These Northeastern University clubs are all about Latino pride
Northeastern University’s Latino community celebrated the start of Hispanic Heritage Month with a parade of flags and block party.
“Together united we can never be defeated,” shouted third-year student Stephanie Gonzalez as she led the crowd of proud Northeastern University students waving the flags of their home countries.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage month — which runs from Sept.15 to Oct. 15 — the school’s Latino student body hosted its annual parade and block party on the Boston campus Wednesday evening.
Starting from the Snell Ballroom, the procession snaked its way throughout the campus, making stops at Krentzman, Robinson, and Snell quads before arriving at Centennial Common for the community celebration.
From Bachata to Salsa, the event featured music and live performances representing Latin America. Students also enjoyed a host of signature Latino dishes including traditional Mexican birria tacos and pollo guisado, a signature Caribbean dish featuring stewed chicken and rice and beans.
Gonzalez, who is vice president of external affairs for the Latino American Student Organization at Northeastern, said the annual parade is meant to empower students to be proud of their roots.
She said the group wants to provide spaces for Latinos to be together.
“That’s why we host events like this,” she said.
According to Northeastern’s Fall 2025 data, 2,647 undergraduates and 905 graduate students identify as Hispanic or Latino. Data for Fall 2026 was not immediately available.
Northeastern Global News spoke to a few Latino student leaders attending the event to learn more about their organizations and what they offer to the greater Northeastern student body.
Here is a sampling of a few of those clubs.
Latino American Student Organization [LASO]
LASO hosts and promotes events on campus designed for Northeastern’s Latino student body, explained Diego Téllez Vargas, a fourth year student on campus and president of the club.
“We started off as a Puerto Rican student association, but we realized there are whole groups of Latinos here and we wanted to change it to be able to accommodate everyone that’s Latino,” he said.
In addition to helping organize the annual parade, LASO S also puts on an annual Culture Show , and a Boston Latinx Student Symposium.
The club hosts weekly meetings at International Village at 6 pm on Wednesdays, when the average turnout is around 75 to 90 people, Vargas said.
“We’re not exclusive to only Latinos. We’re inclusive of everyone,” he said. “We like to bring in anyone that’s interested to learn more about Latin American culture, even learn Spanish, or even just grab some food. We love to be able to share food. That is how we are as Latinos.”
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Kaliente
Kaliente is Northeastern University’s Latinx Dance team. Members learn a range of Caribbean dance styles, including Bachata, Reggatron, and Salsa, explained Kevin Almanzar, a third year student and secretary for the club.
“We’re really focused on partner work, so there is a really strong sense of community that can’t be found elsewhere,” he said.
The club invites members of all skill levels and regularly performs live — including during last year’s commencement addresses at Fenway Park in Boston.
For those who are totally new to dancing, the club regularly hosts workshops throughout the semester, which Almanzar noted are “super beginner friendly.”
The next session is scheduled for October 10. The club is still determining location and time, but will post an update on its Instagram page.
“We’re really good at cultivating different cultures,” he said. “We are super based on team work and spreading love as far as we can.”
For this year, the club hopes to show off some of its recent dance routines it’s been working on to the Northeastern community, Almanzar said.
“We just want to make sure that we keep our identity alive and show [students] what we can do,” he said.
The Dominican Student Association
The Dominican Student Association celebrates Dominican culture and inclusivity, explained Tombis Perez , a third-year and the president of the club, which is open to both students who are Dominican and those who are interested in the way of life, history and heritage of the people who share a Caribbean island with Haiti.
“There are a lot of people who may be Dominican who are not in touch with their roots,” Perez said. “There are also people who are from completely foreign countries and they’ve heard about Dominican music and dancing and they wanted to find a way to get into it and learn about it.”
The club regularly hosts networking events and social gatherings. It’s first event of the semester on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the John D O’Bryant African American Institute when the group’s upper classmen will compete against underclassmen in a series of challenges, including a platano, or plantain, race where student have to run back and forth while balancing a platano on a spoon, a dance battle, and musical chairs set to Demobow, a music genre popular in the Caribbean.
“It will be a good opportunity for all the freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors to have fun whether they are Dominican or not,” Perez said.
