Latine/Hispanic Heritage Month 2022

Finding community on campus is ‘crucial’ for the thousands of Latine and Chicanx students at UC Berkeley. While the school touts its diverse student body on flyers and campaigns, Emiliano Silva felt alone as a Mexican transfer student before joining the mariachi group.

G. Cristina Mora, an associate professor in the UC Berkeley sociology department and co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, said she feels invisible and underrepresented at UC Berkeley as a member of the Latine community.

In recent years, Latinx and Chicanx students have made up a greater percentage of UC Berkeley’s transfer admit classes than its freshman admit classes — in the 2022-2023 cycle, nearly 30% of all admitted Latinx and Chicanx students were transfers.

Since the early 1990s, Juan Francisco Esteva Martínez has dealt with retaining heritage and culture everywhere he goes, including at UC Berkeley.