On Oct. 8, a man was seen removing lettering from the official signage for the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden. New lettering was posted on the sign soon after and read “Ethnobotanical Garden of the Americas.”
The sign for the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden on South Jackson Street, pictured Oct. 8, before it was briefly replaced with a sign reading “Ethnobotanical Garden of the Americas.” (Photo/Bianca Orfila-Molinet)
The Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden (LAEG) has been a staple of UGA’s campus for nearly three decades. Since its opening in 1998, the garden has hosted a wide variety of native Latin American flora. It has expanded to include approximately 150 culturally meaningful plants found throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and serves as a resource for community involvement, research and instruction.
“UGA is huge in agricultural schools,” Kaely Jimenez, a Mexican-American sophomore studying civil engineering at UGA, said. “It’s part of our culture. So I think that it is very important that we include Latin American-focused plant species.”
This campus staple recently faced a potential name change, initiated as a misunderstanding by Chad Howe, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute (LACSI), and caught students and staff alike off guard.
“I really don’t know why they would do that,” Michelle Villanueva, a Salvadoran-American sophomore studying political science and criminal justice at UGA, said. “I think there’s a lot of hate going around the world right now, especially towards the Latin American community, which is extremely sad to see.”
A man replaces the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden sign with a temporary sign reading “Ethnobotanical Garden of the Americas” on South Jackson Street on Oct. 8. (Photo/Bianca Orfila-Molinet)
The reason for the change has not been clarified, but the decision garnered criticism from some, such as Villanueva, especially amongst national changes to geographic titles like the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Jimenez raised a different perspective, citing recent cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs as the potential cause for the change.
“There have been committees, even at the College of Engineering, that have changed their names to ‘inclusive excellence’ rather than ‘DEI’ because … they don’t want to lose funding,” Jimenez said.
Other students saw the change as an opportunity for growth. Christian Aldama, a senior civil engineering student at UGA, hopes to bring more awareness and funding to the garden and said that a proper name change may lead the garden in the right direction.
“I would agree on changing the name, but it’d be nice to have something that just rolls off the tongue really well,” Aldama, a Cuban and German-American who volunteers at the LAEG, said. “If there is a name change, it could be a lot more intentional and proactive.”
The original name change that took place on Oct. 8, however, did not stick. Less than 48 hours after all of the official signage for the LAEG was altered to say “Ethnobotanical Garden of the Americas,” the signs were changed back. As of Oct. 10, they once again referred to the garden by its 27-year-old name.
“The University of Georgia has determined that a name change associated with the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden was made without following the university’s required approval processes,” Rod Guajardo, assistant to the President and university spokesperson, said in a statement to the Red & Black. “Those steps were not taken in this case, and this unauthorized name change is inconsistent with UGA policy and governance standards.”
Whether an official name change request has been submitted at this time remains unclear. For now, the signs around the garden still reads, “Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden.” Some Latin American students, however, think that this attempted name change is not representative of the culture of Latin American inclusion at UGA.
“I think that [UGA] do[es] a good job,” Jimenez said. “We have some really good Hispanic organizations, and as far as I know, I think there’s good support for Hispanic students [and] first-gen students.”
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