Northwestern’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration ended with Festival LatiNU, an annual event showcasing traditional Latino cuisine and dance.
Alianza, Hispanic/Latino Student Affairs and Multicultural Student Affairs organized and sponsored academic, cultural and social advocacy events throughout October to educate people about Latino culture. Events included Fuego!, a bonfire to kick off the celebration month, and a speaker series organized and hosted by Sigma Lambda Gamma and Lambda Theta Alpha sororities.
About 200 undergraduate students, graduate students, Evanston and Chicago residents and NU faculty and staff attended the festival Friday.
“We publicized in the greater Evanston community and in Chicago, not only NU, because there are so many Latinos here and it’s important to Alianza to build community with Evanston,” said SESP junior and Alianza co-Vice President Tania Murillo.
The festival featured four dance group performances and a live salsa band. NU’s Latin dance ensemble and arts group Mezcla opened with a performance of Bachata, a dance style originating from the Dominican Republic. The Dance Academy of Salsa and Modern Latin Dance from Chicago followed with salsa-dancing high school students. BUYA, a group of Bomba musicians and dancers, performed and invited the audience to join in. Los 5 Magnificos de la Quebradita , a quebradita group that also performed at last year’s festival, closed the dance performances and earned a standing ovation from the audience. To end the evening, the audience danced to Carpacho y su Super Combo’s salsa, merengue and cumbia rhythms.
The festival also offered a wide selection of Hispanic food from restaurants around Chicago.
“Mexican, Peruvian, Salvadorian, Puerto Rican, Colombian food … it’s the largest selection we’ve ever had,” said Communication junior Leslie Clark, co-vice president of Alianza.
Communication sophomore Colette Ghunim said she enjoyed the quebradita performance and opportunity to dance.
“My favorite part was the dancing because I love to dance, but it was just a great event for the community, for mingling and to show the fun side of Latino culture,” she said.
Ghunim, who is half Mexican, said NU’s Latino community is growing and tends to stick together.
“There was way more diversity at the festival this year; it was really great for branching out,” she said.
