Latinx Cultural Night Looks to the Future
The future was bright at the 20th Annual Latinx Cultural Night held on Wednesday, Feb. 19, in the Soda Center, where students and the Saint Mary’s community celebrated Latinx culture through dance, music, spoken word, and food. This year’s theme, “El Futuro Es.../The Future Is…,” had students reflect on their cultural identities and social issues related to the Latinx community, and how these shape the community’s future.
Andrea Diaz-Garcia ’22, the event planner for Latinx Cultural Night, shared, “This year was the 20th year, and we wrestled a lot over what message we want to portray to the SMC community. We recognized this is also the start of the new decade, and we decided on the theme ‘El Futuro es….’ ”
The evening featured a wide range of performances highlighting Latinx culture, including three by the student organization Ballet Folklorico Guadalupano, in which students demonstrated how they have been able to express their Latinx culture at Saint Mary’s through dance and spoken word performances, ranging from topics of migration, climate change, to Chicano identity. Brother Camillus Chavez, FSC, a great admirer of Ballet Folklorico, read a poem about the pachuco subculture of the 1940s.
In her spoken word piece titled “La Calma de Mama,” Jazmin Carillo, a senior Communications major and set director for Latinx Cultural Night, focused on how the poor treatment of the environment resembles that of Latinx women, saying, “If Mother Earth had a race, she would be Latina, because everyone loves Latinas but no one likes respecting us.”
In addition to looking toward the future of the Latinx community, students imagined their individual futures and the possibilities that will arise through their performances. Jizelle Vado, a senior at Saint Mary’s majoring in Business Administration, expressed thanks for her future opportunities through dance. “With the theme being about our future, there was no better way to show how I got to where I am today and where I will be going, than by bringing my mom onto the stage with me,” shared Vado. “My mom has done so much for me to provide me with a better life so that I can create a future that I desire. Dance is a passion that we both share, so I wanted to be able to highlight her by doing something that we both love deeply.”
By the end of the night, students were able to share the history and hardships that have faced the Latinx community while displaying its resilient culture—and give a confident outlook on the success of the community in the future. As student performer and Physics major Cristian Ramirez Rodriguez ’23 shared, “This experience rejuvenated my optimism for the future of the Latinx community both on and off campus.”