By Faith Christian-Ferri, ’27
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Honors Program kicked off the 31-day celebration of Hispanic culture with a virtual tour and discussion of the Hispanic Heritage Museum through Google Arts and Culture on September 16th. As a main campus student, I was invited to join the hour-long meeting alongside Honors Program Director Caitlin Grant for a glimpse into the other side of the Honors experience.
Before the discussion, I had a basic understanding of how online Honors events work: just like the campus program, the online Honors program provides cultural enrichment opportunities for students to earn credit toward achieving distinction at graduation. “Co-curricular activities play an important role in enriching the Honors Program experience by offering opportunities for personal growth, professional development, and cultural awareness,” Grant said in an official statement. The goal of the online program, as she explained to me, is to “mirror what we do on campus in the virtual format” to provide “equitable opportunities for non-traditional learners.” Events like these help fill a gap for students who missed out on the traditional college journey due to difficult circumstances or decided to return to school for a fresh start. The experience that the online Honors Program offers is in high demand, as evidenced by the steadily growing population, which is currently sitting at an impressive 1,806 members.
I must confess that I also had some glaring misconceptions about the virtual format. I have attended several in-person Honors events, and it did not seem likely to me that the same atmosphere could be captured in a video meeting. In the campus program, we travel together, sit beside each other in theaters and restaurants, and share moments of excitement in the same place at the same time. In comparison, a Teams meeting seemed rather dull and impersonal. However, I am often wrong; in this case, I realized I was almost immediately after logging on.
It was like walking into a room full of friends. A lively discussion was already unfolding, led by 72-year-old law student and grandmother Nancy Harrington, who was imparting some of her hard-earned wisdom to the group’s younger members. I learned that Harrington is one of the program’s “heavy hitters” who is deeply engaged in these virtual events and a close friend to another heavy hitter, 24-year-old senior Vanessa Beharry. Their friendship is incredibly sweet and made me realize there is a unique potential in online Honors Program events that I did not consider before. On campus, you can meet Honors students from all over the world. Online, the possibilities are even greater. Students can form connections with others no matter where they are in the world or in life. There is a lot that young Honors students transitioning to adulthood can learn from members with ten, twenty, or fifty years more life experience, and vice versa. That’s really what the Honors Program is all about: learning and growing together.
For this discussion, we first explored the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Her full name was Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, and she was known for her use of bold colors and symbolism, combining influences from indigenous cultures of Mexico and European art movements to create fantastical imagery that falls into the realm of magical realism. Of her 143 works, 55 were self-portraits, including the 1932 painting titled Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States of America. The painting, featured in the Google Arts and Culture exhibit “The Sights and Sounds of Frida’s Self-Portrait,” depicts Kahlo standing between two worlds: her nature-ruled homeland and the industrialized United States. It is a picture of both conflict and harmony between two sides of Kahlo’s self, a struggle that many members of the Honors group could relate to. Kahlo’s portrait sparked a deep conversation about the relationship between culture and identity, which led to the group exchanging our own stories of attempting to determine how our roots influence who we are as people. It’s a universal experience, and I believe having the space to speak candidly or just listen and reflect on a topic that isn’t discussed often enough in our daily lives was cathartic for all of us.
As we learned in the following exhibit, “Exploring Latino Diversity in the United States” by Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Latino, the labels we use can help us define ourselves. “Hispanic” and “Latino” often overlap and are used interchangeably, but they have slightly different meanings. Hispanic refers to a person with ancestry from a primarily Spanish-speaking country, while Latino refers to someone from Latin America or the Caribbean. Because the people who fall under these umbrellas are so diverse, further labels have been created to distinguish groups of Hispanic and Latino heritage. There are the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna people, the Boricua of Puerto Rico, the Mexican American Chicanos and Chicanas, and many more. One student in the group shared that she identifies as Californio, a label used by descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers who colonized California in the 18th century. Hearing from somebody who is part of the culture being discussed really brought the subject matter to life, especially when talking about cultural traditions.
One integral tradition in Mexican culture is El Día de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead. The focus of the last exhibit, “Honoring Our Ancestors,” Day of the Dead honors loved ones who have passed and welcomes the annual return of their spirits on the first two days of November. Pre-Columbian cultures did not view death as the opposite of life but as a fundamental part of it. The rituals of the indigenous Olmec, Mayas, Toltecs, and Aztecs
have been kept alive by modern Mexicans, who embrace the spirits of the dead with vibrant celebrations full of food, music, and dance. Families create elaborate altars known as ofrendas and gather to tell stories of those who have crossed over, drawing joy from memories of their lives rather than mourning their deaths. At its core, the Day of the Dead is a tradition of love, and the faith that the dead does not mean gone, a belief that is echoed in cultures worldwide.
By the time our hour was up, I had not only gained a better understanding of Hispanic culture, but our discussion shifted how I perceive culture itself. The group of us came from various racial and ethnic backgrounds—Hispanic, Indigenous American, African American, Chinese, Trinidadian, Italian, and more —but we shared similar traditions, questions about our own identities, and above all, a desire to know more about the world. As Grant said, “By engaging in events that celebrate cultural heritage, students are exposed to new perspectives that deepen their understanding of different cultures and traditions. This fosters a welcoming and accepting environment where diverse voices are valued and where students can learn from each other to broaden their worldview.”
Virtual Honors Program events are available to both campus and online members, which is excellent news for campus students who may not have the opportunity to attend many in-person events due to scheduling conflicts. Or, perhaps, they just want to engage in riveting conversation with all different kinds of people. Personally, I know I will be logging on for more discussions in the future, because there is always more to learn.
Faith Christian-Ferri is a second-year Main Campus student pursuing her BA in Communication and Media Studies and is a member of the Honors Program. She grew up in Waterbury and credits her passion for writing to a hundred Saturdays spent at the Silas Bronson Library, where she fell in love with words. Nowadays, she still spends much of her time reading anything she can get her hands on, but she also carves out a few hours a day for crocheting, watching true crime documentaries, and scribbling down ideas for her next story.