As Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, comes to a close, American University’s Hispanic and Latino organizations and students are reflecting on representation and inclusion of all identities on campus.
Students have expressed a need for Hispanic and Latino affinity housing, protected funding for Hispanic and Latino-focused programs amidst anti-DEI actions and proactive event planning on the University’s part. The University currently celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by offering Latin-inspired cuisine, hosting guest chef visits in the Terrace Dining Room and seasonal drinks inspired by predominantly Mexican flavors at on-campus cafes. However, the University’s current approach to honoring the community often feels disconnected from these urgent needs.
Aims Cruz, a Mexican-American graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that Latino and Hispanic organizations don’t get a lot of time to have their events submitted and registered through the University because of the back-to-school rush. Unless the club is planning events over the summer, it barely has the first month to get situated, resulting in many events happening after Hispanic Heritage Month has “officially” ended, according to Cruz.
The month’s time period may seem odd in comparison to other heritage and history months that run through the duration of a calendar month. However, this timing was intentionally chosen because it marks several independence days for countries in South and Latin America. Still, the awkward timing of four weeks transitioning from September to October leaves on-campus Hispanic and Latino organizations frantically trying to plan campus-wide events.
David Vazquez, who identifies as Puerto Rican and is director of the Latina/o/x Studies program at the University, said that he feels forgotten, echoing the thoughts of other Latin and Hispanic students, faculty and staff across campus.
When asked about his feelings towards the University’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Vazquez said it’s cordial, but concrete activism and protection for Latino and Hispanic communities are needed first and foremost.
“I got to be honest, I think it’s a nice sentiment, but I would rather see people advocate for civil and human rights for Latinx-identified people across the spectrum,” Vazquez said.
At the University, Hispanic and Latino students represent approximately 16 percent of the undergraduate student population, a figure slightly higher than the broader population of Hispanic and Latino residents across Washington, D.C. Yet, even as the United States’ Hispanic population reached a record 70.1 million in 2025, many University students feel disconnected from their community.
Besides Georgetown University, Vazquez said that American University is the only university in D.C. that offers a minor in Latina/o/x studies available for undergraduate students. Though Georgetown does offer a minor in Latin American Studies for undergraduates, other universities in D.C. are reliant on student-led community spaces, organizations and/or research centers that are dedicated to understanding Latino history, culture and/or identity.
Optional program tracks and courses at the University don’t erase the lack of more extensive academic opportunities for professors like Vazquez or eager students like Katherina de Leon.
De Leon, a sophomore in the School of International Service, identifies as Mexican-Costa Rican-American. She grew up in Texas, where the Hispanic and Latino population is roughly 40 percent of the state’s total population. De Leon participated in her high school’s chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and was surrounded by a predominantly Latino and Hispanic community.
However, de Leon knew that coming to the University meant being introduced to a new type of diversity. While de Leon appreciated the school’s efforts to show its support, their efforts ultimately didn’t address the representation gap within the academic institution at large, she said.
“I’m glad that we have Latino studies, but then the question to me is, ‘Who’s teaching these classes?,’and it doesn’t always have to be Latino professors, but then it raises the question of, ‘Do we see diversity within our professors? Do we see diversity within the school itself?’” de Leon said. “For example, all these clubs and organizations, these people in the offices, do we have people of color who are actually in charge and [who] make the decisions?”
Hispanic and Latino students are situated between the national immigration debate and their University administration determining investments for cultural academic departments, all while continuing to deal with the lack of representation within faculty — all within a 30-day celebration split between two months.
“AU as a PWI does not have a particularly diverse faculty. I mean, I found community here with people, but I wouldn’t say that we have a robust Latino or Latinx representation on the faculty,” Vazquez said.
As of June 2026, only four percent of the entire faculty identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Many Hispanic and Latino students hoping to find community socially rather than academically said they have struggled to navigate a campus culture that doesn’t always accommodate the different facets of their identities.
Kare Coley, a junior in CAS, identifies as Mexican-Salvadoran-Jamaican-American. Coley said her identity pulls her in many directions that she feels student organizations disregard, as she has experienced how most student organizations on campus struggle to be inclusive of Afro-Latinos or individuals with Caribbean heritage, failing to recognize their impact on culture and history.
Coley’s experience reflects a national reality. In 2024, 29.4 million Hispanics identified as being of more than one race — a total larger than any single-race group, according to a study on Hispanic and Latin identity from the Pew Research Center in September 2026.
To Coley, the University’s Latino student population is divided into two primary groups: international students whose economic stability allows them to be at the University and children of immigrants who are often low-income and first-generation college students.
“That’s kind of the biggest split, I think, between the Latino groups on campus, and to me there’s a lot of tension between the two, because, frankly, we have very different lived experiences,” Coley said.
