Latin America is a large and diverse area filled with numerous languages, cultures and traditions, though they can sometimes be grouped together by people who aren’t as well-informed about them, Vicente Vargas said.

Vargas spent his childhood in a predominantly white community where people made assumptions about him and who he was.

On Oct. 12, Multicultural Academic Student Services (MASS) hosted Distinguishing Latin Cultures and Embracing Diverse Identities event, where Vargas shared information on the diversity of Latin America, the use of labels and the experience of Latinx people in the United States.

Vargas is a sophomore at Central Michigan University and a peer facilitator for the Institute of Transformative Dialogue. He started the Distinguishing Latin Cultures and Embracing Diverse Identities event the same way he often starts his dialogue group discussions, a mindfulness meditation, he said.

Marie Underwood

Sophomore Vincente Vargas gestures to the student panel during the Distinguishing Latin Cultures & Embracing Diverse Identities Hispanic Heritage Month event, Thursday, Oct. 12 in the Bovee UC Auditorium. "I'm in the process of embracing my Latinx identity with pride," Vargas said. "I believe it's really important to ask and not assume how someone wants to be identified." (CM-Life | Marie Underwood)

After his presentation, Vargas answered questions along with other student panelists on their experiences.

“Being Chilean-American and growing up in the [United States]... as a kid, I faced a lot of microaggressions, generalizations, stereotypes and a lot of things that created this internalized shame for my identity,” Vargas said. “So many people telling me ‘go back to Mexico, you’re from Mexico, you’re this, you’re that’ was a very negative experience for me, I’m still trying to get over the internalized shame I have for that.”

The audience was quizzed through a Kahoot! on their knowledge of Latin cultures with questions about language, foods, dance and some myths and stereotypes about Latinx people.

In his presentation, Vargas also highlighted the differences between the labels Hispanic, Latino/a, Latine and Latinx and how these labels exclude certain groups:

The label Hispanic includes people from countries with cultural connections to Spain, which excludes countries such as Brazil and other countries that were colonized and culturally connected to Portugal. It also doesn't include people with indigenous and African heritage.
Spanish is a gendered language, and as such, many things within the language.
Latino/a are gendered labels, excluding people who identify outside the gender binary. For that reason, many have started using Latine or Latinx, both of which are non-gendered alternatives.

Marie Underwood

Attendees play Kahoot during the Distinguishing Latin Cultures & Embracing Diverse Identities Hispanic Heritage Month event, Thursday, Oct. 12 in the Bovee UC Auditorium. This round's true or false statement, "Not every Latinx individual speaks Spanish," is true. (CM-Life | Marie Underwood)

Vargas showed a video where people shared their thoughts on these labels and the risk of the broad generalization of people, as well as a video on the perceptions of Latinx people and how they feel about these assumptions.

Vargas also shared statistics on Latinx people in the United States from the Pew Research Center.

Thus, Latinx community made up 19% (62.5 million) of the U.S. population in 2021, according to the most recent Pew Research Center data.

“I think it’s incredibly essential to realize that Latin cultures are incredibly diverse and different, and you can't express the entire Latinx community with one uniform label," Vargas said," That's why I wanted to be able to get that across… I want to do my best to advocate for others so they don’t have to feel that way.”

After his presentation, student panelists Frida Ferrusquia, Megan Fisk, Lizbeth Perez and Eduardo Memije-Ramirez joined Vargas in answering questions about how they identify within their cultures and their experiences with how they feel about their cultures and other's ideas.

"I didn't grow up practicing my culture that much," Fisk said. Now that I'm getting older, I'm trying to embrace my culture."

Fisk is Guatemalan, but she was adopted by an American family and grew up in Lincoln Park, Michigan. She didn't think about her culture growing up, but seeing other Hispanic kids opened her interest to learning more and exploring her own culture.

"Being a part of a community and having people to go out and experience these things with is the best part," Fisk said. "You feel like you belong here. ... It's nice to have the student panel share their experiences [too]. It's not something you see every day."