UC Berkeley

Latinx Heritage Month

Latinx Heritage Month

This Latinx Heritage Month, we recognize the vibrant and diverse contributions of the Latinx community to our campus and beyond.

This is a time to celebrate our shared heritage, honor the achievements of Latinx individuals, and engage with the cultural, academic, and social richness of our community. Now more than ever, community matters, as a place of understanding, care, and resilience. Together, we can create spaces where all feel seen, valued, and supported.

As we share community’s contributions, we must first acknowledge the conversations around the use of multiple “umbrella” terms, such as Hispanic, Chicano/Chicana, or Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine, and the many intersectional identifying terms people embrace, whether racial identities or signifiers, such as first-generation or undocumented/documented. We respect and appreciate how community members choose to self-identify. While we use the broader term Latinx for this message, we are mindful both of the shared histories of inequities Latinx communities have endured, as well as the historical, raciolinguistic, regional, social, and educational variance and specificities experienced by Latinx peoples.

What are UC Berkeley's Thriving Initiatives?

Spotlight: Latinx Thriving Initiatives

When former Chancellor Christ set the goal for Berkeley to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), it was apparent that other changes needed to be made institutionally in order to meet this goal and better serve our Latinx students, as well as staff, faculty, and alumni. Hence, the HSI Initiative became the Latinx Thriving Initiatives (LTI). Achieving HSI designation is one goal, and LTI consists of broader efforts to intentionally serve Latinx/e students, staff and faculty.

Student Orgs and Advocacy Groups

Student Resources

ASUC Latine-Community Endorsed Senators

This webpage is supported by the Division of Student Affairs, the Division of Equity and Inclusion, People and Culture, and the Vice Provost for Faculty.

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Articles/Profiles

Units and Departments 

Advisory Boards

Staff and Faculty Resources

  • Alianza: Community building, professional development and promotion of Latinx staff

The Chicano/Latino Student Development Fund
Support Fund

Latinx History Month 2026

A message from leadership to the campus community.

Events

Past events:

Research

Dr. Liliana Rodriguez

Assistant Professor of Chicanx/Latinx Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies

Dr. Rodriguez’s forthcoming book, Adolescent Arrivals (December 2026), centers the lived experiences of immigrant teenagers simultaneously navigating adolescence and migration. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, she explores how newcomer teens, who are often unfamiliar with the language, customs, and institutions of the host country, face a distinctive kind of constrained agency that sets them apart from both younger and older immigrants. Through their own voices, Dr. Rodriguez reveals how immigrant teenagers build vibrant spaces of belonging through joy and humor, crafting identities and communities on their own terms. For them, survival is not passive adaptation, but an active process of world-making.

Liliana Rodriguez headshot

Dr. Gina Ann Garcia

Professor in Berkeley School of Education, Director of the Higher Education Action Research for Transformation (HEART) Lab, Faculty Director of Thriving Initiatives, Host of the podcast ¿Qué pasa, HSIs?

Dr. Garcia explores what it means to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution and the mechanisms of organizational change that lead to the enactment of servingness.

- Learn about Dr. Garcia’s Liberatory Outcomes project, sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning Presidential Chairs Fellowship and in collaboration with Dra. Marisella Rodriguez
- Learn about Dr. Garcia's new book The HSI Movement
- Co-author of the article: California’s Students Deserve Coalition, Not Competition

Gina Ann Garcia

Dr. Mario Molina

Dr. Mario Molina, earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at UC Berkeley in 1972 under Professor F. Sherwood Rowland. In 1995, Dr. Molina became the first Mexican-born scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) deplete the Earth's ozone layer—research that directly led to the landmark Montreal Protocol and saved the ozone layer. Today, his legacy inspires the next generation of Latinx scientists at the College of Chemistry.

When scientists fight to save the climate via College of Chemistry

Dr. Mario Molina headshot

Alina Leticia Zárate

PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group

A recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, her research investigates environmental-labor dynamics amidst climate change in the agricultural sector. A longtime farmworker justice advocate, she is committed to uplifting farmworker experience and expertise, recently publishing her findings in her book Our Five Seasons: Farmworkers' Warning on Climate ChangeAt Berkeley, she serves as a graduate research mentor for Latinxs & the Environment and the Discovery Climate Hub and also serves as Co-Chair of the Graduate Association for Latinx Students.

Alina Leticia Zárate headshot

Higher Education Action Research for Transformation (HEART) Lab

The HEART lab is a space for learning coupled with cariño, where we discuss hard issues that require creative and innovative solutions.

- Indicators of thriving for Latinx students at an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution
- Exploring liberatory outcomes development within a Latines/xs in education course
- Advocate, create, and transform Hispanic-Serving Institutions (ACT HSIs)
- Servingness 2.0
- Organizational identity development

HEART Lab logo

The Archive of Latinx Feelings: 19th Century Letters, Notebooks, Diaries, Books

This research project brings Berkeley undergraduates together with Dr. Raúl Coronado to examine private Mexican writing from the 1800s (including letters, diaries, and notebooks) and explore the history of Latine emotions, identity, and interior life. Through Spanish and Portuguese Research Apprenticeship Program (SPRAP) and Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP), students work with archival materials and AI-generated transcriptions to help make these historical records searchable and accessible for future research.

Group of Spanish & Portuguese graduates in regalia

Spanish-language digital mental health intervention

UC Berkeley Digital Health Equity and Access Lab

Led by Dr. Adrian Aguilera, this ongoing study is examining a Spanish-language digital cognitive behavioral therapy intervention that pairs a digital app with trained peer supporters from the community who provide motivational support to participants. The research explores how this combination of technology and community-based support can expand access to culturally and linguistically relevant mental health resources for Spanish-speaking adults. Nearly 300 participants have joined the study toward a goal of 425.

Fig. 1. Randomization design.