National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15. In order to celebrate and honor this time of year at Wilsonville High School, Kathy Villalobos enlisted a group of students in the Latino Arts & Culture class to design and create a mural to be displayed on her classroom windows.

The idea to paint scenes on the windows in her classroom came about last year when Villalobos – teacher of AP Spanish Literature and Language and Spanish Language and Literature I – was beginning her teaching journey at Wilsonville High School. This idea evolved into a fun tradition of developing something new to put on display every month.

Fellow staff member Angennette Escobar was the one to suggest the involvement of the Latino Arts & Culture students, “I did the first two paintings myself…but from there we would talk about a theme together, then we started painting together,” says Villalobos. 

The community of students coming together and breathing life into their designs is the highlight of the painting process for Villalobos, “Seeing the idea come to fruition and the kids take pride in it is the best part.” The project took about a month of hard work to complete, but the care the students put into the piece shows through.

Ximena Carrilo is one of said students taking pride in their work on this project. Carrilo states, “[The painting] represents my culture. To have the opportunity to illustrate my culture means a lot to me.” The piece brings together aspects of Latino cultures with roots across multiple South American countries.

Carrilo worked to highlight the small things that make up the painting, “It has a lot of details. I really wanted to have the perfect image of what it represents. To paint a picture of who we are, where we came from.”

The mural has reached its final stages in time for the celebration of Dia De Los Muertos and to bring a beautiful end to National Hispanic Heritage Month. Students can see it on display in room 81.