Dedicated to all Latine KU Law Students, Alumni and Faculty 

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. President Johnson was the first to establish this celebration, which originally only lasted a week; President Reagan would later expand it to the month-long celebration we now observe. The significance of the dates chosen for Hispanic Heritage Month lays at the many Independence Days celebrated throughout Latin America. Five different countries celebrate their Independence Day on the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Three other countries, Mexico, Chile and Belize, celebrate their independence during Hispanic Heritage Month on September 16, 18 and 21, respectively. 

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations have even made their way to Green Hall. As a way to bring awareness and to celebrate this month, Somos LawHawks, a KU Law HALSA chapter, has hosted a series of events for KU Law students and faculty. Here is a brief overview of our month:  

• We began the festivities early, on September 12, with a classic carne asada event where we gathered in community, ate delicious food and drank refreshing aguas frescas specially prepared by our board member Kathy Barrón’s mother.  
• On September 30, we tabled in Green Hall, where we offered various Mexican candies and buttons made by Somos LawHawk’s executive board members with designs that featured various Latin American flags, cartoonified conchas (a Mexican sweet bread) and papel picado. We displayed fun facts about Hispanic Heritage Month and notable Hispanic KU Law alumni and had a fun photo frame to take pictures.
• Our most recent event, on October 7, was an Enrollment Questions & ‘Elote’ria event where we offered an elote bar, gave students tips and tricks on enrollment, and played legal loteria with cards tailored to the legal field and Latine icons created by Somos LawHawk’s Academic Chair, Kathy.  

In my role as the vice president of Somos LawHawks, I have witnessed how dedicated our board is in ensuring that we educate, engage and empower all Hispanic law students and allies. Without our wonderful board, these events would not have been possible, so a huge thank you to Melanie Almendarez, Kathy Barrón, Natalie Garcia Rojas, Gabby Fischer and Emily Nuñez. We hope to continue strong and host meetings and events that will increase our presence in Green Hall. 

I also want to recognize that there have been many before us who have paved the way for our community. Although certainly not an extensive list, our board has been working hard to identify past Hispanic KU Law alumni and faculty. Here are a few notable names: 

• Rebecca Mendoza, Class of 1972. She is the first Hispanic woman to graduate from KU Law.
• Dennis Raphael Garcia, Class of 1980. He practiced civil and criminal law and served as a Judge Pro Tem in Magistrate Court. He was also a teacher, teaching government and law at a public high school. Most recently, he received the State Library of Kansas’ 2025 Kansas Notable Book award for his latest work, Las Madres: Latinas in the Heartland Who Led Their Family to Success.
• Christine M. Arguello, KU Law professor. She studied law at Harvard Law School and practiced in Miami at the start of her career. She would later join KU Law as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 1998. She also worked at the Colorado Attorney General’s office. Currently, she serves as a district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

As a small ask, if anyone reading this would like to be included in our growing Hispanic alumni network, we would be more than happy to connect over email (halsa@ku.edu). 

My time at KU Law has no doubt been greatly influenced by the communities I am a part of. And perhaps the one I have most come to cherish is the Latine community. I thought it was only appropriate for my last ambassador blog post to be dedicated to it.  

– Rossiel Reyes Enriquez is a 3L KU Law Student Ambassador from Great Bend, Kansas