More than 100 students, postdocs, faculty members, and other scientists filled the Eckhardt Research Center lobby recently for Latine music, Salvadorean, Mexican, and Venezuelan food—and education.
That was the scene as the UChicago Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers hosted the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) Latine Heritage Month Celebration. The yearly event welcomed participants from all backgrounds and attendance was open to all.
“Latinos are an underrepresented group in STEM and academia, despite their growth in population in the U.S.,” said UChicago SHPE Vice President Jireh Garcia, a PhD candidate who co-organized the event. “Celebrating the crucial contributions of Latinos to STEM highlights the importance of uplifting our community to foster scientific innovation and excellence at PME.”
“By hosting events like this, we want to send a message to prospective Hispanic-identifying students, postdocs, and professors that this is a space where they can freely celebrate their heritage and advance their field simultaneously,” said UChicago SHPE Internal Events Coordinator César Castro Rubio, a PhD candidate who co-organized the event with Garcia.
“The main message I wanted students to take away from the annual Latine Heritage Celebration event was the importance of fostering an inclusive community where everyone’s cultural heritage is recognized, celebrated, and respected,” Walker said. “These events encourage dialogue, challenge stereotypes, and build solidarity among students, faculty, and staff, advancing our mission of inclusivity and excellence.”
Amid the Latine music and Salvadorean, Mexican, and Venezuelan food catered from Hispanic-owned Chicago restaurants, participants enjoyed educational displays about Hispanic Heritage Month, Latinx scientific innovations, and Mendez v. Westminster, a 1946 court case that helped end segregated schooling for Mexican-Americans in California.
“Bringing visibility to the presence of Latinx people in the community contributes to remembering that not everyone in academia has the same background and life experiences,” said co-organizer Luna Ramírez, a PhD candidate. “These events highlight the diversity of ideas required to form a multidisciplinary community like PME. Sometimes it is easy to forget that science is not done in the perfect world of ideas, but it also depends on the cultural context of the scientists doing it.”
Learning became play through a STEM-themed Lotería game created by UChicago SHPE students. In this version of Lotería, a Mexican board game similar to Bingo, traditional figures like La sirena (the mermaid) and La calavera (the skull) were replaced by prominent Latine scientists, including former U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello, Argentinean theoretical physicist Marina Huerta, Venezuelan-born immunologist Baruj Benacerraf and PME’s own Asst. Prof. Juan Mendoza.
“In addition to celebrating the Hispanic members of our community, we wanted to highlight the major scientific achievements of well-known Hispanic scientists and show how their work continues to shape the world,” Castro Rubio said. “Our hope was that everyone would walk away with a deeper understanding of not only their scientific contributions, but also how their work impacts their daily lives and how they are currently driving the advancement of science.”