After many years of anticipation, the Latinos Unidos club was created, celebrating Latino identity and providing a safe environment for people of Hispanic heritage at Redwood. Simultaneously, the club provides the school community with exposure to their culture, such as with its National Hispanic Heritage Month celebration last month, where they passed out traditional Hispanic food and snacks.
Staff members Samuel Chavez and Kirk Stevenson organized the club at the beginning of the school year. Chavez, a Redwood alumnus and current paraeducator, was disappointed with the lack of cultural inclusivity during his time at Redwood. Once longing for a united group of Latinos, he felt inspired to lead current students in doing so now that he is back teaching at high school.
Because of his high school experience, Chavez wanted to create an organization where Latinos could feel included and prominent in the community.
“I never saw any organization after [I left], and now [that] I’m back working here, I’m like, ‘All right, let’s put [culture inclusivity and diversity] into play, and let’s put that into effect.’ The kids have been phenomenal,” Chavez said.
Chavez contacted senior Sara Hernandez, now the club president, to create the club. Working with Hernandez and other students, they have created a safe, relatable space for their community to exchange and bond over their experiences.
“[In our club meetings], we talk about relatable things that happen at home, things that we normally don’t relate to other kids at school. We also talk about things that happened to us at school that others don’t experience, but it’s a safe space for sharing them,” Hernandez said.
The club made its presence known at last month’s event by inviting students to celebrate Hispanic culture, the first of its kind, setting a precedent for the club’s proactivity. However, club members understood that there was still work to be done to feel included in the school community.
“Even at the event, we heard kids saying not nice things about Latinos. And that made me realize that we really needed this. We need a place to start teaching other kids what is disrespectful and what you shouldn’t really be saying, [what is not just] a funny comment,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez feels hopeful that incoming Latino students will be able to benefit from the Latinos Unidos Club as they practice resilience and put pride in their identities through their commonality.
