Event teaches students about Cesar Chavez
At Villa Luna Apartments on March 27, neighbors were drawn to
the Si Se Puede Learning Center by the booming sound of an Aztec
drum. As part of the
”
Inspiring the Next Generation
”
Family Night, Resident Service Coordinator Jeanette Acosta
invited an Aztec dance crew to perform.
Event teaches students about Cesar Chavez
At Villa Luna Apartments on March 27, neighbors were drawn to the Si Se Puede Learning Center by the booming sound of an Aztec drum. As part of the “Inspiring the Next Generation” Family Night, Resident Service Coordinator Jeanette Acosta invited an Aztec dance crew to perform.
“I wanted them to perform first because I knew it would draw out more people,” she said.
By the time Yaocuauhtli Danza Cultural, the crew out of Salinas, began performing at 4:45 p.m, a crowd had already gathered for the Family Night that started at 4 p.m. Teens from the Hollister Youth Alliance and the League of United Latin American Citizens youth group volunteered to do face painting or oversee potato sack races. Elementary school children who attend the Si Se Puede after school program brought along their parents and younger siblings.
“He was so excited he was going to see the dancers,” said Maria Esqueda, of her 6-year-old son Anthony Rivera. “He wanted to see other cultures.”
Anthony ate a piece of pepperoni pizza before wandering off to play with friends.
Her daughter, Gabriela, 2, likes to look at the books, she said.
“They can play and learn,” she said.
Carlos Munoz, of the San Benito County Free Library, pulled up at 4 p.m. with the mobile learning center from the library. He set up a table outside the trailer with a variety of books. Children flocked to the table before he had finished setting up.
“We did have a large amount of patrons,” Munoz said, of when the library used to have a bookmobile that visited the Villa Luna Apartments. “Kids like picture books. Adults like fiction.”
He offered to sign the children up for a library card if their parents were nearby to sign for them.
Alan Martinez, a San Benito High School junior, and Ana De Castro, a sophomore, looked through the books. The two are members of LULAC Youth.
“We wanted to see how the program is going with the kids,” De Castro said, of attending the event.
While some of the children played the games that were set up, such as the potato sack race, others sat down to eat. The spread included donated tacos from Dona Esther’s, pizza from Papa Murphy’s, sandwiches from Togo’s and Quizno’s, and other items from Safeway, Nob Hill and Baskin Robbins. Premiere Cinemas even donated popcorn.
Once the dancers took center stage on the patio outside the learning center, all seats were full. Tlahuitollini, the Aztec name of one of the dancers, spoke in Spanish and English to the audience. The crew included two other dancers and a drummer, all dressed in feather headdresses and leather clothing.
“We just really want to thank everyone for inviting us,” he said, midway through the performance. “This is dedicated to all the intelligent people in the room. That’s all of you.”
He explained that the second dance was that of the fire eagle.
“The eagle is the bird that flies closest to the sun and without the sun in the universe, we couldn’t live,” Tlahuitollini said. “We take the fire eagle and offer that for strength.”
The last dance they performed is a friendship dance, he said.
“It imitates two friendly doves that interact,” he said.
“It’s good,” Yazmin Rodriguez, 8, said. When asked what she was learning, she said, “How to dance.”
The purpose of the event was to honor Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Dolores Huerta. NFWA later became the United Farm Workers. Cesar Chavez Day was March 31.
Rev. Sal Alvarez, of the National Farm Workers Service Ministry and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, spoke after the dancers finished their performance. He spoke passionately to the children and families in Spanish about Chavez.
After Alvarez completed his speech, a group of performers from El Teatro Campesino presented skits to the group. El Teatro Campesiono originated in 1965 as an outcrop of the United Farm Workers. Actors would perform skits on flatbed trucks in the middle of fields.
The evening ended with a raffle for a variety of prizes donated by the Goodwill, ZOOM Eyeworks, BC 99 Store, McDonald’s, Ace Hardware, Starbucks, Target and the University of Southern California.
