Heritage Recognitions at USF

USF Heritage Recognitions in green font on top of a white transparent rectangle that shows the colorful plant imagery background. Plant colors include green, pink, yellow, orange, and blue.

The Heritage Recognitions Initiative is a cross-campus collaboration led by the Cultural Centers and the Office of Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) to uplift our commitment to celebrating and honoring the various cultural heritages and identities of our vibrant community. It began with five intentionalities:

  • Belonging and Sense of Community
    • Centering students, faculty, and staff in feeling a sense of community, belonging and support
  • Celebration
    • With the community and for the community - centered in the celebration that is needed and authentic to the community traditions and futures
    • Holding joy as central to community and empowering the pride of identity
  • Awareness and Knowledge
    • For the broader USF community, in recognition that some of our community members may still be learning about new cultures
    • Those who identify within the communities may have not been exposed to some knowledge of their own cultures
  • Support 
    • Commitment and dedication of focus from the institution
    • ADEI and CC’s ensure that recognitions are occurring and support them to happen 
  • Unifying
    • Recognition that programming has been, and will continue to be, developed for and with these communities in mind. This is not intended to take the place of those programs. 
    • The effort should provide connection and lift up existing efforts, and hopefully ease the communication around program offerings.
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Connect with a bevy of culturally-focused student organizations, faculty & staff affinity groups, or alumni affinity & identity groups. 

Campus Cultural Groups
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Have an event you've planned that you want us to include in our calendar and promotions? Please submit your event details here!

Event Submission Form

Have an idea or in the middle of planning a cultural event and need further support? Request for support via the form linked here!

Event Support Request Form

Calendar of Events

 

Heritage Recognitions

Purple background with "Latine Heritage Month" in big block letters of a gradient orange, yellow color and swiggles of colors (teal, yellow, red, orange) on the right side

Dates: September 15 - October 15

History: Latine Heritage Month has its beginnings from 1968, where it was originally observed as “Hispanic Heritage Week”, but it was later extended to a month in 1988. Since then, LHM has been celebrated nationwide via festivals, art shows, conferences, community gatherings, and much more. The month starts on September 15th and ends on October 15th as it encapsulates the independence days of several Latin American countries, including: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on September 15th, Mexico on September 16th, and Chile on September 18th. It also includes holidays such as the Virgin Islands-Puerto Rico Friendship Day on October 9th and Día de la Raza on October 12th. (sources: U.S. Dept. of Education, Hispanic Heritage Month, )

**We are adopting the use of "Latine" as opposed to "Latinx" or "Hispanic" after Latine student organizations hosted conversations around how they'd like to self-identify as a community. The use of the term "Latine" came about as a way to still honor the original inclusive intentions of "Latinx" in including gender-expansive and gender non-conforming individuals while also sounding more fluid in pronunciation in Spanish. The community of course continues to honor the different ways individuals personally choose to identify as well. Any usage of the term "Latinx" henceforth is due to that presently still being the title/naming of the program or organization. 

 

USF events to look forward to:

Local Bay Area resources:

 

Dia de los Muertos Celebrations in yellow font against a black background with a white skull that has a red flower on its forehead on the left hand side. The rest of the skull is painted with other blue and orange flowers and markings.

Date: November 1-2

History: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though depending on the locality, is also sometimes celebrated on October 31 or November 6 too. Family and friends gather to pay honor and celebrate the lives of friends and family members who have died. This is a time of celebration and joy rather than mourning. Typically altars are built at home and filled with the favorite food and drinks of those being remembered. Sugar skulls are decorated given to friends and family along with pan de muerto as a part of the festivities. (source: Wikipedia)

 

USF events to look forward to:

  • Exact dates TBD, but offerings will start in OCTOBER and include:
    • Sugar Skull Decorating
    • Altar Building 
      • Photo Collection
    • Loteria Night
    • Papel Picado Workshop 
    • Día de los Muerto Celebration - Nov. 1st from 11:45-12:45pm  in McLaren Complex
    • Trip to the San Francisco Day of the Dead Festival of Altars - Nov. 2nd  (*tentative)

Local Bay Area resources:

Crumpled chrome background with "Out-tober Queer Heritage Month" in white text that has a purple outline. On the left side, there is a hand reaching down from the top that interlocks fingers with a hand reach up from the bottom. The fingers meet at the letter Q in "Queer".

