On Friday, Feb. 5, Ismerai Miranda and the Latinx/Hispanic Student Union (LHSU) hosted a cultural game night. Hosts and attendees played Spanish games ranging from Loteria, UNO, Garbage, Mexican Train and Briscas. They also listened to Spanish music and had pizza and snacks.
Miranda is the president of the LHSU. She works with vice president Sarah Moscoso, secretary Cindy Tellez, treasurer Alicea Hernandez and advisor Mr. Kayshen Morel. LHSU aims to build relationships and cultural development of Latinx and Hispanic students.
“We want this Union to be a safe place for Hispanic and Latinx students on campus. We can show our pride and our different cultures. I also intend to educate others that are interested in the different Hispanic cultures. In short terms, I want people who identify as Hispanic to be themselves and have fun,” Miranda said.
Last year, former Associate Director of Intercultural Affairs within the Office of Diversity Ellis Bonds suggested that Miranda start the cultural club. The Union became official last semester.
“I was approached by the idea and started to round up other students that were interested in the idea to create LHSU,” Miranda said.
The game night was the first event the LHSU has had. The Union did it this semester due to setting up the club last semester. Every club member helped organize the event including Zulma Escalante and Zosia Proch.
“Sarah Moscoso, our vice president thought to bring Loteria, Mexican Train Dominoes and regular playing cards. Zulma Escalante brought UNO cards while Alicea Hernandez-Carpenter brought regular dominoes. I brought the snacks and Briscas cards. Our advisor, Kayshen Morel brought pizza for whoever came,” Miranda explained.
Loteria is the Mexican version of Bingo. Briscas is a trick-taking card game—meaning that players play cards from their hands until the deck runs out. The purpose is to gain more points than the other players. In Mexican Train, the goal is to play as many dominoes as possible before everyone else.
Miranda and her helpers had little trouble organizing the event. It was easy to collect the games since she owned some of them.
“These games were picked because they were the first ones we thought of. They are pretty popular in [their] respective countries,” Miranda said.
The game night was successful. It brought attention to many people with different cultural backgrounds. The environment and the Spanish music also made the atmosphere feel welcoming and relaxing.
“I did not expect so many people to come. I was even happy if five people came. But when people started coming in groups… I was so happy. It was also super amazing to see other people interested in learning new games they might have never heard before. At some point, we were all dancing the Bachata so that was fun. It really makes me happy to see people enjoy themselves, specially when it is something part of our culture,” Miranda said.
Attendees were interested in learning different cultural games. They played and taught each game to new players. UNO and Mexican Trains were competitive, but everyone had fun winning, losing and experimenting with different rules. Participants also received flower pens for winning games.
LHSU plans to do it again because of the success they had. Next time, changes will further improve the event.
“I will definitely do this again. No doubt. The only thing I’d change is… reserving a bigger room and more games,” Miranda said.
