Getting in touch with one’s roots was a main theme of the Latino Poetry Slam Wednesday.

The Organization for Latino American Students held the event at 7 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center’s Diversions Lounge.

Sophomore math major and President of OLAS J.R. Perez hosted the event. Perez said OLAS planned this event to bring Latinos back to their heritage.

“We wanted this event to be stimulating and we want to find our roots about being Latino,” Perez said.

The poet for this event was Carlos Andres Gomez who was featured in the new movie “Inside Man” and has spoken at colleges throughout the nation.

“I do spoken word and I like to get my audience involved,” Gomez said.

Gomez said life experiences and observations are the basis for most of his poetry.

“I pride myself in being my own artist,” he said.

Gomez talked about life, his heritage, diversity, heartache and how he remains true to his character.

“I just would rather do things that I believe,” Gomez said.

Senior education major Cesar Rosales said the performance blew him away.

“It captured my attention from the beginning to the end,” Rosales said. “He speaks the reality that minorities see every day.”

Lesley Amor, a junior bilingual elementary education major, said she was happy she attended the event.

“I think as a minority I could relate to everything,” Amor said. “But the whole performance would be easy for anyone to relate to.”

Junior Spanish language and literature major Andrea Morales said she thought the Latino Poetry Slam was a great experience.

“I love writing poetry and he makes you want to talk about things that you are afraid of,” Morales said.

Gomez said one of his goals was to get his voice heard out there through acting and poetry.

“All art is about healing and my goal is to do things that heal people,” he said.