The gloomy thunderclouds and pelting rain did little to dampen the spirit of dozens of students who gathered at the Latino Living Center (LLC) on North Campus on Sunday, September 13, 2026, for their annual Bienvenidos BBQ. A long-standing LLC tradition, Bienvenidos has become a cornerstone of Cornell’s Latina/o community, marking the start of a new academic year and offering the first opportunity to build connections across the community. For many students, Bienvenidos is their first introduction to people and organizations that can make Ithaca feel like home.
With more than thirty organizations tabling, including the Latina/o Studies Program, Cornell’s Latinx Student Empowerment office and the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, the LLC courtyard quickly became packed. Students wove through the crowd, moving from table to table to learn about organizations ranging from professional groups like the Cornell Latinx Association of Pre-laws (CLAP) and BlackGen Capital to advocacy organizations such as Friends of Farmworkers and the Committee on U.S. Latin American Relations. But for smaller cultural communities, Bienvenidos offered itself especially valuable; as Co-President of Contigo Peru, Angela Sotil-Diaz ‘28, explained, Bienvenidos is an accessible way for new and incoming students to discover communities they might otherwise have had difficulty finding. “The Peruvian community on campus is so small, so Bienvenidos is always such an exciting way to meet them”, Sotil-Diaz said.
This year's Bienvenidos was larger than ever, with more than double the number of organizations represented than in previous years, according to the LLC Residential-Housing Director Jo-Anna Rivera. The growth was visible throughout the afternoon: the LLC courtyard filled with students and community members alike as they laughed, ate delicious food from local Venezuelan food truck Yexi’s Arepas, and most importantly, formed community.
As the day gave way to evening, the energy shifted as guests enjoyed lively performances from Mariachi Regional de Cornell University, student dance groups Salsa Pa’lante and Sabor Latino, and Latina sororities Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad / Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc., and Omega Phi Beta. Beneath strands of twinkling fairy lights and colorful papel picado, Sotil-Diaz took the stage as a member of Lambda Pi Chi; despite the crowd and the excitement of performing, she recalled feeling no anxiety or fear. Instead, she said, she was surrounded by “support and warmth” from “people that she knew”, a testament to the supportive environment Bienvenidos seeks to create.
What makes Bienvenidos so distinctive is that they do not reserve that environment for only those who already identify with a particular culture; students do not need to belong to a Latina/o organization, or identify as part of the Latina/o community to participate. They can simply arrive and share in the celebration. For Sotil-Diaz, some of the most meaningful moments came from seeing students unfamiliar with Peruvian Culture stop by and ask questions. Those interactions, she explained, create opportunities for people to learn from one another while fostering greater understanding across cultures, and on a campus as diverse as Cornell, these spaces can provide pieces of home while inviting others in.
View photos from this year's Bienvenidos here.
