Julia Xia
On May 9th, the Latino Mentor Program (LMP) hosted La Fiesta. La Fiesta is a celebration of Mexican culture, where dancers, singers, and music acts are performed by students for the school and families. Aside from the performances, LMP held a dinner filled with Mexican dishes, such as tacos with beans and rice, and activities, such as raffles.
La Fiesta began in 2019 as a way for the club to make money for events and showcase their culture. Since its creation in the early 1990s, the club has hosted events for their members such as visiting colleges, inviting speakers, and lunch-in’s. LMP needed a way to generate money to continue doing these events, so eventually, La Fiesta was created. Hosted once every two years, this celebration became a way to fund the club as well as showcase Mexican culture.
“They’re proud of it, they enjoy it. We’re bringing in money and support to help the club, it’s sort of a win-win because we’re celebrating our culture,” the club’s advisor, Lori Durham remarks.
There were three acts for this year’s La Fiesta. The main act was a Mexican Folkloric Ballet, a style of dance the club’s dancers performed for the majority of the event. In between their performances, another club member, Rachel Jerome (10), performed a singing act, and there were churros made and given out during intermission. Every performance was done by a member of the club, each person expressing love for their culture in their own way.
“My favorite thing is to just see how everyone comes together, when we practice for the event and when we finally perform,” Melissa Gordils (12), president of LMP comments.
The dance members met twice a week to practice, learning new dances throughout the year to perform for the event. Some of the songs they danced to were Pescador, El Torito, and Mazatlan. LMP also brought in other dancers from the dance company they worked with to participate in the performance.
La Fiesta will always be open to the entire student body and even anyone outside of the school. The event will continue to be a way for people to experience Mexican culture through music and dance.
“What I like most about La Fiesta is that I can share my culture with the people I love; like, I’ll tell my family all the time about the dances I practice throughout the year, during La Fiesta I can actually show them,” Julie Martinez Mora (12), the club’s treasurer, notes.
Eduardo Galindo-Aguilar
Isabelle Yang
