礼拜堂里充满了欢快的音乐声. 庆祝西班牙和拉丁文化, leaders of the student affinity club 失去 hosted an 上学校 Hispanic Heritage Assembly on September 28.

Director of Student Life Jared Winston opened the program by introducing a performance by pianist 菲利普·圣地亚哥26岁, who played a beautiful improvisational coritos medley [coritos are short hymns]. “I would say that the inspiration for the music I played was my Hispanic heritage,圣地亚哥说。,  “和 also a very big part of the music I played was my faith, 就像在我的基督教五旬节教会一样, 我们通常会弹很多首歌, 都是西班牙语的, 这就是我们敬拜神的方式. 敬拜神对我来说非常重要, 和 so I try to reflect that love of God through my piano playing. When I play, I try to play with my heart 和 give the piano 200 percent.”

失去分享西班牙音乐

接下来，温斯顿介绍了三名成员 失去, a student affinity group that celebrates Hispanic culture. 失去的角色，解释说 juliissa Velazquez的作品， “is to share our culture to everyone as well as get respect for it. Hispanic/Latinos are severely unnoticed 和 neglected, in my opinion. The reason being that a lot of people don’t consider us a race or ethnicity. 当我们被问到这些问题时, we never know what to answer 和 we constantly have to forget our heritage to fit into these norms. 很明显我们没被发现. 我和其他失去成员想要改变这一点. 我们带来了很多东西. 我们有美味的食物, 我们有出色的音乐, we have so many different cultural traditions to explore, 最重要的是, 我们有历史. If we continue not to be seen or heard or respected, we’ll be forgotten. 失去是一群了不起的人. 我觉得每个人在亲和力上都是领导者. 我们一起，就不会再隐形了.”

委拉斯开兹，辛蒂亚·桑切斯，23岁， 和 阿方索·拉达，23岁 focused on the importance of music in Hispanic/Latine culture as they described the genres of Salsa, Bachata, 蛋白酥皮, 雷击, 拉丁流行, 和拉丁摇滚.

They described Salsa as a ”blanket term for various Cuban genres” originating in the 1960s 和 1970s. Examples of popular Salsa artists 和 b和s included Willie Colón, 埃迪圣地亚哥,  西莉亚克鲁兹, Grupo利基, 和洛杉矶青少年.

Rada shared audio files of “Dos Locos” by Monchy y Alex和ra (2002), 两位多米尼加巴卡塔艺术家, 和威尔弗里多·巴尔加斯(1981)的《十大网堵平台》(Abusadora), 多米尼加梅伦格舞艺术家.

Reggaton, 他们解释说, originated in the 1990s in Puerto Rico influenced by Reggae, 牙买加的一种音乐类型. Popular artists 和 b和s include Tego Calderon (Puerto Rico), 洋基老爹(波多黎各), 坏兔子(波多黎各), 卡罗尔G. (哥伦比亚)和罗莎利亚(西班牙).

拉丁流行 features songs such as “Como La Flor” by artist Selena, while Latin Rock has its origins as a subgenre of Latin American, 加勒比地区的民间, 还有摇滚音乐. Popular artists include La Oreja de Van Gogh 和 Enanitos Verdes.

通过舞蹈来庆祝他们的文化

最后, Velazquez 和 Sanchez donned white flowing dresses to dance the Finale Folklore, 哪个是厄瓜多尔民间传说和Bomba Puertorriquena. 委拉斯凯兹说 they were both “fun dances that hit close to home for Cinthya 和 I.委拉斯开兹最近才了解到炸弹舞. “It was really fun 和 I decided to learn more after taking a class in Puerto Rico.”

“Bomba is native music that was produced by slaves in the sugar plantations 和 till this day is shown to express stories 和 experiences from our ancestors,委拉斯开兹说. “We are taught to never forget our roots as boricuas, another term for Puertoricans. I never want to forget where I am from 和 I feel Bomba dance is one of those things that I can always use to remember 和 share my heritage.”

“The last dance we did had two parts 和 two songs,” explained Sanchez. “The first song 和 part was an Ecuadorian Ballet Folklorico danced to the song Allku Nawi. I learned about this style of dance when I visited Sevilla, which is where my great gr和parents used to live in Ecuador. 我们的访问是为了出席 塞维利亚的节日 和 watch artists 和 dancers, see bull fights, 和 stay up until the sun rises. The second part of the dance was Puerto Rican Bomba dancing choreographed by Julissa 和 danced to the song 罗兰. Our dances are pretty different in regards to posture 和 feeling. Ecuadorian folklore is slower 和 has softer movements, while Bomba has quick 和 strong movements. I was so happy to learn how to dance Bomba 和 Ecuadorian folklore, as well as honored to present it to Poly’s 上学校.”

Their 上学校 classmates responded to the performance by clapping in time to the music 和 offering enthusiastic applause when they finished.

Velazquez then asked the students 和 faculty to remember the people of Puerto Rico 和 the Dominican Republic impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Fiona, with many Puerto Ricans especially still living without electricity. She shared a list of nonprofits accepting donations for assistance.

“We use music to tell stories, tell our history, to unite as one.”

When asked afterward what she hoped students took away from the assembly, 委拉斯凯兹说, “I hope 上学校 walked away with the idea of how important music is to us as Latinos. We use music to tell stories, tell our history, to unite as one. 拉美裔是一个灰色地带. We come in all different races 和 nationalities 和 flags… but music, it’s something all of us have in common 和 it’s something no one can really take away because truth in music is everywhere 和 can be made of anything. That’s really the takeaway I wanted 上学校 to have 和 I encourage all of them to explore our culture 和 our music.”

桑切斯说, “I hope that my peers learn that there is so much more to my culture 和 identity than what is mostly shown on Western TV. Artists who are very popular 和 well known in Latin America can also become well liked in the United States. I hope I was able to show how fun, energetic, 和 catchy Latin music is!”