This isn’t the first time that Latinidad — the general term referencing the pan-ethnic heritage of those within the Latino diaspora — has questioned what types of Latinos are included.
Coley, president of Liberation Education Acción (LEA), recognized that its original name, “Latinos en Acción,” only captured a small aspect of the organization’s goals, as immigration doesn’t just affect those from Latin America, but also those across the Caribbean, Black and African diaspora as well.
“We decided to change our name in an attempt in recognizing the work we do has never been and will never be just Latino/Latinx-focused,” Coley said. “Immigration advocacy affects Caribbean, Brown, Black, African individuals, Black diasporic individuals. It was really crucial to me and my leadership, making sure that our organization didn’t just brand themselves as Latino.”
Coley isn’t the only one contending with the social politics and isolation that can come with juggling multiple identities. Jesús de la Cruz, a senior studying in CAS, recalled struggling to feel accepted by other Latino students on campus because of his intersectional identities.
“I am completely disengaged from campus politics after my really negative experience freshman year that felt incredibly isolating as a queer person, as a trans person, as a ‘no sabo,’ and as someone who is also completely Latino,” de la Cruz said.
“No Sabo” is a term used within the Hispanic and Latino community to signal poor proficiency in Spanish. It is often used to demean those who didn’t grow up speaking Spanish despite their Latino heritage.
Language was one barrier that de la Cruz experienced. He also saw his friends — who encompassed many intersectional identities — excluded from celebrations that attempted to highlight diversity within the Latino and Hispanic diaspora.
De la Cruz identifies as Cuban-Colombian-American, and said that there’s a push and pull that comes with navigating Latino identity on campus. When de la Cruz was trying to organize inclusive events that met the needs of queer, disabled or Afro-Latino students, he was repeatedly told that community didn’t exist by an on-campus Latino advocacy group.
“I just know that’s not true. We are everywhere, you know? It sucks to have that on top of then when we go outside of the Latinidad spaces, for then the Latinidad to also be microaggressed,” de la Cruz said.
As a residential assistant for the Eagles in CommUNITY floor, the University’s LGBT+ Affinity Housing option, de la Cruz has witnessed firsthand how the University's lack of affinity housing for Latino and Hispanic students has affected how residents develop community and support systems.
“Which speaks to this overwhelming epidemic of our students not feeling supported in this way, and ultimately dropping out because they can’t afford it, because they don’t feel represented, because they don’t feel like they belong,” said de la Cruz.
When asked about potentially creating Latino, Hispanic and Caribbean affinity housing, Katya Popova, interim vice president of marketing and communications, encouraged students to record their feedback through Hall Councils, Residence Hall Association (RHA), and the Residential Experience Survey in November.
“This year we are focused on assessing the needs of our students to identify our next new themed community. Housing and Residence Life is committed to incorporating the student voice as we plan this expansion,” Popova said.
Some Latino and Hispanic students have found a facet of their identity represented by living on the FIRST Flight Floor, the first-generation college residential housing option.
In 2024, Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit research and policy organization for Latino student success in higher education, reported that Hispanic and Latino students are more likely to be first-generation college students compared to other racial groups. Although Hispanic and Latino students make up the majority of first-generation college students, the University does not provide separate affinity housing for the Hispanic and Latino community at large.
“If I had a bajillion dollars and I could do anything with it, lowkey, affinity housing, because the thing is I don’t know a lot of Latinos here,” Cruz said. “I remember a lot of the colleges I was looking at, I was [looking] specifically for Latino affinity housing and that’s just something I never got, but it would’ve been nice.”
Popova noted that the Eagles in CommUNITY and First Flight Floors were added because of student feedback and needs. As a part of the University’s Strategic Plan, Popova said it will continue to focus on student belonging any way they can.
Many Latino and Hispanic students also remain suspicious of the University’s support of their identity because of its perceived neutrality toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Despite the Undergraduate Senate passing a referendum to make the University a sanctuary campus in March 2025, the University has not adopted the status.
Furthermore, it was only after negotiations with the University’s staff union in April 2026 that the administration agreed to require judicial warrants for immigration agents attempting to enter campus. For many students, concrete institutional action regarding ICE is preferred over any additional cultural programming.
“I think that’s just such an inappropriate and invalidating way to go about recognizing a decent amount of your students on campus,” said Coley, “… you’re okay with bringing the former assistant director of ICE on a counter-terrorism panel, but we get salsa and chips and sombreros.”
This article was edited by Olivia Wood, Isabella Polak, Cara Halford and Gabrielle McNamee. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Jaden Maitland Anderson, Abigail Jose and Mattie Lupo. Fact-checking done by Luca Palma Poth and Josie Burnette.
