In their first organized event of the Spring semester, called Hispanos Unidos Beyond Stereotypes, the club gathered students and spoke about community last Thursday.

The event was organized to highlight all the different stereotypes that affect the communities. Many students from different Hispanic and Latino countries were represented during the event.

According to Hispanos Unidos’ president, Cynthia Rangel, the event was inspired by the American Statistical Association’s Misconceptions event from last year.

She said that a lot of people automatically assume that every Hispanic and Latino is Mexican, but that this could not be further from the truth.

“I believe this event will help students see that there are Hispanics and Latinos from countries other than Mexico,” said Rangel. “There are so many beautiful and wonderful cultures outside of the Mexican culture that are really overshadowed, and this event will highlight other cultures and how students from those different cultures live.”

Through events like Hispanos Unidos Beyond Stereotypes, Rangel and her officer team hope to engage the Hispanic and Latino students on campus in order to bring a part of the culture to ACU.

HU’s goal is to authentically represent the Hispanic and Latino civilizations to other students who may not be as educated in their culture.

The Hispanos Unidos Beyond Stereotypes event attracted an audience of more than 50 attendees. According to Rangel, it was the perfect crowd.

“We had about 50 people in attendance and it was wonderful. I would have loved to have a bigger audience, but I know that all the people attending loved what the panel was saying,” said Rangel. “Although it was not a big audience, it was great for it being the first time we hosted this event.”

Rangel believes that this event will be the only one of its kind for the semester, but she says that her officer team loved it and is looking forward to making an annual tradition of it.

Through experiences like this, Hispanos Unidos hopes to make others feel welcome in their community.

“I love how much of a family we are and how much everyone cares about each other,” said Rangel. “I really want others to feel the community that I felt when I first joined, and I also want others to feel open to express who they are and where they are.”

Hispanos Unidos meets in a Chapel small group every week at 11 a.m. in room 120 of the Bible building.