Cultural festival held in Library Quad

Luis+Paniagua%2C+who+is+majoring+in+graphic+design%2C+holds+up+the+Mexican+flag+at+the+Cultural+Fest+on+Thursday.+Paniagua+hopes+the+campus+community+will+begin+to+recognize+that+the+Latinx+culture+encompasses+more+nations+than+just+Mexcio.

Tom O'Connor

Luis Paniagua, who is majoring in graphic design, holds up the Mexican flag at the Cultural Fest on Thursday. Paniagua hopes the campus community will begin to recognize that the Latinx culture encompasses more nations than just Mexcio.

Corryn Brock, News Editor

A cultural festival was held in the library quad Thursday evening and showcased various cultures for students to discuss, eat food from, see dances from and hear music from.

Many RSOs had tables in the quad to talk about their organizations.

A table reserved for the Black Student Union discussed the history of Motown Records to discuss the diversity at the company.

Trinity Hudson, a junior psychology social justice/cultural cabinet director of the BSU, spoke to many students at the table.

Hudson said she felt it was important to have event celebrating cultural diversity.

“Once you branch out and see what other cultures do and see where other people come from you begin to understand them as an individual and once you educate yourself on other people it teaches you to not be so judgmental or ignorant towards someone else because they do come from a different background that you,” Hudson said.

Hudson said she believes learning about other cultures helps people learn to appreciate other people’s differences from you. 

“It creates understanding and lets people know, ‘hey I’m different just like you’re different,’ we just come from different places. So instead of judging each other, let’s understand each other,” Hudson said.

Alyssa Vergara, a senior secondary English education major and, said she hoped the event informed people about other cultures.

Vergara said she was there to inform people about the co-ed Latino fraternity she is the president of, Alpha Psi Lambda.

 “We just want to say that our organization is open to everyone regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or religion, we want to emphasize that we want to represent Latino culture here on campus and we also want to bring awareness to those who don’t know about the Latino culture,” Vergara said.

Franciso Castellanos, a senior accounting major and Alpha Psi Lambda secretary, said he hope people learned about the diversity in different aspects of campus life.

“The Greek community is actually more diverse. I know a lot of people don’t know about us and I hope that people take away that there is more to the Greek community, there is a Latino, co-ed fraternity on campus,” Castellanos said.

Starr Smith, a junior community health major and captain of the African Student Association dance team, performed a dance with other members of the African Student Association’s dance team.

Smith said she saw a lot of value in having an event on campus celebrating diversity and wished more people had attended the festival.

“I think it’s very important (to have culturally diverse events), I wish there was a greater turnout,” Smith said. “It’s nice that it’s right in the middle of campus so people can walk by and decide to come over.”

Smith said one benefit of having diverse on campus is getting people of different backgrounds together.

“I think it’s very important to continue teaching everyone because some people think that it’s not diverse (at Eastern) and so they want to stick with the people that look like them and they’re used to so they don’t get to get out and see everything on campus,” Smith said.

Eastern President David Glassman also attended the event.

Glassman came around the time different organizations started performing dances specific to their culture.

“I love the diversity in the dancing and how everybody is enjoying the all of the different cultures, Glassman said. “I think this is a wonderful event and I hope to see a lot more like it.”

Glassman said cultural diversity is valuable to college campuses.

“Cultural diversity is important to our whole existence.” Glassman. “The idea of bringing people together, sharing information, it just broadens our horizons and allows us to find the beauty in the world that we live in.”

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected]