According to the student profile section of Trinity’s website, 25.2% of students in the class of 2025 identify as Hispanic or Latino, which is a 3.7% increase from 2019. The Trinity University Latino Association (TULA) has a mission to help Latinx students feel welcome and teach students of all backgrounds about Latinx cultures. Now, halfway through the spring semester, TULA has two more events to look forward to: the Primavera Fest and the De Colores graduation ceremony.

Senior Sabrina Cuauro, psychology, global Latinx studies and Spanish major, is the current president of TULA. Her mission with the organization is to celebrate and spread awareness about Latinx culture with social events. This semester she has been working with the Student Diversity and Inclusion Office (SDIO) to plan the Primavera Fest and welcome the spring with a celebration of Latinx culture. In the past, the event has been smaller in scale, but she hopes that partnering with SDIO can help them hold a bigger event. The expected date for this event is April 22 from 4-7 p.m.

“We want to have a mechanical bull and food trucks. I can’t say that we will definitely get all those things because we’re still in the planning process,” Cuauro said. “But we want it to be much bigger and have it be around the fountain on upper campus. We will definitely have music, so we’re hoping lots of students come to that.”

TULA, in collaboration with the MÁS department and the SDIO, hosts a “De Colores” graduation ceremony where Latinx graduating students are handed a sarape stole from someone who has helped them get to graduation day, such as a parent. The event is free and will be held on May 20 before commencement. Senior Latinx students receive an email from TULA to ask if they would like to participate.

“This year, we have, I believe, 83 students participating. I think one of my favorite parts is that the person presenting you the stole is someone you choose,” Cuauro said. “So as we’re reading the bio of the student, you choose what you want us to say about you, we mention like, ‘their mom is here to present them with a stole’ [….] It’s really, really sweet.”

Many students hear about TULA through the Latinx Leadership Program. The program features a class from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. every Friday. The class brings in Latinx community members to help students build professional connections. By uniting a group of Latinx students in one class, they have the opportunity to meet peers with similar backgrounds.
Freshman Daisy Nieto, a computer science major, heard about TULA through the program.

“It [the Latinx Leadership program] was good because all of us are kind of in a similar situation. We do come from diverse Latinx backgrounds,” Nieto said. “And the class talks about different issues here at Trinity [regarding minorities] and how we can work together toward solving them.”

Adam Garza, a neuroscience major and the current Outreach Chair for TULA, said he wants to help continue to bring the inclusiveness of the Latinx Leadership Program into TULA. Inclusiveness, such as bringing in cultures from all Latin countries, not just Mexico, allows TULA to have a larger conversation on what it means to be Latinx.

“I really appreciate TULA events because oftentimes it feels like oh, this [college] isn’t for me. You know, like, many people here don’t look like me,” Garza said. “So I felt like it [TULA] really helps you know that you’re not alone. There’s a whole community of us and we really just want each other to succeed.”