On March 27, PHS students gathered in the new gym for a celebration of Hispanic culture and history. Following the administration’s postponement of the assembly, which was originally schedule for October, students from clubs such as Latinos Unidos and Generation 1 came together in January to begin the planning process. This year’s assembly included numerous performances, including those that showcased the many perspectives of Hispanic people throughout the Princeton community.

In order to address PHS administration’s concerns about the event’s educational value, new performances focused on teaching various aspects of Hispanic culture, such as mariachi music and quinceañera dances, a tradition that celebrates a girl’s 15th birthday common in many Latin American countries. “A new event that we tried out that we hadn’t done previous years for the assembly is a quinceañera: we [had] a bunch of quinceañeras with big dresses, and we [had] teachers to do a waltz with them,” said Aimy Solares ’26, one of the board members of Latinos Unidos.

Latinos Unidos led the preperation for assembly. As a completely student-led club, the planning board coordinated with several outside community groups, as well as club members from the organization Gen 1, to ensure all events and rehearsals happened smoothly.

“[The preparation is] chaotic … we have to talk to everyone who’s part of it to make sure they’re up to date with everything, especially with our other events making sure everyone’s doing their part,” said Osbaldo Morales ’25, co-president of Latinos Unidos. This year’s Hispanic Heritage celebration was the first to include several other PHS clubs in its performances. This added an extra challenge for the organizers, as they had to schedule rehearsal times that would work for all the students involved.

“For our assembly, usually we kind of just plan it out among ourselves, but this year we tried to get other clubs like PULSE involved and the PHS Step Team,” said Solares. “We [also tried] to get other people outside of Latinos [Unidos] to come in and volunteer and help with the assembly.”

Though the assembly was intended to celebrate Hispanic culture, students of all cultural backgrounds are encouraged to participate in future events.

“Can you dance? Can you sing? Can you move furniture around? I could. You can. Everyone’s invited. Whoever wants to participate — even the administration — is invited. The community outside of the PHS community is also invited,” said Idiana Mejia-Rodriguez, a Spanish teacher at PHS and the advisor of Latinos Unidos.

The organizers hope that the assembly not only succesfully educated others on Hispanic culture and heritage, but also brought representation to Princeton’s large, but often-underrepresented Hispanic community. The assembly was intended to serve as a public platform for their voices and ideas to showcase their diverse culture and form a sense of community.

“I think we just want them to feel seen and know that there’s other kids just like them and just to [provide] representation. Hopefully [even] if they don’t feel like they belong somewhere [else] in the school, they know that they belong in our club,” said Solares.