Every year, Latinos In Action hosts an event called culture night. Culture night is an event where cadets take part, presenting stands with traditional items from their country. There are many exciting activities to do like playing cultural games, eating delicious food, and most importantly, being informed of the beautiful and unique countries of our world.
This year’s culture night was hosted in the gym with more than 10 countries. Alongside the country stands there were more activities like food stands, face painting, and a soccer tournament with a member from each stand. Many of our cadets, cadet’s family, and teachers visited culture night and some participated in the games. Latinos In Action’s president, Sophie Rodriguez, stated, “I’m glad many of our community enjoyed our event, even though it took a lot of work to plan and set up, it was all worth it in the end.”
Many of our own cadets were running their own stands for their countries. Cadet Emma Martin stated, “My stand wa
s about the Dominican Republic, I put up a presentation board and I also had a dessert called pudin de pan to sell.” Another cadet that had a stand was cadet Mayte Pena Sanchez, “My country was Mexico and for it I had posters for people to take and learn about Mexico and I sold treats like mangonada and esquites”.
Cadet Penelope Gonzalez and former Cadet Brylee Rivera performed a dance called Baile Folklorico towards the end of culture night which is a dance where females have large colorful, ruffled dresses and they mimic the twirling of a flower.
At the end of the night, Latinos in action had everything they planned for. They sold tickets, food, and most importantly smiles. They had much pride in showing their culture and showing the community the beautiful and vibrant side to Latin American culture.