Speaker, food and dancing at Latino Student Union’s Salsabration
A jivin’ Latin beat, colorful decorations and the drink Mango Sunrise set the mood for the Latino Student Union’s sixth annual Salsabration. There was a full house at the event hosted Saturday in the TSC Ballroom. The event included dinner, a guest speaker and a Hispanic dancing performance, concluded by salsa dancing for the rest of the evening.
The event is a celebration of Latino culture, with festive flags of the countries lining the walls.
“The goal of Salsabration is for the Latino Student Union and the students involved to be able to share their culture with not only the campus community but the Cache Valley community. Inclusiveness,” said Johnny Lopez, adviser to the Latino Student Union.
Juan De Luna, studying electrical engineering, said the event is important to “get to know and enjoy different cultures.” This is his second year attending the annual Salsabration, he said.
The entertainment was a collection of various Latino dances. Ranging from comical to passionate, the dancers put on a Latin-based show. Among the dances was the Duranguense, with its dips and spins, performed by Diana Patino and Antonio Aviles.
“It was a great success,” Lopez said. “My goal for the Latino Student Union or any of the clubs that are part of Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is for the students to have a good time and feel good about the event after the many hours that they spend planning. My goal is never revenue from the event but personal satisfaction, individual growth, leadership experience and for the students to be able to showcase their talents and their culture in a positive way.”
In the middle of the dancing was an intermission, during which was the Jalapeño Contest. Five competitors came to the table from many different backgrounds, including Mexico, Ecuador, the U.S. and South Korea. Because of a tie for second place, three of the competitors munched their way through another round of jalapeño chomping.
The new USU Salsabration jalapeño-eating champion is Mentaek Seo from South Korea. He is majoring in finance and economics.
“I ate a lot, but other than that I’m fine,” Seo said. “It’s in my blood. I’m from Korea and people from Korea eat a lot of hot foods.”
On the menu was authentic food from several different cultures, such as Arroz con Pollo from Peru, the Abichuelas from the Dominican Republic and Pastel de Tres Leches from Mexico. Catering supervisor Tomas Lindheimer acknowledged the diversity of the dishes.
“It’s interesting. This year it was all prepared by our chefs here at USU. It took a lot of preparation and a lot of time,” he said about the Peruvian menu.
The event wasn’t only about food and dancing.
“The event isn’t only to have a good time but we like to include an academic aspect to the events because the culture isn’t only fun and games but also includes many serious and proud lifestyles,” Lopez said. “The students spend many hours on their education goals, and we think education for everyone is as important as the culture is.”
Keynote speaker Maria Luisa Spicer-Escalante, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics, reflected on what it means to be a Hispanic in the U.S. She advocated bilingualism and shared facts about Latinos in the U.S. and Utah.
Spicer-Escalante said the Spanish-speaking minority is 15 percent of the nation’s population, having grown by 61.2 percent since 1990. Twelve percent of Utahns are Hispanic, she said. She said there are many advantages of bilingualism for a person mentally, citing attention skills, concept formation, analogical reasoning as well as the value of languages in business.
The event concluded with a dance. Students from many backgrounds came to the dance floor for some salsa dancing. The dance floor was crowded, but that didn’t seem to hold back the dancers.
Jason Ibanez, whose family is from Venezuela, was one of the many dancers.
“The people are nice, it’s really fun,” he said. “A couple of people even asked me to dance.”
Ibanez said he found out about Salsabration by reading a sign on the Panda Express door.
Gerardo Rozendo, president of the LSU, said he wished to extend a big thanks to all those who helped put together the Salsabration and the dancers who participated. Lopez echoed that thanks.
“I want everyone to know first of all how hard the students work to put on an event like this. They meet at least three times a week sometimes at 7 – 8 a.m. and as late as 8 p.m. The Latino Student Union welcomes everyone to be involved whether it is in the planning process or just attending the event,” he said. “They and all of the other MSS clubs work endlessly to make their clubs inclusive to everyone.”
–r.perkins@aggiemail.usu.edu