A new club, the LAZOS club, was formed by Latino students on campus to celebrate and appreciate Latino history within the United States.
The club was formed by students in Ignacio Garcia’s History 385 class, Latinos in the United States.
“We’re certainly appreciate all of the clubs that we have on campus like salsa club,” said Michael Chavarria, president and co-founder of LAZOS club. “We wanted to create a club that emphasized culture and the like on campus.”
The Latino student population is sometimes under-represented around campus.
“Sometimes I feel a little bit like a polka-dotted zebra,” said Daniella Subieta, co-founder and co-president of LAZOS club. Subieta is Argentinian. “I’m not a part of Latin American culture, but I’m not really a part of mainstream culture either.”
The idea to form the club came toward the end of winter semester. Executing club plans began during spring and summer terms. The club has no official president, but every member is a co-president and has an equal role.
“A neat thing about our club is that we are all very united,” Chavarria said. “It is very representative of the Latin community.”
Roger Sanchez, social media specialist for the club, is also a co-president.
“We have a Twitter and Facebook page for the club,” Sanchez said, “but we mainly spread the news by word-of-mouth.”
The main goal of the LAZOS club is to help Latino students build networks. “Our main goal in the club is to build a professional network for Latino Mormons specifically,” Chavarria said. “We’ve recently got a couple of emails from Qualtrics, regarding recruitment, Goldman Sachs and a few global internships, so we’re getting started.”
Sept. 15 marked the beginning of Latino Month. The LAZOS club hopes to educate students about Latin American history in the United States.
“Learning the history of other people in your own country is really important,” Subieta said. “It broadens your perspective of what it means to be American.”
To celebrate Latino Month, the LAZOS club will be holding a “Noche de Baile” dance on Friday, Sept. 20 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom.
“There will be various types of Latin dance like salsa and meringue,” Chavarria said. “We’re playing different music from different countries just to celebrate the rituals of different cultures through dance.”
