"Latin Culture Club selling food and drinks at a school event" By the Latin Culture Club, 2023
As you stroll through the halls of ISB, you hear the Thai, English, Korean, and Japanese languages all around you. However, you rarely hear Spanish. ISB follows an American curriculum with a student body made up of about 60% American and Thai combined. A demographic of enrollment by nationality at ISB shows that 4% of the student body contains 38 "other" nationalities, a portion of which represents all of ISB's Latinos. With a group so small in a large community, one must question how it feels to be Latin American at ISB.
A few Latin students in high school answered what it's like to be Latin at ISB. Junior Juli Pugliese from Argentina said being a Latina at ISB is rewarding because she can share her culture with her friends through her mother tongue. “I tutor my friends in Spanish,” Juli said proudly. Junior Pedro Duran from Brazil claims that Latin culture is rich and beautiful but is “not presented enough” within the school. “In world studies, we focus mainly on American history,” he explained. He shared a story about a project he did about Chile for his world studies class and how he could not get the assistance he needed because his teacher “did not know enough about the topic.” Junior Brandon Diaz from Uruguay agreed and added that even though Spanish classes expose students to Latin culture, “They focus primarily on Spanish culture and do not represent the rest of the Latin community.” He hopes that Spanish classes expose their students to other cultures in Latin America.
However, ISB has explicitly fostered multicultural understanding within the student body. Juli Pugliese said, “The school tries its best to educate students about different cultures.” ISB values their staff and students’ ethnicities and displays this affection through days such as the International Food Fair, where parents share food from their home countries with the ISB community. The school also implements Intercultural Week, where students dress up in their countries’ clothing, and a large assembly is held to commemorate every culture.
Pedro Duran has opposing feelings saying, “When I first came here, a lot of people made fun of my accent.” He explains how many stereotypes are associated with Latinos, such as being thieves. “Sometimes it is a joke,” he expressed. He believes students at ISB do not understand the true beauty of Latin culture because the culture is not portrayed well. Therefore, individuals associate negative stereotypes with Latinos, such as being illegal immigrants.
Despite this, Latin students still try to preserve their Latin identity. Brandon Diaz brings food back from his home country. He shares these treats through the Latin Cultural Club at school fairs to educate people about his culture. “I speak Spanish and eat my national food at my house,” said Juli Pulgliese. Pedro Duran takes Portuguese tutoring and spends time with other Latin Americans to keep his culture alive. “I cook Brazillian food to keep that culture in my life,” he says proudly.
“It is difficult because there are so few of us to make something big happen in the community.” - Pedro Duran
To address these concerns, the Latin Cultural Club was created by ISB’s Latin students to tackle these issues. Brandon Diaz, one of the head officers of the club, said, “Do we want to help Latinos in Latin America who are struggling, or do we want to promote our culture to the school? We donated money to help people in Guatemala. However, going forward, we are trying to have a greater impact on the ISB community.”
Although Latino students feel comfortable in the ISB community, the handful of Latin students gracing the school hallways has expressed their hope of change in promoting Latino-American cultures in classes and eradicating negative stereotypes associated with Latinos. The Latin Cultural Club continues to fight for this change and hopes to foster a healthy understanding of all Latin cultures in the ISB community. Despite small numbers, Latinos still work hard to keep their culture alive at ISB.