The Latino Club is one of many cultural clubs at Aliso Niguel High School and focuses on creating a community around Latino culture. Earlier this year, the club was founded by Lauren Melchor (12) and Rosemarie Garibalde (12).
Meetings are held in room 406 with Mr. Schniepp. Meeting dates are typically on Wednesdays, but depend on month to month. They discuss global issues that are unique to Latinos, engage in the culture and provide a sense of community for everyone.
President Lauren Melchor has put her time and energy into this club since the beginning of this year.
Lauren says, “The purpose of my club is for Latinos to have a place and in the culture there is a lot of emphasis on depending on community or to create a community, so I just wanted to create that for the people at our school.”
After seeing how many cultural and ethnic clubs Aliso Niguel has, Lauren wanted to create a safe environment for the Latino and Spanish community at our school.
This club allows students to learn new things and to connect over shared interests or cultures. The Latino Club has become an important environment for students with or without Latino descent to celebrate the culture and empathize with inclusivity for the students at Aliso Niguel. Students can appreciate their own culture and customs, as well as educate others. They also may discuss the struggles they face in their daily lives such as language barriers, inequality or high expectations. Latin American culture is very big on creating community and becoming a family.
Rosemarie says, “The core values are to celebrate festivities and not just the main culture we see around and to focus on more Latino cultures that do not get as much exposure.”
They celebrate a wide variety of the different Latin or Spanish cultures, bringing awareness to each one and holidays that are unique to those cultures. Important holidays like Días de los Muertos, Hispanic Heritage Month and Cinco de Mayo are all celebrated and discussed.
Recently, the club celebrated Días de los Muertos which translates to Day of the Dead which is on Nov. 1-2. It’s a day when families make ofrendas or altars for deceased family members or pets as a remembrance and to celebrate life. Ofrendas are surrounded by offerings such as food, candles, photos and personal items. Items are left out for their ancestors when they come and visit their families on the holiday.
The Latino Club is a great way to meet new people and make new friends. You could meet people who are the same race, share struggles or want to learn more about cultures and traditions. They advocate for providing a safe environment and joining in a community.
