispanic community through a variety of services. It was because of the way that I saw that her work impacted the community that I wanted to do it as well,” Arroyave said.
Curating an event celebrating women was important to Arroyave because she hadn’t seen one done by the organization before. She also wanted to recognize the impact of many Latina women in her community.
“As minorities here at UGA, it's important to highlight how the people of our community and specifically the women of our community have changed lives, opened doors for us and given us more representation,” Arroyave said.
During Arroyave’s presentation of Latina trailblazers, she provided snippets of information on successful women who are in various fields such as film, music, politics and athletics. Some women featured were Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and musician Joan Baez.
The HSA president asked the crowd of 20 to announce the names of any influential women that weren’t on the slides and students shouted out women like actress Sofía Vergara and entertainer Jennifer Lopez.
For UGA sophomore Mia Metz, who was glad her first HSA meeting had an empowering theme, singer Celia Cruz came to mind as an influential woman.
“I really love [Cruz]. She's Afro-Latina and you don't really see a lot of Afro-Latina people — [people] just like to go over it,” Metz said. “I really love her music so she's a big one.”
Students of different genders attended the event, which took the secretary of HSA Fatima Banda by surprise as she expected the room to mostly consist of women.
“I was glad to see that there were a good bit of males in the room,” Banda said. “It’s nice to hear that it's not just women wanting to learn about women. There's a motivation also for men to learn about how women have impacted [things].”
Banda dedicated letters to her three roommates, cutting pink pieces of scrapbook paper into the shape of a heart.
“My crafts aren't that great,” Banda said. “But it's still kind of fun to take some time and appreciate some people that you don't often do verbally — at least as often as I'd like.”
