Cultural conclave

link Lillian Bowe: Staff photo

Maria Garcia, left, shows Annabel Jauregui a scrapbook of the Multicultural Affairs Office’s activities at Eastern New Mexico University.

Editor’s note: This series profiles the people behind the groups, organizations and businesses in the community.

By Lillian Bowe

Staff writer

[email protected]

Annabel Jauregui, a sophomore majoring in communicative disorders and minoring in Spanish, is surrounded by multiple cultures and languages.

She works in the Eastern New Mexico University Hispanic Affairs office, part of the Multicultural Affairs offices that also include African-American Affairs, Native American Affairs and International Student Affairs.

“I have learned some Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish from Spain as it’s a different dialect, French and Portuguese. That was really hard, but fun,” Jauregui said.

She works with three other people in her office as they are getting prepared for Hispanic Heritage Month starting on Sept. 15. Jauregui, from Clovis, started as an intern with multicultural affairs while in the Upward Bound program.

“I’m so thankful that I got this job. The diversity in this office is amazing and I’m learning so much about many different cultures,” Jauregui said.

Sean Hodnett, from Denver, works in the African-American Affairs office and was recruited during Dawg Days this year.

He is working on African American Month events that will be hosted in February.

Hodnett, studying cultural anthropology, said he loves that he is learning about his own culture and others.

“I like seeing all the people that come into our office, organizing events and spreading cultural awareness,” Hodnett said.

Recruited just like Hodnett, Johnnie Yazzie, from Gallup, joined the Native American Affairs office this year and is already actively involved.

With events happening in November, Yazzie, a pre-law student, on Thursday was painting drums.

“Its like a family here and has a professional atmosphere. Its a lot of fun working here,” Yazzie said.

Maria Garcia has been a part of the “family” for two years. She’s in the International Student Affairs office. Garcia, a graduate student in education, grew up in Aguascalientes, Mexico and came to ENMU for her master’s degree.

“I work with students from all over the world and it is very rewarding,” Garcia said.