On Saturday evening, the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) hosted its first-ever cultural showcase as its final celebration in a series of events for Latin Heritage Month, which began on September 15 and ended on October 17. The events, including an Arepa Night, a movie screening and a salsa dance class, honored the achievements and cultures of Latin Americans.

Over the summer, the LASO board met to plan Latin Heritage Month events, looking to find new ways to highlight Latin culture. LASO senior chair Izaiah Diaz ’27 remarked that the showcase highlighted the talents of LASO students, giving himself and others a chance to share their art with a wider audience, even if they aren’t taking an art class.

“I think it was just nice to incorporate the art aspect … just to show that outside of the classroom, we’re talented,” Diaz said. “[Ivana Escoto Villegas ’30] has put some stuff up because she did a lot of art in high school, and I thought it was really cool because she hasn’t taken [an] art class here yet.”

Held in the Lamarche Gallery in Smith Union, the event began with opening remarks from LASO president Melissa Vaca ’28. She thanked everyone for attending and laid out the itinerary for the night. It began with time for attendees to walk around and view photography, drawings and multimedia art, while listening to a DJ set by Liz Trujillo ’30, one of LASO’s first year representatives.

On one wall, there were a few handwritten poems set against a backdrop of drawings that attendee Marc Zambrano ’30 found impactful.

“I really like these poems that were in Spanish,” Zambrano said. “Especially the one with the picture of Guatemala, and it’s about the mom and leaving countries … to go get [a] better education. I felt that [was] pretty impactful and powerful. I think it’s a great mix of mediums between visual art and then also poetry…. It’s a beautiful story.”

Afterwards, there were performances by Michael Carranza-Mis ’28 and Ian Schael Aponte ’28. Together, they performed a version of a Mexican folk song, with Carranza-Mis singing and Schael Aponte playing the guitar. Their impassioned performance brought the entire room together, with everyone clapping along almost as soon as it began.

Their version is a personal take on the original, which Carranza-Mis saw as a more pessimistic view of the world and the futility of life. His interpretation includes speaking sections that challenge this idea.

“I felt like the song is rooted in the way my father, as a machista, sees the world,” Carranza-Mis said. “The last half of the song challenges that [pessimism] by telling him what he could do to change himself. The verdict is that at the end of the day we will die, but we might as well do something good while we’re at it, which is where my version of the song differs from the original.”

Schael Aponte sang and played the guitar while performing the second song of the night, “Alma Llanera.” He likened it to a second national anthem for the people of Venezuela.

“[It’s] a song from the plains of Venezuela, closer to Colombia, that is more so speaking of like, ‘Oh the sea foam of the Caribbean is in my blood. I feel the sound of Venezuela in my skin. I am the mountains, the volcanoes and the jungles up here,’ and it’s a community gathering style for us, right? Like you get a group of Venezuelans and [the song] brings them all together and creates a space of home outside our world,” Schael Aponte said.

The song brought the room together. Although it was chilly outside, the atmosphere was anything but, as everyone listened to Schael Aponte’s soulful rendition of the song.

This showcase was the first of many, and LASO has plans to make it bigger by incorporating other affinity groups, like the Brazilian Student Association (BRASA) or the Student Organization for Caribbean Alliance (SOCA). For those who missed the showcase, much of the art is still up in the Lamarche Gallery.