Jack Lambert
Many people may believe that el Cinco de Mayo is a holiday celebrating the independence of Mexico from either Spain or the U.S. In celebration, many people use the day to drink Corona or tequila and eat Mexican food.

This year, however, the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (CLCE) has decided to re-educate the community with their event, Unheard Voices.

This event will serve to reinform the public of the misrepresented holiday.

Spearheading the event will be Jasmine Bustamante, a senior accounting major and Spanish minor.  She is an employee of the CLCE working as a program leader.

CLCE is an organization that does everything from hosting blood drives to organizing river clean-ups. A lot of the work that they do requires as much man-power as they can get, so volunteers are welcome.

Last week they had close to 300 people help out with their Earth Week Yakima River Clean-Up project, according to Bustamante.

Not only does CLCE help students get volunteer hours, they also give students the chance to learn about different social narratives throughout CWU.

Bustamante was chosen to lead the event because of her close cultural ties to el Cinco de Mayo.

The day will be full of events including speakers, musical performances and poem recitals. There will also be a piñata making station for kids.

The CLCE wants anyone who’s interested to learn about el Cinco de Mayo’s origins and to partake in a small slice of Mexican culture.

CLCE employee Ashley Anderson,  a sophomore marketing and economics major, is one student who will benefit from the event.

“I think it will be good for the whole community. I didn’t even know what el cinco de mayo was,” Anderson said.

The focus of Unheard Voices is determined by the program leaders and in collaboration with Cornerstone Pie and D&M Coffee.

This event’s topic was mostly chosen due to timing. Other CLCE hosted event topics have included Hospice Friends, Kittitas County Friends of Animals and Prisoners of War.

“We decided to go forward with the Cinco de Mayo idea, because it got brought up during the discussion and we realized that it fell on a Friday,” Bustamante said.

CLCE usually hosts these events once a quarter, but due to the number of other CLCE events they decided to make this the only one for the year.

“Since we’re so busy with other events, we just decided to make this event bigger than we normally would and put more effort into this and other programs,” said Bustamante.

Also helping to host the event is former CLCE member, Omar Manzo. Manzo is studying Spanish, political science and Latin American studies at CWU.

“This event gives us the opportunity to reclaim our cultural heritage and educate the community on cultural respect and competency,” Manzo said.

Unheard Voices: Cinco de Mayo will happen May 5, 4 – 6 p.m. at Cornerstone Pie