From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the people, their ancestors, cultures and powerful impact they've made in the U.S. Throughout this month, we will be highlighting Boston University student-athletes who are proud to identify as Hispanic and are thrilled to share their heritage and culture with the rest of Terrier Nation.

PREVIOUS SPOTLIGHTS: 
JP Uribe (9/25)
B. Gargicevich-Almeida (9/30)
 
Next up, meet Diego de la Torre, a junior on the men's track & field and cross country teams from Whittier, California who is second generation Mexican-American and enjoys cooking.

How do you identify? 
I am Mexican-American or Chicano.
 
What is Chicano?
Chicano is a claimed identity of Mexican-Americans.
 
Tell us about your family and culture.
I'm second generation on both sides of my family, so both sets of my grandparents immigrated from Mexico. My mom's family is from central western Mexico, Jalisco, so it's very traditional or stereotypical Mexican culture, and my dad's family is from Northern Mexico. My dad's family has been in the U.S. the longest, so they are a little more like the east LA Chicano subculture than stereotypical Mexican.
 
What does your Hispanic heritage mean to you?
It's just a way of keeping in contact and remembering my family. It's also an appreciation for what I have, what my family went through to get here, and to recognize that we're more fortunate than a lot of families who didn't quite make it as far as we did. 
 
Does your family have any traditions that are important to you? What holidays do you and your family celebrate and what do they mean?
We have a lot of traditions around the holidays, like Christmas where was make tamales and champurrado, which is a Mexican hot chocolate. A weird one is we always bring empanadas to wakes after funerals. We don't have a lot of traditions, but we just like to get together as a family and enjoy some Mexican food.
 
What holiday is your favorite?
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each side of my family has a different way of doing it. Thanksgiving is the holiday that my dad's parents decided to totally buy into as Americans, so my grandma made this super unique stuffing recipe that's totally not Mexican at all but it's super good. I don't like any other stuffing. So we all get together and have a Thanksgiving Eve where we get all of the stuffing together. Then Christmas is more my mom's side of the family, and we do that totally traditional Mexican. It's just a really cozy holiday and I also just like Christmas.
 
How have you found the community at BU?
I am on the cross country team, so obviously it is a very good community there, but not a lot of Hispanics are on the team. So in my Spanish literature classes, because I'm taking Spanish as a minor, it's nice to meet other Hispanics and just relate over Boston.
 
Have there been any struggles, and if so, how have you been able to overcome them?
Coming to BU was a big culture shock as far as being from LA, so not only were there not that many Hispanics here, but LA is permeated in Mexican culture while Boston isn't. The culture that is here is more Caribbean Hispanic rather than Mexican Hispanic, so that's probably the biggest feeling of homesickness that I've had. I overcame it by appreciating the stuff that I had before, like listening to the music more often and learning to make the food.
 
What's your favorite cultural dish?
A dish that my grandmother makes that not many people know about, but it is definitely my favorite. It's a soup of bacon, beef and a green chili and tomatillo salsa. It's served over beans and with charred onions.
 
Do you have a favorite song and why?
My favorite song is Cielito Lindo which is a pretty popular mariachi song a lot of people know. The story behind it is when I was a little kid, when I would cry, my mom would call my grandma and she would sing that for me. It's just always been one of my favorite Mexican songs.
 
Who is someone that is Hispanic that you look up to and why?
My grandma. She came into the country very young and she had struggles all her life. She had polio, lost her mom, and her dad left, and so she was raised by her grandparents and came to this country and worked as a maid. She just worked really hard to be relatively successful for a Hispanic immigrant. She is also always giving back and always looking to help people. She now runs a wire transfer business for people who come here and work, and she helps send the money back to their families.
 
Are there any restaurants around here that have some of your favorite cuisines?
There is a market, La Favorita in Allston, and it's the only place I know to get good Mexican ingredients, so I go there and then I make the food myself.
 
What do you like to cook?
I like to make arroz con leche, which is a Mexican dessert and my comfort food. I also make fideo, which is a pasta soup, carne con papas, and a family recipe chicken dish. I'm not sure what the name is.
 
Did anything about Boston University or Boston, regarding your culture, influence you to come here?
I would say that it was the fact that my culture is not here at all really, so going somewhere totally different. LA is considered the northern capital of Latin America, so I wanted to go somewhere where there is very little Latin American influence and just experience something totally different. 
 
What's something you want people to know about being Hispanic?
That it's not one-size-fits-all. I have met a lot of people, especially since coming to be BU, that are from South America or Central America. We have a lot in common and a lot of differences which is just really cool to see. They are almost like my cousins or brothers and sisters. They're similar but not quite the same.