[Josh Imhof | features editor]

With the Winter Olympic Games still months away, students at Duquesne University decided to put their own spin on the competition.

On Oct. 1, the Duquesne Latin American Student Association hosted the inaugural LASAlympics in the Towers Multi-Purpose Room. Duquesne students from Latin-America, Spain and the United States broke off into teams and competed in events such as three-legged racing, potato-sack racing and giant Jenga.

Dayana Yupa-Calle, a freshman from Ecuador, and Danzi Olmos Morales, a freshman from Mexico, competed against each other in the potato sack race. Both have lived in or around Pittsburgh, but strongly identify with their Latin-American culture.

“Pennsylvania is not big on diversity, so when you find it, you have to grab on,” Yupa-Calle said. “We all come from different places but feel like family.”

She said that events like these provide a place for Latin-Americans to be proud and authentic, and also to speak their language.

Victor Vineula Adriaensens, who is originally from Spain, is the treasurer of the Latin American Student Association and also enjoyed the opportunity to speak to others in his native language.

“I think it’s good socially. It gives you an opportunity to hang out with people,” he said. “This is probably the biggest opportunity to speak Spanish on campus. Other than a few people, I haven’t had many.”

While the club has had multiple iterations, this one was created by Kim Fransisco Martinez. She started at Duquesne University in 2022, but felt isolated in her Towers dorm room.

She was not in St. Anne’s or Assumption with the rest of the freshmen and she worried she wouldn’t find anyone like her.

“When I first came here, I thought there were no other Latin kids on campus,” she said.

Soon, she learned about the old Latin American Student Association and began to attend events, where she met friends and her roommate.

After a year in the club, Martinez looked forward to another year of events, but the former president graduated and the club dissolved. In order to keep the LASA alive, she decided to step in.

“I had to pick it up from the ground up,” she said. “I was thrown into the thick of it.”

Martinez restarted the club in 2024 and has hosted many events since then, including Day of the Dead celebrations, Mexican Bingo and dancing lessons.

Adeline Carillo said these events are the reason she started coming.

“It feels so warm to come to clubs that celebrate traditions I grew up on,” she said.

When she first came to Duquesne, she said she sometimes felt bored and alone, so to find a Hispanic community and also share experiences with others was meaningful to her.

This is not always easy to find, but it is important to provide, said Ana Victoria Covarruvias, the social media chair of the organization.

“Americans struggle to find home here. For Latinos, it’s harder,” Covarruvias said. “We try to make it a little bit different. We want it to be like they’re hanging with their family.”

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu