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OGDEN — The heart of Weber State University will be transformed into a multinational mercadito, or market, next week as vendors fill the Shepherd Union Building atrium with goods from across Latin America.
Ten vendors are traveling from across the Wasatch Front to sell a number of handmade items, many from Indigenous communities in their home countries, including Guatemalan leather bags and shoes, a Colombian artist's crocheted Frida Kahlo dolls and naturally dyed, handmade Mexican textiles.
Students and the general public are welcome to browse El Mercadito Monday and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those with a smaller pocketbook can still join the celebration by dancing to live Venezuelan music at the market Tuesday or cheering on a folkloric dance group performing Monday. Several Latino artists will also discuss their work on Monday, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
This is the second year Weber State has hosted El Mercadito in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The idea for the market came directly from students, who pointed to their own family businesses or those of others in their communities. Many of these families have a symbiotic relationship with those back home, said Mónica Rodríguez Mesa, Hispanic/Latino multicultural program manager at Weber State University. The family members in the U.S. help bring money into their communities, while their family or friends back home provide authentic, handmade products for sale.
"We noticed that a lot of students, they were saying, 'Sorry I can't commit this weekend because I help my parents with a small business that we have at home. We work through the week in restaurants or factories or very low-paying jobs and the $25,000-$30,000 income — supporting five or six members at home is not enough," Rodríguez said.
The market was not only a tool to help those students be involved in university events but also a way to show Hispanic and Latino communities are welcome at WSU. Rodríguez, for example, remembers seeing Latino students at last year's market bringing their non-Hispanic classmates to the mercadito and pointing out different items — Columbian coffee or a bag with Tejana queen Selena — that related to their own experiences growing up in Latin households.
"There was a cultural synergy around the mercadito," Rodríguez said. "It was absolutely beautiful to be able to see the Caucasian community making the effort to pronounce 'El Mercadito' and respecting the way we say things in Spanish, right?"
Part of a larger goal
The aim of El Mercadito goes beyond just creating community connections; Rodríguez said it's also reflective of the university's goal to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a federal designation that requires at least 25% of students be Hispanic/Latino. The designation also opens streams of funding for colleges and universities that are typically used for things that benefit students across the board regardless of ethnicity, such as resources for first-generation students or student retention.
"If we're truly living this mission, this goal, we have to be more approachable, more inclusive in the way we provide services. We have to be more genuine in the way how we say the university has an open door for everybody," Rodríguez said.
She said the university was able to disseminate information about higher education to different Latino immigrant communities through vendors last year. "That's that's the real intention behind this, to create a better future for those families that now feel America is their home."
For the vendors themselves, the market has been a chance to get their foot in the door when it comes to higher education. She said many of the families are the first generation in their family to come to the U.S. and don't have a full grasp of the educational system, such as AP or honors classes, the importance of extracurriculars or ACT prep resources.
"Last year, we had a lot of members asking me, 'What do I need to do for my child to come here?'" Rodríguez. "We generate that dialogue with them, and they use that information and spread it through the communities."
