Ernie G. empowers students for Hispanic Heritage month
At 7 p.m. doors opened and a line of people flooded in, filling the Bovee Rotunda. Shaking people’s hands with a huge smile, Ernie Gritzewsky greeted everyone who filed into their seats.
As one of the top Latino comedians in the country, Gritzewsky was invited to speak to students as a part of the Office of Institutional Diversity's Hispanic Heritage Month.
“You guys are probably going to want to clap for a lot of different reasons,” Gritzewsky said. “But just sit back and listen and enjoy.”
David Juarez, president of Empowered Latino Union (ELU) and Rano Watt-Kelley, vice president, helped reach out and bring Gritzewsky to Central Michigan University.
“This is really the reason why I started ELU,” Juarez said. “I was inspired and empowered by Ernie and I wanted other people to be too.”
Juarez and Watt-Kelley heard Ernie speak when they were just sophomores at Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy.
"We (the the ELU) try to do what Ernie G does, which is break stereotypes and show people that we aren’t those stereotypes,” Watt-Kelley said. "This campus felt separated, we weren’t understanding of each other, and I wanted to break that barrier.”
The final story that Gritzewsky told was about him overcoming all the roadblocks, stereotypes and obstacles that stood in his way. He was the first person in his family to attend college at Loyola Marymount University, and after one of his close friends Hank Gathers died, he was put on academic probation and eventually excused from college. But from the support of his family and friends, and in honor of his tia, aunt, who had passed away, he went back to college and graduated.
“I feel pride that I’ve made it this far, to college. My parents didn’t, so they really encouraged me to get this far," said sophomore Melanie Mrozek. "After hearing this, I have a lot of confidence in myself."
After the show students lined up to speak with Gritzewsky, sharing their stories with him and telling him how much they connected with what he said.
“I was so happy about the amount of students (who attended),” Gritzewsky said. “There wasn’t any negative emotion in the room, even when I wasn’t politically correct about certain topics. How do we learn unless we are able to talk and laugh about sensitive topics?”
