A new mural at La Follette High School celebrates the experiences and cultural identities of its Latin American students, capping off Hispanic Heritage Month.
Unveiled Oct. 14, the mural was nearly a year in the making. It grew out of “The Culture I Bring With Me,” a workshop supported by a University of Wisconsin–Madison grant. The program brought together students who had been in the United States for five years or less, creating a space for them to discuss their experiences as Latino immigrants and explore the cultures they brought with them.
“We tried to emphasize throughout the year this idea of ‘We are Latin American,’ because we are usually here in the US put under the umbrella of Latino, Latina, Latinx, but I think one of the main objectives of this project was to emphasize this identity of Latin American students, being Latin American immigrants, and the culture we bring with us,” said Zaira Magaña Carbajal, a Ph.D. candidate in UW–Madison’s School of Education…