Have you seen Jorge? He was last seen wearing a bright green poncho and a proud Hispanic sombrero. Oh yeah! He also happened to be riding a donkey. Still no? Maybe you might have seen him at the annual Latino Heritage assembly hosted by Puente this past Monday.
October not only consists of ghouls, goblins and ghosts, but it also happens to be Latino heritage month. To celebrate this, the Puente Club puts on an assembly every year to “Inform and promote the cultures of Latino Heritage descent.” Caleb Robles, Puente club president explains, “in the hopes of informing the audience about the Latino culture."
This year’s assembly took place on the 24th of October, a Monday, during advisory. Once the bell had rung, and role had been taken, teachers lead their classes to fill the auditorium. Once mostly everyone had arrived, Spanish music indicated the beginning of the assembly, and Caleb and Danny danced on stage to “La Vaca”by Mala Fe. “I liked their Spanish style music.” Junior Miguel Treto an onlooker that day said.
Caleb and Danny then continued to show a map of Latin America, and began to name popular countries. The crowd’s attention shifted when suddenly Jorge walked across the stage. Hurriedly Jorge scurried away in an attempt to remain unseen from our presenters who were looking for him. When attention was brought back to Caleb and Danny, they explained how people of Latino or Hispanic descent make up almost half of Pasadena. Next they named off famous Hispanic people such as Selena, George Lopez, and so on.
The two also covered base on Dia De Los Muertos, a Hispanic tradition to remember loved ones who have passed on. They enlightened the audience on the significance of Candy Skulls and the use of the Marigold flowers in the decorations for the Dia de Los Muertos.
The large stage curtains closed as Danny and Caleb conclude their segment on Dia De los Muertos and the music came to a halt. Jorge made another quick appearance and the crowd called out to him before he goes on. Caleb and Danny then welcomed on stage dancers as the curtain is pulled back again unveiling three rows of Puente female volunteers dressed in black and candy skull faces. The music starts up again and the girls began dancing Latin dances from Bachata to Salsa and everything in between.
The girls concluded their dancing with a final spin and next up was Mr. Ortega and his brother Jaime, with a guitar in hand. Together this musical duo performed popular Spanish songs such as “Vivir Sin Aire”, “Stand By Me”, and “A Dios Le Pido”. The bell to lunch then went off and people cheered and clapped before exiting the auditorium.
When Treto, an onlooker that day, was asked what he thought of the assembly he said “I think it was interesting. But I feel they could have made it better if they worked more on the preparations and trying to get more people to volunteer. The people on stage did a good job”. Miguel also says he considered joining the Puente Club afterwards.
When Robles was asked he thought of the assembly at the end of the day he said “I thought it went great! Not everything in our agenda went on but I was still glad with the results.”