Launching LSU
The Latine Student Union hosts a screening of “Ernesto en La Tierra”
Photo: Cesar Sarmiento-Morales
LSU leaders (right to left: Ashley Pablo Trujillo, Olivia Cataife, Anthony Chavez-Cruz, Daniella Meza) pose for a photo at the movie screening.
The Latine Student Union presented their club to the upper school student body, finally opening up for sign-ups on September 15th. Since then, besides regular club meetings, LSU hosted the screening of “Ernesto en La Tierra,” a documentary from the Seattle Latino Film Festival, which was open to all community members.
Junior and LSU co-leader Olivia Cataife felt that although planning the event was difficult at times, at the end of the day she felt that it was rewarding.
“It was honestly time-consuming. We stayed after school and it was on a Thursday so I had to come to school the next day after staying at school till 7:30,” Cataife said. “But it was honestly really fun, our group was able to make food together which we all really enjoyed.”
This year, LSU has four leaders: sophomore Anthony Chavez-Cruz, juniors Olivia Cataife and Ashley Pablo Trujillo and senior Daniella Meza. For Pablo Trujillo, being a leader meant being able to share her voice.
“I wanted to take on being a leader in LSU because for at least the past two years, I felt like there weren’t many people coming together. Also, I was thinking about cool events and wanted to share my voice. And it’s like, the only way to do that was to be a leader,” Pablo Trujillo said.
As one of the leaders, Cataife’s major goal for LSU is to educate others on what it means to be Latine and highlight all of the different cultures that people from the community practice.
“When I was a member of LSU I felt like it was really surrounded around one culture. And since our club is made up of people coming from all types of cultures and different countries, I wanted to incorporate all of them into LSU,” Cataife said.
Going further on into the year, Cataife wants to build a stronger sense of community within the Latine identifying members of the school’s student body.
“I know the school prides itself on diversity, but it’s not very diverse. So I want to make a space where people feel comfortable, you know, even through all of their differences, just uniting them through cultural identities in this affinity space,” Cataife said.
In terms of future events, LSU plans to go on retreats and complete service opportunities for the members to get to know each other.
“We want to do service opportunities and share learning activities, especially within just our affinity space, and build a group where everyone knows each other and can connect with those that identify similarly to them,” Pablo Trujillo said.
Ilham Mohamed is the graphics editor of the Puma Press and has been on staff for two years. Her favorite types of stories to write are usually experientials,...