From watching a boxing match with Pepperdine’s Filipino Club to meeting for dinner with Pepperdine’s Middle Eastern Peace Association the Latino Student Association (LSA) has big things planned this year for the university community. Senior and LSA President Octavio Hernandez III has set high goals for his association to achieve more campus awareness and in his first year as president he believes he will meet his goals.
This year the LSA under Hernandez’s leadership has done more activities on and off campus than it ever has before and he wants to bring pieces of Latin American history and heritage to everyone in the Pepperdine community.
“This year we really want to focus on the things going on in Latin America that are quite different from the past and very pride-instilling Hernandez said. Things that have never happened before like change in political structure; things like that that are happening in Latin America and my goal is to highlight those.”
Hernandez stressed that the LSA isn’t just a social group between people who share a Hispanic heritage but a place were students can come and learn just about anything about Latin America.
This year the LSA has celebrated Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Brazilian Day and Mexico’s Bicentennial Independence not just on the Pepperdine campus but across Los Angeles.
“One of the biggest things [the LSA did] was at the beginning of the year between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15 which was Hispanic Heritage Month Hernandez said.
Hernandez said nothing but a blurb in the student calendar of activities promoted the Hispanic Heritage Month, so he took initiative to get the word out himself.
I met with president Andrew K. Benton and we had a display case made in the sandbar next to the television Hernandez said. We were the first group to have this thing decked out in Latin American stuff.”
According to Hernandez the cabinet now servers as a display case for heritage month awareness. It’s currently celebrating Native American Heritage Month.
Hernandez said he has taken all of the Spanish program classes offered at Pepperdine and said he felt the current curriculum is missing elements of Latin American history. To fill this gap Hernandez screens films at the LSA’s meetings to help educate the members on the political and economic states of the nations of Central and South America.
“I try and focus on those things [conflicts in Latin America] and show videos because it’s people summarizing things and presenting it in a video Hernandez said.
The latest video the LSA screened was Nicaragua – A Nation’s Right To Survive a documentary illustrating the events of a revolution in Central America.
Aside from screening informational films, Hernandez has plans to partner with Pepperdine’s Film Society, hoping to document the lives of Pepperdine’s facility managers and residential up-keepers.
One of the biggest things we are trying to do— and this is quite ambitious— and we are going to focus on it next semester is a documentary of the Pepperdine workers Hernandez said.
He said he had inspiration to achieve this project through a convocation speaker who said the best CEO’s know all of their employees, even down to the bottom of the workforce, personally.
Hernandez said it is his hope and dream” this year to get director Oliver Stone to come to Pepperdine to screen his latest documentary “South of the Border.”
The LSA meets every other Monday for music food fellowship and education in the SAC room 261. To find out more about the LSA and to get involved check out the association’s Facebook page “Latino Student Association” in the Pepperdine network.
“The goal for the LSA is to really make it apparent the things that are going on in Latin America which are very very revolutionary very big things things that have never happened before Hernandez said. Things that you don’t hear about in our mainstream media and it’s hard to find on the Internet.”