Last Friday night was the Latinx culture show “Festival de Luces.” Our friend group had been planning since early March to go and support Tati. She performed in the fashion show right before intermission, and I think it’s fair to say she stole the show.
The most wonderful Tatiana Ortiz ‘23 in her traditional dress from Chiapas, Mexico (Picture taken by Emilie Zhang ’24)
My roommate Amy and I had Chamber Music coaching earlier that evening. With Tati’s help, we pulled together a group chat of all her friends who agreed to come to the show. We all made separate plans for dinner, some heading to Bates while others went to Lulu. We met at the doors to the Jewett Auditorium at around 6:55 PM, and we were delighted to see that the auditorium was completely packed. Loud with bustle, with audience members looking for their friends and costumed performers rushing from one end of the hall to the other, we walked around in awe, eventually making our way to the balcony and finding some rare seats in the corner.
Kicking off the evening with an endearing First Year Dance, the Show quickly began. I always love seeing the Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble perform – in this show, they performed a rhythm from Haiti called “Yanvalou.” It is incredible that rhythm and drumbeats are just as musical and magical as any score-reading classical instrument. They bring people together, swaying and nodding in tandem, sharing this space that they’ve created with drumbeats and memories. Then, in beautiful traditional Colombian cumba dress with white, red, blue, and yellow, Wellesley’s Cielito Lindo dance group performed la Cumbia Sampuesana by Aniceto Molina. The audience cheered as they danced, raising their long skirts like fans. After that, a student-run mariachi group from Harvard University called Mariachi Veritas de Harvard performed a few pieces of traditional Mexican mariachi music. Dressed in red mariachi suits, they were their own accompanists and soloists, featuring violins, a trumpet player, guitarrón, Spanish guitar, voice, and more. So many more musical acts followed, including Maria Vitória Moura Cabrera performing O Bêbado e a Equilibrista by Elis Regina and Heather Gager singing No Me Queda Mas by Selena Quintanilla. Finally the fashion show came around, with our lovely Tati walking on stage holding the Mexican flag.
Tati’s traditional dancing shoes – she says that they intentionally have heavy wooden soles that make a loud clinking sound when you walk so that you can stay in rhythm with the music (Picture taken by Tati)
I asked Tati to tell us a bit more about her dress. A traditional dress from Chiapas – a region in Southern Mexico – it is made entirely of silk and colorful pigments and features hand-embroidered flowers by local women. She says that each region of Mexico has incredibly different and complicated traditional outfits, hairstyles, makeup, shoes, accessories, and more. She said that they range from the vibrant cotton and braids of Jalisco to the pure white lace of Veracruz to the cowboy fringe skirt style of Tamaulipas. For Chiapas, women wore heavy-soled shoes that would clink on the floor when you dance, put their hair tight braids gelled back and wrapped in flowers and more braids (like Tati’s hair that evening!), and adorned themselves with massive gold hoops to complement their show-stopping dresses.
Our paparazzi friend group doing their duty, getting all of Tati’s best angles (Picture taken by me)
After the fashion show and brief intermission, dances and music once again filled the auditorium. It was so heartwarming to watch people squeeze into the auditorium, sitting on the floor and peering over the balcony. We heard hoots and gasps from people who recognized songs being sung from the first few notes, laughter and big grins on stage as performers danced proudly in traditional dress, stunned silence in resonance with Denise Aguilar Sarmient’s spoken word poetry, and more wild cheers for our friends and dancers on stage.
(From Left to Right) Jessica, Sally, Amy, Jackie, Tati, Me, Emilie, and Maria (Picture taken with self-timer on my phone)
When the culture show wrapped up, we made our way back to the Stone Davis 4th floor common room. Maggie Brandes brought us a card game called Werewolf that much resembles Mafia. I sat out of the games because I was exhausted from the day, but it was amusing to see who was assigned roles of werewolf, witch, and fortune teller. Little groups of us branched off from there, some continuing to play card games while others played Overcooked with Emilie’s Nintendo Switch and Tati’s controllers. I am glad that I got to chat with Alina Edwards and Maria Ordal – friends who I am looking forward to getting to know even better. 😀 We went to bed at around 1 AM, with some staying even later, engrossed in Overcooked. Though I was so tired, I couldn’t stop smiling and replaying funny conversations with friends in my head. I am always hesitant to hang out with large groups of friends because I tend to get tired easily and don’t want to hold others back from having more fun due to my fatigue. But, I’m glad that we all spent time together – because even just sitting next to a dear friend makes me so happy. 😀