One of the activities the LatinX club attended this year was the Annual Cumbre Juvenil. It was a conference held at Colorado University (CU) Boulder, inside University Memorial Center (UMC) on Friday, Sept. 16. This conference was for high school and middle school students that speak come from Latin backgrounds. The Annual Cumbre Juvenil 2022 was in Spanish, English, and Spanglish. The conference was from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This day is to support and empower youth to explore terminology for their own identity formation,” read the Annual Cumbre Juvenil poster.

At the beginning there was breakfast and an Aztec prayer. For the prayer the leaders there had rattles, incense, and an altar. They had the students face south first and then rotate each direction. For each direction everyone was standing the leaders said a prayer in Nahuatl language. 

The staff and volunteers started off with explaining what círculo and palabra meant, (“circle” and “word”.) Círculo means empowerment, healing, and identity. Palabra is like an arrow — it impacts others. “Our mission… is to create opportunities and programs that promote equality in health, education, and quality of life for the Latino community in Boulder county,” read the same poster.

They wanted to honor culture and identity. The staff had speeches on finding identity and other important values. There were many leaders there sharing empowering stories and even some poems. 

The students there picked sessions that talked about important things such as leadership, decolonizing the outdoors, and empowerment. One of the sessions was talking about the next step in the students’ lives. They made a poster and wrote down what they want to be when they grow up. In that session the leaders talked about what education is and how important it is. Another session talked about what makes a good leader. Students got to share their stories and were supported during each session. 

In the conference music played while some students danced. Lunch was provided for everyone as well. Students were brought together to learn more about each other. There was also a game of Lotería (a traditional Latino game similar to bingo) with a twist. Whoever filled all their spaces won. To fill the spaces students had to visit different stands. Stands offered flyers, stickers, and other free items. Some o flyers advertised resources for summer jobs, other activities for Latinos, and some even offered mental health resources. There was also a raffle where students had the opportunity to win gift baskets.