You will love, and benefit from, attending Saint Anselm College’s Multicultural Day celebration. It includes every single one of us – students, faculty, staff, and families – in an exciting day filled with shared experiences and cultural exchange. It’s a spectacular event with vibrant music, cultural dance performances, and food that will require you to bring milk to the event. The sharing of cultural traditions on Multi Day allows for us to gain deeper insights into many backgrounds and experiences. Multicultural Day is incredibly fun and community-oriented, while placing a strong emphasis on promoting understanding, respect, and inclusion of cultural traditions, values, and practices. This event is important to continue to create unity and belonging for everyone on campus.
Brianna Portillo (class of 2027), Vice President and Public Relations chair of the Multicultural Student Coalition, shared what she has in the works for the upcoming weekend. Brianna, who is passionate about her heritage and the role that it plays in her identity, will be hosting a table to share Guatemalan culture with the community. In addition to hosting her own table, Brianna will be acting as an orchestrator for the event, helping to coordinate the different activities and ensuring that the day runs smoothly.
When talking to Brianna about what the Multicultural Center means to her, she expressed her appreciation for the representation of the many different languages spoken in the center. “I walk into the Multicultural Center, and sometimes there will be people just speaking in Spanish… It’s great…I want to go and speak Spanish with them… it’s great to have that feeling.” For Brianna, the center is a place where she can connect with others through a shared identity.
Israel Small (class of 2026), who is Secretary of Men of Color, also spoke to me about his heritage and the table that he will be hosting at Multicultural Day. His parents immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago, and he describes his culture’s music, food, and history. We talked a lot about Trinidad and Tobago’s musical history and how the music inspired so much of the music that everyone listens to today, more so than you probably would have imagined. “In my case, I’m bringing food to the table. I’m also bringing little factoids about the country because it is a tiny place.”
Israel is excited to bring back a popular dish that he made last year, “The food is great! I am going to be making curry chicken… I might tone down the spice, I might not, because I like a kick of pepper.” He also emphasizes how great the event truly is, “Multi Day to me is a celebration because here at Saint As we’re a little bit sequestered from the more diverse Manchester area. Taking the opportunity to highlight the diversity instead of being colorblind to it because at the end of the day, our diversity is what makes us better, and if we are to live up to our Catholic identity and our liberal arts identity, then you would need to embrace the multicultural approach. So embracing Multi Day to me means embracing a true Christian interpretation of what makes us all different but still equal.”
Multicultural Day at Saint Anselm College is a day where the entire community comes together to celebrate each individual’s uniqueness, which strengthens our community. It’s not just an event but a valuable opportunity to learn about and appreciate the diverse backgrounds that contribute to the college. Whether you are trying new food, listening to music that inspires music around the world, watching traditional dance performances, or simply having a conversation with someone about their heritage, Multicultural Day is an experience that makes us more connected to each other.
Come to Multicultural Day to celebrate your own, and others’ heritage. You will leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the beautiful cultures that make up our Saint Anselm College community.