Many across Connecticut have been celebrating Hispanic heritage over the past month. CT State Community College Capital is looking to strengthen its local partnerships to keep fostering Hispanic heritage engagement with the Herencias Latinas initiative.
“We're here to make Hispanic Heritage Month Hispanic Heritage Year,” said Adolfo Sánchez-Blanco, a lead organizer of Herencias Latinas and a biology professor at CT State Capital.
Herencias Latinas, or “Latin heritages” in English, is an initiative that brings a series of Hispanic/Latino programs to CT State Capital students, faculty, staff, and the general public.
“What we're trying to do is highlight and embrace the culture and the history of the Hispanic and Latino communities that live here in the area where our college is, which is Hartford,” Sánchez-Blanco said.
That includes the Hispanic/Latino student population at CT State Capital, he said. According to the campus’ student population, as of September, 36% of students at CT State Capital identify as Hispanic/Latine. That’s up 6% compared to last fall.
The programming aims to dispel a major misconception that many people have, Sánchez-Blanco said, which is that Hispanic or Latino issues fall under one single category.
“Hispanic, Latino communities are many, and they are not coming under the single umbrella of the Hispanic people,” he said. “We try to do so by bringing various speakers or organizing various activities connected to the rich diversity of the Hispanic community and the rich diversity of the Hispanic culture in general.”
Sánchez-Blanco said he wants to steer people away from Hispanic/Latino stereotypes, especially during Hispanic Heritage Month.
“When you try to encapsulate Hispanic Heritage Month in a couple of activities, it's very, very easy to fall into the stereotypes,” he said.
Activities, he said, can sometimes profile an entire culture. Activities “that really don't represent more than one particular, almost folkloric aspect of one micro aspect of the entire Latino, Hispanic culture experience,” Sánchez-Blanco said.
Herencias Latinas events and activities offer learning opportunities in a wide variety of topics, ranging from education and science, to theater and literature.
“Let's bring scientists, let's bring playwrights, let's bring authors, let's bring radio hosts,” he said. “Let's bring everybody that we can that can give us a taste of what they do in the context that they do it.”
In doing so, Sánchez-Blanco said Herencias Latinas expands the notion of the Hispanic/Latino identity with programming that goes beyond Hispanic Heritage Month.
Celebrating heritage with year-round learning
Dr. Sharale Mathis is the campus president for the Capital and Tunxis campuses of CT State Community College. She said different races and cultures are often designated to one month of the year.
“It can't be just one month of the year, right?” she said. “It's every day of every year, and so through this project, we are trying to show and illustrate just that point.”
In creating a learning environment that bolsters Hispanic heritage and other cultures, Mathis said people can learn about backgrounds and perspectives different from theirs.
It’s not just for the students either, she said. It’s for those that live in the city of Hartford and surrounding towns.
“We don't have to be just connected through sports or entertainment,” she said. “We can be connected through this vast, rich learning environment as well.”
Herencias Latinas launched in the spring of 2023. So far, Mathis said it has seen great financial support through the Capital Community College Foundation, but she said to better the initiative, CT State Capital is looking to expand its partnerships.
“I envision us continuing to do this year after year after year. I envision us with stronger partnerships with the community,” she said. “We definitely need [the local community’s] support. We need their support in terms of [financial support] and being in attendance.”
Sánchez-Blanco said he’s working to establish more collaborations with the Hartford Stage and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art as part of that effort.
These kinds of community connections not only ensure programming, Mathis said, but it promotes the goals of the Hartford Heritage Project, of which Herencias Latinas is a branch.
“Hartford Heritage Project is a place-based education initiative,” said Jeff Partridge, the director of the Hartford Heritage Project. “Place-based education is very simply using the place where your school is located to inform your curriculum.”
For CT State Capital, that’s downtown Hartford. Through the Hartford Heritage Project, students go to museums, theaters, parks, and historical sites to learn about the city’s history in a way that connects to specific courses or overall education, Partridge said.
Tours, lectures, and events turn these places into classrooms, which Patridge said gives students a better sense of belonging and connection.
Programming across these branches, Partridge said, “really opens a world for [students] that either they thought was not for them because of who they are or where they come from, or maybe they thought it might be boring but it actually isn’t.”
The project has various branches beyond Herencias Latinas, including the Black Heritage Project and the Hartford History Lecture Series. Partridge said it all ensures that Hartford’s history is remembered and its diverse communities are celebrated.
“Once students start to care about a place, once anyone starts to care about a place,” he said, “they want to become part of its future.”
Learn more
The Hartford Heritage Project lists upcoming events online along with Herencias Latinas programming and that of its other branches.
