Editor’s Note: Kristen Kenney is an Equity Liaison and co-sponsor of the NT News. She was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the adviser program, in collaboration with New Trier’s equity liaisons and Student Council, provided extensive opportunities for students to engage with Hispanic culture.

The national monthly observance is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and marks the independence days of Latin American countries Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

While New Trier has regularly observed Hispanic Heritage Month and other monthly observances in the past, this year marks a new approach from the school’s team of equity liaisons to provide more specific activities for advisers to carry out with their students.

“With all of the monthly observances that we do, there’s a toolkit of activities that are available to advisers,” social studies teacher and Equity Liaison Alex Zilka said. “But these specific activities that we’re planning are new this year, so we’re in the process of developing those.“

This year, advisers had four options to engage their adviser rooms in education about Hispanic culture.

Two options centered around a video stimulus which was followed by group discussion. Advisers could screen a video about Latin American musicians, which was supplemented by a discussion about students’ interaction with Hispanic music and wrapped up by the creation of adviser room playlists consisting of Latin-influenced music. Another video, a TikTok, featured several references to Hispanic culture through clothing. The follow-up activity, according to Zilka, consisted of identifying these references and discussing social media as a means of cultural affirmation and identification.

Advisers could also prompt advisees to pursue some research on the Borinqueneers, a Puerto Rican U.S. Army regiment that served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. 

Some adviser rooms chose to take on a more artistic pursuit in the creation of their own adviser room murals, modeled after those in the primarily Hispanic southwest Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. The toolkit disseminated to advisers included extensive resources on the history and symbolism of the murals.

“Materials were made available or an advisor could choose their own materials to create their own mural to represent the [adviser room] and think about, ‘Okay, who are we, and how can we express our identity through some form of creativity?’” Zilka said.

To complement this, for the second year in a row, New Trier invited Luis Tebens, a former educator at the National Museum of Hispanic Art, to present to students the cultural significance of the murals in Pilsen. 

In creating the toolkits, the equity liaisons wanted to provide advisers with choices on what to explore with their adviser rooms. 

“Advisers have options to kind of choose what they think is best for their group, what they think is most interesting for their group, and what they think is just going to work,” Zilka said. 

Inspired by the concept of mural design, Student Council also took on a larger mural project currently displayed outside the Winnetka Campus cafeteria. It features the words “Todas las voces,” meaning “All of the voices” in Spanish, and also incorporates Student Council-specific symbolism. Balloons represent Student Council’s spirit work, a gavel their role in student government, and birds a rising of leadership in the student body, according to Spanish teacher Stephanie Gamauf, who helps coordinate the Student Council’s equity projects.

“Our mission is representing all student voices, and that word, all, to me, means it’s not just one majority voice, but multiple,” Gamauf said.

The Student Council mural acknowledges the Hispanic roots that inspired the project while leaving their own distinguishing mark on the piece.

“The idea, again, was to think, ‘Okay, if a mural is some form of social or political self expression, how can Student Council take inspiration to create a symbol that is representative of them?’” Zilka said.

This concept of applying mural art in new ways representative of other groups within the student body was key in adviser rooms, too. Indicative of this is Gamauf’s advisery’s mural, which features a portrait of the influential Mexican painter Frida Kahlo holding a large Swedish Fish. The inspiration is simple.

“I like to bring Swedish Fish for the group,” Gamauf said. 

Gamauf is proud of the work that Student Council has done and the engagement of her own adviser room in recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month with their mural.

The goal, she said, is “that we are being as respectful to our inspiration of the muralists as possible while maintaining our own artistic integrity.”