In 2009, Fr. Guillermo Campuzano created Tepeyac as an organization for Latinx students at DePaul to reflect on their faith and culture. He named it after the hill where San Juan Diego saw the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe for the first time. From that, he based Tepeyac on the pillars of faith, culture, and service. Ten years later, we continue the mission of serving our Latinx community at DePaul through socially responsible leadership and Vincentian values. We seek to facilitate student involvement, engagement, and leadership through our programming based on faith, culture, and service while providing a safe space where our community can share their opinions, reflect on personal experience and participate in our different events. Some of our events for this quarter are Cafecito con Tepeyac, our weekly programming; Latinx Lunes, a question and answer through our Instagram stories; Ven a leer Viernes, where we post book recommendations from our favorite Latinx writers, and the event we are looking forward the most is Dia de los Muertos Week! Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead in English is an important celebration for the Latinx community in which we honor and remember our loved ones that passed away. This quarter, considering the online environment, we created 5 ways to interact throughout the week. We have 3 contests, the first is our Ofrenda contests: send a picture of your ofrenda to our Instagram page and you will be participating, the same dynamic is used for the Calavera Contest and Dia de los Muertos Art Contest. We will also be collaborating with the Egan Center to watch a short film, engage in an interactive conversation, and have fun playing bingo with a twist! Last but not least, during Cafecito con Tepeyac we will be talking about how Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Latin America. Tepeyac means a lot to me, I started to be involved in Tepeyac during my sophomore year and since then I’ve seen it grow so much not only in numbers but also in strength. At Tepeyac I found a community that I can call my own, I found great people from whom I’ve learned so much while exploring my own faith and claiming back my space at DePaul. I think it is better to see what Tepeyac has provided to the DePaul community also through the lenses of our E-board members. For Elizabeth Amaya, “Tepeyac means I have a community where I feel accepted and loved by people who understand and know my experience as a Latina”. For Bryan Lopez, “Tepeyac is where I get to express my latinidad, where love and acceptance is at the center of the conversation”. I am so proud of what the team has accomplished so far and what we will accomplish in the future despite the current circumstances. I am certain that we will continue this leadership and legacy to serve the Latinx community at DePaul.
