RAZA Celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Folk Dances and Music

With serapes draped over the serveries and traditional huapango and pop Candela music pulsing through the room, the Leverett House dining hall was transformed into a festival of sight and sound for RAZA's Cinco de Mayo celebration last night.

"This is really an adventure. We are trying to resurrect the celebration of Cinco de Mayo at Harvard," said RAZA President Marcella Prieto '02.

Cinco de Mayo traditionally commemorates May 5, 1862, the day when Mexican troops, outnumbered two to one, defeated French invaders in the infamous Battle of Puebla.

But the annual celebration has taken on special contemporary significance for Mexican-Americans and other Latinos.

"We are celebrating a time when the Mexicans succeeded against all odds," said RAZA Secretary Patricia R. Ruvalcaba '03. "I think that's worth celebrating and remembering. It's a way of raising morale in the Latino community."

"My personal goal for this event was to show to Harvard a slice of Latino life that it may not normally see," Prieto said.

The festival in Leverett House last night featured individual performances by Harvard students as well as dances by four local groups.

Among the featured dancers were young adults and children from La Pinata, a dance, learning and community-building program in Jamaica Plain.

According to Maria Cabrera, a parent from Jamaica Plain, La Pinata is a community group that centers on folk dance. It pairs Latino Harvard students with neighborhood children for tutoring and mentoring.

"We don't have many Harvard students, we need more," Cabrera said. "The kids feel like they are older brothers and sisters."

The children, from countries as diverse as Brazil, the United States and Colombia, said that dance is a significant part of their lives.

"You know at school sometimes you want to talk and start moving around," said Isabel Hilliard, age seven. "With dancing you can have fun. You can do what you feel like."

"But you have to work hard on it," quipped her friend Juliana Rezende.

Oscar Ramos '01, who heads the Harvard delegation to La Pinata, also leads Ballet Folklorico de Aztlan, one of two Harvard dance groups which performed last night. The group wore southwestern dress for traditional dances such as Me Traes and Pecas from the northern regions of Mexico.

The other Harvard group, Talento Falta ("talent is lacking"), made its world premiere last night. Talento Falta performs more contemporary and popular Mexican and Chicano dance.

"This is our first time trying this. We are not in any way professionals," said the group's co-founder, Monica M. Ramirez '01.

Danzon, a dance group from Boston University, thrilled the audience with fleet-footed Zapateado dance from Veracruz and an Aztec dance featuring dramatic peacock-feather headdresses that reached several feet into the air.

"It was great--there was a turnout of a wide array of schools, ages and cultures," Izzy Ruiz '00 said.

"It was worth coming here even after working a ten-hour day," said Rani Tserotas '98.

"We're all here for the same reason--a sense of community," said Sergio Castellon '00. "There should be more days like this through the year. But we should appreciate the ones we do get, because there are so few."