Date: October 

History: While we celebrate Pride Month in June, we also celebrate LGBTQ+ Heritage Month in October, which was first observed in the U.S. in 1994. As Pride Month is in June, and USF's academic calendar ends in May, we are excited to announce our very own inaugural "Out-tober" Queer Heritage Month as a way for our campus community to recognize, honor, and celebrate the queer identities, history, and culture of our community members.  "Out-tober" is named as such to recognize National Coming Out Day on October 11th. This year's theme draws inspration from 1980's queer punk.

 

USF events to look forward to:

  • TBD -  please check back again for continued updates of events 

Local Bay Area resources:

  • USF's LGBTQ Caucus Resource Guide
    • A thorough, albeit non-exhaustive, compilation of LGBTQ resources related to:
      • USF
      • The Bay Area
      • African American, Asian-Pacific Islander & Latino LGBTQ Organizations
      • Online
      • Magazines
      • Blogs, Etc.

Red background with "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in white text on the right side. On the left, is a circle split into 4 quadrants of the colors black, white, yellow, and red.

Date: The second Monday in October = Oct. 9, 2023

History: Indigenous Peoples' Day began as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day. This stems from the rejection of the notion of honoring Christopher Columbus, someone who represents the violence of colonization and the genocide of Indigenous communities. Indigenous Peoples' Day is centered in the recognition, reflection, celebration, and education of Indigeneity. It is a time for learning and unlearning. (source: NPR) 

 

USF events to look forward to:

  • TBD -  please check back again for continued updates of offerings 

Local Bay Area resources:

Navy blue background that has a portion of the Philippine's flag draped from the top right corner to the bottom right-middle. On top of red paint smears on the left-hand side is "Pilipin@ American History Month" in a cursive handwriting font. "Pilipin@ American" is in gold while "History Month" is in white.

Date: October

History: Pilipin@ American History Month is celebrated in October to commemorate the arrival of the first Filipinos in modern-day Morro Bay, California in the United States on October 18, 1587. "Following years of campaigning and advocacy by both the civil society and organizations, the Filipino American National Historical Society established Filipino American History Month in 1992. In  2009, Congress recognized the month of October officially as Filipino American History Month in the U.S." (source: National Today)

 

USF events to look forward to:

  • TBD -  please check back again for continued updates of events 

Local Bay Area resources:

On a tan, brown woven bead background, "Native American Heritage Month" is centered. The words "Native American" appear in a teal text with brown outlining while "Heritage Month" appears in a different font of teal coloring and white outlining.

Date: November

History: On August 3, 1990, November was declared as National American Indian Heritage Month, also referred to as Native American Heritage Month. Numerous advocates and initiatives took place since the early 1900s for a time to honor Native Americans. "The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges." (source: National Congress of American Indians)

 

USF events to look forward to:

  • TBD -  please check back again for continued updates of events 

Local Bay Area resources:

International Education Week in white text inside a transparent box that has white borders. The background is an image of 3 people sitting & talking: one person has a tablet, one has a book while smiling at the 3rd person.

Date: November 13-17

History: Starting since November 2000, International Education Week (IEW) is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and to attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences (source: U.S. Dept. of Education).

 

USF events to look forward to:

Resources:

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

**Please look forward to next semester as we continue to plan out future recognitions and continue updating this page as we have new info.

Questions? Looking to Connect?

Ann Le, Cultural Centers' Assistant Director
Email: ale32@usfca.edu