LAGSA’s Noche Latina at Valhalla

Nothing better than a good old Friday at Valhalla with a twist. Come over Valhalla this Friday for Noche Latina. Latin music will be playing through the night, people will be speaking in Spanish, there will be dancing, and if you want to wear a mustache no one will complain. Fun is guaranteed!

1 month ago

Another Exciting Year Starting for LAGSA

Recently we had our Los Viejos y Los Nuevos 2012. Thank you to everyone who came,and please, check our Facebook page for pictures. I am proud to see that this event is getting stronger every year, for I believe this represents the strengthening of our organization and our community.

This event is here for us to welcome the new members entering our community, but also for the LAGSA community and the Hispanic community at rice to come together. This evening we were joined by people from HACER, SHPE, Brazil@Rice and the HBSA. And, we were honored by the presence of Staff and Faculty that have been of great help to LAGSA. We had Andy Meretoja and Cory Owen from the OISS, Prof. Seiichi Matsuda, chair of the Chemistry Dept., and Mr. DavidMedina, director of Multicultural Community Relations at Rice. The visitors we had represent not only the connections and collaborations we are starting, but more fundamentally our integration into the larger community, and our growing involvement in its activity.

LAGSA is an organization that has grown a lot in the last year, always striving to do better, and always doing more. During the last year, LAGSA took an important role in the Graduate International Cultural Night by helping in the organization and performing with its band (thank you to Victor Del Carpio and all our band members). We also started the Spanish Club, of which the Spanish Corner has become one of our most popular programs (thanks to Emilian Nica.) The popularity of our Tango Club increased (thanks to Mauricio Rinaldi’s organization and our instructors.) We started our yearly Latin-American Coffee Break, “Merienda Latina”, and improved over the existing Parranda Latina to make it even better, bigger and more fun. (Thank you to all the officers and volunteers that made all these achievements possible. You guys are great.) And what is even better is that there is still more to come.

This year already, it was the first time in history that LAGSA had such an active role in orientation and helping incoming international students. We picked up incoming students from the airport, Matías Kinzuric (Soc Chair) and Mauro Rinaldi (VP) puttogether and taught their own section of the International Student orientation (pictures in Facebook), and we are still offering grocery runs to those students who are just getting adjusted to living in Houston. In the future, there will be a variety of new events and programs starting. Particularly important are the Latin-American Leadership Series, the Soccer Club courtesy of Matías, and the collaborations we are beginning with HACER and the HBSA.

All of these great things couldn’t happen if it weren’t for you, for the collaboration, help and sacrifice of the members of our community that are the driving force behind everything we do. I am proud of being part of LAGSA and of the Hispanic community on campus. Every time I see more and more proof, in what we do, that we are truly great. Thank you all, for all that you do, and lets keep making our Hispanic community strong and stronger.

Gabriel Ceriotti

LAGSA President

8 months ago