Puente Club provided a platform for students to share the works of noted Hispanic/ Latino artists authors and even personal poetry during the Sharing Palabras event.

The event emceed by Puente, AB 540 and DACA counselor Rosa Carrillo was held in the Cerritos College amphitheater Tuesday Oct. 10.

Books were offered to students who wanted to come up and read but had no personal material or an author to read from.

The reading was held as a part of Hispanic Heritage Month to celebrate the works of Hispanic/Latinx/Chicanx authors.

Carrillo kicked off the event by reading author Trinidad Sanchez Jr.’s Why Am I So Brown?

Speaking Palabras is the first reading hosted by the Puente Club as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Carrillo explained that the noted works were chosen by students, “I had some students actually sit with me and they chose the poems so I looked it over and made sure it was something that we could actually relate to the day.”

There were a total of 11 readers, mostly comprised of students except for Carrillo and Language Professor Carlos Arce.

Approximately three students read personal work, Carrillo stated, “I thought that was awesome, I loved it, I want more students to become more involved and participate and really just experience that power of connectiveness with one another through words.”

One of the students, Music Major Jacob Juarez, read his poem entitled, Sweet Bubbling Brown Mexican Sugar.

Juarez said he chose to read this poem because, “it was the only poem I can find on this [phone]. It explains how I feel towards myself and my girl.”

Film Major J. Quinzelle’s participation was spontaneous when he passed by the amphitheater and realized the event was open mic.

Quinzelle explained the reading was an insightful event because “they tell us a little bit of a different perspective, somebody else’s perspective and not in a blunt way that is just superficial but you actually see the complexities in what they experience, through their own words.”

Carrillo stated the purpose of the event, “It’s really about having students see that there’s a lot more authors out there than just the typical ones like Sandra Cisneros, but we have such a diversity of poets, not just Mexican Chicanos but we have people from Puerto Rico, people from Nicaragua, Chile and so forth.”

Carrillo hopes to have another Speaking Palabras event in the future.