Scavenger hunt celebrates Hispanic heritage

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One of the 21 flags displayed in the faculty offices on the second floor of Alexander Hall. (Raleigh Hightower/The News)

Raleigh Hightower, Lifestyle Editor

In an effort to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, the College of Education and Human Services (COEHS) created a scavenger hunt featuring the flags of 21 different Latin American countries.

The scavenger hunt consisted of the flags of Latin American countries hidden across the three floors of Alexander Hall.

Finance, Business and Administrative Manager for COEHS Tamela Darnell decided to lead the project after Dean David Whaley brought up celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at a meeting.

“We wanted to do something that would be fun and bring awareness to our Latin American neighbors,” Darnell said. “I think it is important to celebrate the contributions of the Latin American people in our community and celebrate a diversity of history and culture.”

The scavenger hunt was relatively straightforward in the planning process. The flags were hidden around Alexander Hall, an answer key was developed and a worksheet was designed for participants to write down the locations of the flags after finding them.

Darnell said one of the main motivations behind the scavenger hunt project was to bring awareness to the diversity and cultures of nearby Latin American countries.

The scavenger hunt was complemented by a Hispanic Heritage Month music playlist, developed by Assistant Dean Susana Bloomdahl, which played in the Alexander Hall atrium.

The playlist featured music from Latin American artists across several genres, such as cumbia, salsa and rap, in both English and Spanish.

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year. Hispanic Heritage Month originally began as “Hispanic Week,” which was signed into law by former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.

The week was expanded into a month under former President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The start date of Sept. 15 was selected because five Latin American countries celebrate their independence on this date. Since 1988, every president has issued a proclamation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

Other departments also celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with activities across campus. The Office of Multicultural Initiatives (OMI) released a video about Hispanic Heritage Month as part of its

YouTube series “OMI Social Media Minute.”

The OMI YouTube video described the development of Hispanic Heritage Month, the push for further recognition of the Latinx community during the civil rights movement and the significance of Hispanic Heritage Month’s start date.

OMI also collaborated with Assistant Professor of Spanish Robert Fritz to host a discussion titled “Latino Literature” on Zoom.

To stay updated with future events, follow the Office of Multicultural Initiatives’ Facebook @msu.multiculturalinitiatives. To stay up to date with events hosted by the COEHS follow @murraystcoehs on Facebook.