Despite its 11 p.m. time slot, Boston University’s Latinos Unidos added to the flavor of multicultural weekend, celebrating women of all cultures through various forms of artistic expression and by highlighting historically important, lesser known women to more than 200 people during “Noche de Damas” at the George Sherman Union’s BU Central.
Latinos Unidos was the only group to focus an event specifically on women during Multicultural Weekend, Howard Thurman Center Assistant Director Anitza Guardarrama-Tiernan said.
Because March is women’s history month, Latinos Unidos wanted to do something that would “cross cultural boundaries and highlight all women,” Latinos Unidos Vice President Brenda De Los Santos said.
“Being a woman in society is hard enough,” the College of Communication senior said, “but being a minority and a woman is twice as hard.”
De Los Santos highlighted a range of women who made contributions to the successes of women, from Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad to Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno.
“I wanted to teach people about women they haven’t heard of, but are still important,” De Los Santos said.
Latinos Unidos President David Blanding said he wanted to “open people’s eyes” by making the event “cross-cultural” to recognize all women.
“It’s not a Latino issue, it’s a women’s issue,” the College of Arts and Sciences senior said.
CAS junior Annette Minier said she attended the event because she enjoys learning about the “empowerment of women and women’s history.”
“It makes me feel good about being a woman,” she said. “Twenty years from now, my name could be included in this event.”
Blanding said he wanted to do something that transcended different cultures for multicultural weekend.
“I also wanted to demonstrate that men recognize the contributions of women to our society,” Blanding said.
De Los Santos said she would like to continue the event in the future with some changes to the show.
“I would like to add more dance, music and acting to the event,” she said.
— Sabrina Hamilton