By Jenna Rittman
Correspondent
Unión Latina and the Black Student Union recently co-hosted their Latine Pop-Up Shop event, promoting ten Hispanic and Latine-owned small businesses to the College community. This event, which occurred on Sept. 20, allowed the College community to support Hispanic and Latine-owned small businesses and to experience different cultures through food, art, clothing and more.
The event started off with an introduction to both of the organizations, their missions and their members. Unión Latina then brought up the significance of Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on Sept. 15, and acknowledged their cosponsors.
Shortly after, there was a dance performance from Ritmo Latino, the College’s only Latin dance team. Ritmo Latino has performed at other Unión Latina events in the past, such as their annual COPA event every year, where they celebrate traditional Latine food, music and history.
During the shopping portion of the evening, students had the chance to walk around and look at all the small businesses showcased. There were 10 small businesses at the event, and each small business offered something different from the others. There were two that sold clothes and three that sold food, with the other five offering a variety of services, which included selling art, offering hair services, selling phone cases and accessories, selling scrunchies and selling handmade beauty products.
Anthony Perez, the owner of cloth.guru, a Trenton-based Peruvian and Guatemalan-owned small thrifting business, shared his thoughts on the event. “I really liked it.” Perez said. “This is my first time being at this event. I haven’t got the time to walk around, but everything looks diverse. Kudos to the other businesses.”
Perez also said that his business did well at the event, many people showed his business love and people were very friendly. He is planning on coming back to future events like this one.
Out of the ten small businesses that attended this event, the students seemed to gravitate most towards the clothing businesses, cloth.guru and ELRXIVY vintage. Other small businesses that were attracting attention include a Guatemalan-owned business selling skincare and makeup essentials (lotusxcosmetics), a Mexican-owned business selling baked goods (kaidenstreatss) and a Mexican-owned business selling shaved ice (Raspados de Margarita y Antonio).
The two biggest selling food items of the night were the tres leches cakes from kaidenstreatss and the shaved ice from Raspados de Margarita y Antonio. Both the tres leches cakes and the shaved ice from these small businesses came in a variety of flavors, and there were lines at both of the tables.
I personally found myself interested in Lotus x Cosmetics, a Dominican-owned business specializing in nails and selling phone accessories (venusnailsxo) and a Salvadoran-owned business selling art (Sonz). I was also interested in some of the clothes that cloth.guru brought, the Tres Leches that kaidenstreatss were selling and the shaved ice by Margarita and Antonio. I bought two lip oils and one lip liner from Lotus x Cosmetics, a popsocket from Venus Nails and a keychain from Sonz.
The event was a fun mix of showcasing Ritmo Latino’s dance performance, highlighting local Hispanic and Latine-owned vendors and kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month.
