The Paw Print

By Alexa Gola, Associate News & Features Editor, Photos courtesy of Leah Galibois, Photo Editor

Midway through Hispanic Heritage Month, Payton students, staff and faculty gathered in the West Gym to attend the annual LAC Compass. Held to educate the school community and celebrate Hispanic heritage, the Compass featured an informative student presentation and several performances from the school’s dance groups.

Hispanic Heritage Month, as explained by the Compass’s student leaders, is not celebrated during a typical calendar month. Instead, it spans from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, a “significant [time period] because many Latin American countries celebrate their independence days during this period, beginning on September 15th with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.” Additionally, Mexico celebrates independence on Sept. 16, Chile on Sept. 18 and Belize on Sept. 21. “By aligning with these independence dates, Hispanic Heritage Month honors the resilience and determination of the Hispanic and Latiné community.”

After explaining the difference between Hispanic and Latiné (“Hispanic refers to people coming from a Spanish speaking country, while Latiné refers to people from Latin America”), the school was treated to a Best Buddies performance of “Y si se quiere ir.”

Following the Best Buddies’ performance, students were briefly introduced to the work of several notable Hispanic Americans, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, poet and best-selling author Elizabeth Acevedo, stand up comedian Marcello Hernadez, actor Pedro Pascal, actress Zoe Saldana and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The school’s attention then shifted to a performance from the Latin Dance Seminar.

Before moving on to the Latin Music Ensemble, student leaders presented a brief segment on the differences between cultural appreciation and appropriation. Cultural appropriation “may look like claiming aspects of another’s culture as your own, choosing not to learn about a cultural aspect before engaging with it, or engaging with it in an inappropriate context,” whereas cultural appreciation “involves acknowledging the history behind cultural elements and making an effort to understand how to respectfully engage with these elements, which leads to understanding and unity that is beneficial for people of all cultures.”

The Latin Music Ensemble’s performance was quickly followed by a multilingual spoken word piece from juniors Edson Alvarez and Camila Alvarado. 

Finally, student leaders condemned presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claims about Haitian immigrants, which have endangered the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio. Ballet Folklorico performed the last showcase of the afternoon, earning enthusiastic applause despite encountering technical difficulties. 

Overall, students appeared to have enjoyed the Compass and its cultural performances. Senior Liliana Barcenas particularly said that her favorite part of planning the event was “getting to talk to different groups” and she thinks “it’s so nice that we have a big Latiné culture here.” She added that Ballet Folklorico’s performance was the highlight of the Compass for her because they did “a really good job” and “persevered and did their best” despite issues with their audio.