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Collegedale News 5
Mental Health 7
Sports 7
Opinion 8
Religion 8
Lifestyle 9
The Southern Accent
Update of the week page 5 The completion of the Apison Pike Bridge
Pressing Issue page 3 Southern’s Trails Marked by Tragedy
The Student Voice Since 1926
Volume 81 Issue 05
October 8, 2025
Collegedale, Tennessee
Ruthie Roque: Behind the scenes of LAC Night Ruthie Roque and her mother, Barbara Roque. (Photo courtesy of source).
Kyla Wetmore Reporter Ruthie Roque, a junior business administration major, sat in front of dozens of Polaroid images featuring participants in this year’s Latin American Cultural (LAC) Night, which will begin Saturday at 9 p.m. in Iles Physical Education Center. As director and sole scriptwriter for LAC Night, Roque flipped through the pictures as she spoke about how the importance of memories played a significant role in the creation and theme of the event. “The purpose of these photos is
actually tied to the message,” Roque explained during a recent interview. “When I was making the story, I knew that I wanted to incorporate memories and the power of photos—and what that means for us as people who so often forget until we see a picture.” For inspiration, Roque pulled from her personal history as the daughter of Cuban immigrants. She shared that the story of how her mother, Barbara Roque, immigrated to the United States impacted her deeply while growing up. As a young Cuban woman in 1995, Barbara had heard about the opportunity to immigrate to America while working at a government facility called La Casa de Cultura, or “The House of
Culture,” according to her daughter. At the time, the Clinton administration was offering only a few thousand visas to Cuban citizens, and Barbara Roque immediately knew she wanted to apply. “I didn’t want to live there without freedom of expression and with so many shortages that not even money could fix,” she stated in an email to the Accent that was translated from Spanish to English. Because applicants submitted their paperwork at La Casa de Cultura, Barbara Roque as an employee could have been fired or banned from ever securing a visa if she had applied there for her papers. So, according to Roque, her
Ruthie Roque, LAC Night director (Photo by Preston Waters).
See Ruthie Roque on page 2
“She was happy because at the end of the day, this was the destination. I was the dream that she achieved." - Ruthie Roque