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On April 24, the Aragon Latino Parents Group hosted the first Latino festival in the gym. Various groups performed and vendors sold traditional Latin American foods. The purpose of the event was to raise money for scholarships for Hispanic Aragon seniors as well as to share Latin American culture with the Aragon community.
President of the Aragon Latino Parents Group Ximena Iturri says, “The process was difficult, but we enjoyed it. We’ve been thinking about doing an event like this for a long time, but this is the first year we were able to make it a reality.”
The actual fundraising was done through food sales. Vendors sold traditional foods, which originated from a variety of Latin American countries, in exchange for tickets.
Volunteer Guadalupe Martinez says, “Another volunteer and I organized for the parents to cook and bring the food to sell. We have food from six countries: Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.”
Traditional food was accompanied by other integral aspects of Latin American culture: music and dance.
“The performers came from talent all across the Bay Area, including Aragon. We featured representatives from different countries: singers and dancers from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia,” says Iturri.
Freshman Matthew Lockmer performed a traditional Bolivian dance, Caporales. “It originates from Bolivia, specifically a region where more of the darker people live. [In this dance], the male figure represents the master of the slaves, and this dance represents how much power they have over the slaves,” he says.
The Aragon Latino Parents Group was satisfied with the first Latino festival. “We absolutely reached our goals,” says vice president Guillermo San Miguel. “First, we were afraid that there wouldn’t be enough food, but we had a lot, and it was good food because it was homemade. Second, we thought that attendance would be low, but it turned out to be high.”
The Latino Parents Group is already looking forward to hosting the event again in the future, and has ideas in mind to improve it.
“In order to improve this event,” says San Miguel. “We need more anticipation. We had less than two months to organize this event. It would be ideal if we had six months. In the future, we would also like to have more representatives from other countries, including Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador.”
Senior Jose Alvarez also suggests more decorations as a possible way to improve the event. “It needs more decorations. It seems bland, with no color. Only the tables had any decorations,” he says.
However, the event was mostly well-received by its attendees, who agreed that it was successful in uniting the community in appreciation of Latin American culture.
11th grade adviser Rachel Leota hopes that other Aragon cultural organizations can learn from the success of the Latino festival. “They did a great job so far. I wish the Polynesian Parent Club would do something like this,” she says.
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