'Such a gateway': Latina leaders put focus on education at Weber State event

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

OGDEN — Minorities can at times feel pushed off to the margins, says America Lizbeth Cuevas Vazquez.

"It's easy to feel alone," the Weber State University student said Tuesday.

That, added Angela Barradas, is one of the reasons Hispanic Heritage Month — which started on Sunday and goes through Oct. 15 — is so important.

"It reminds me that we do have a sense of community here," said Barradas. As a minority, she went on, the monthlong focus on the nation's growing Latino population serves "to remind you that you're not alone."

Hispanic Heritage Month activities in Utah got a head start on Sept. 7 with a handful of events around the state. On Tuesday, Barradas, a Weber State University student, and other Latino students hosted a program featuring three Latina leaders who offered insights into their trajectories in the professional realm. It's one of several Hispanic Heritage Month activities at Weber State and around Utah.

Nubia Peña, director of the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs and an adviser to Gov. Spencer Cox on access and opportunity, put an emphasis on education, a common theme among all three speakers.

"Education is such a gateway for your life trajectory to change," said Peña, who's originally from Mexico.

Laís Martinez, assistant commissioner for student success and support at the Utah System of Higher Education, said education transformed her parents' lives as well as hers. "To me, education is such a liberating power that I take it so sacredly," she said.

Some of the participants and organizers of Tuesday's Hispanic Heritage Month event at Weber State University in Ogden: Yudi Vargas Lewis, a university official, is in the center, surrounded, from the left, by students Angela Barradas, Mia Salgado, Anayeli Rodriguez and America Lizbeth Cuevas Vazquez. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

Yudi Vargas Lewis, who's leading Weber State's efforts to become an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution, said her main professional goal is making sure all students have the opportunity to pursue a college education. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school, let alone college, and now has a doctorate from the University of Utah.

"Someone opened up the door for me, and I want to be able to open the door for anyone who lives in Utah — for that matter, anyone who lives anywhere — to know that they belong in higher education, that this is an opportunity for them," said Lewis. Attaining Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution status — met when Latino enrollment reaches 15%, among other things — is a step toward becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a federal designation that opens up federal funding opportunities.

Latinos are motoring population growth across the country and have been key in the expansion of Utah, where they account for about 16% of the state's population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2023. Still, they're a minority, and as the Latino Weber State students who helped organize Tuesday's event described, they sometimes feel relegated to the background.

Hispanic Heritage Month events and the recognition the designation brings give "voice to students and the community here," said Mia Salgado, a student who helped with Tuesday's gathering.

Moreover, she said, hearing from Latinas like Peña, Lewis and Martinez can be empowering. "If she can do it, I can do it," Salgado said.

In that vein, Martinez said, "There are structures that create inequity" and advised the students to be cognizant of them but not held back by them. "We have to know them; we have to understand them; we have to acknowledge them while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality," she said.

Similarly, the speakers advised the students that they are likely to experience pushback and resistance as they grow and enter the professional world. They should see it, though, as an opportunity, not as something that holds them back.

Resistance can be daunting, but it can also help "refine ideas," make them better, Peña said. Some resistance can be "painful," though, and she encouraged the students "to find a community that is safe and empowering for you, that reminds you that you can do hard things, because the hard things often lead to really incredible solutions, especially when you're working on behalf of and for communities that might not be at the table."

While events like Hispanic Heritage Month sometimes spur criticism that they foster division, those behind Tuesday's activities say they aren't about separation. Rather, they are about inviting the broader community to engage with the Latino population.

"We want people to know about our culture. We don't want to gatekeep," said Cuevas Vazquez. "We want to feel connected. We hate to feel alone."

Correction: An earlier version quoted Peña as saying some resistance can be "hateful" but should have said "painful." Peña's title was corrected to adviser on access and opportunity, not equity and opportunity. Martinez's title was corrected to assistant commissioner for student success and support from assistant commissioner for engagement and economic opportunity.