Halifax Community College Thursday will hold its first Hispanic Heritage Month ceremony in the Griffin Centre at 10 a.m. 

National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually from September 15 to October 15 in the United States to recognize the impact Hispanics have made throughout history. 

The guest speaker will be Ramón Zepeda, youth director with Student Action with Farmworkers, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources, and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change. 

Ramón is from a small farming town in Jalisco, Mexico. 

His family has worked in the fields, food processing, and manufacturing plants in California and North Carolina. 

Ramón participated in SAF’s Levante program in high school and the Into the Fields program in college. 

Ramón joined the SAF staff in 2011 and has directed various programs and projects. 

Currently, Ramón directs the Levante Leadership Institute and is co-director of the Hacia los Campos summer theater group. 

He received a B.A. in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

After the ceremony, a Hispanic-owned food truck from Raleigh, The Raccoon Grill, Fair Food and Snacks, will be on the campus by the 300 building of HCC from 11-2 p.m. for students and the community to have the opportunity to purchase authentic Hispanic food.  

The ceremony is open and free for the public to attend. 

On the day of the event, the ceremony will be broadcast live. 

A link to the broadcast can be located at halifaxcc.edu.