Noche Dorada closed out the Latino Fall Festival, a week-long celebration that brought issues of the Latino community to the forefront at Dartmouth, in Collis Commonground Saturday night.
The event -- coordinated by La Alianza Latina, the Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano(a) de Aztln and Hijas de Esperanza -- commemorated Hispanic Heritage month, which was themed "Celebrating Latinidad."
"The week was a great success," Drew Vera '01, co-coordinator of the second annual festival, said. "We were overwhelmingly surprised with the outpouring of community support."
According to co-coordinator Liz Agosto '01, the purpose of the festival was to "allow the greater campus to see as well as experience Latino culture, identity, and issues."
The festival -- which included speeches, films, performances, discussions, dances and workshops -- was open to all students and was well attended, Vera said.
Saturday's Noche Dorada, the Golden Night, featured dinner, dancing, a speech and live performances by mariachis and the Welfare Poets. Felix Padilla spoke at the event, calling for a revival of "cultural literacy."
"We [as Latinos] have experienced education from a distance... as the information in literature has little to do with our personal lives," Padilla explained.
As a possible solution, he proposed an inclusion of materials that "carry stories capable of propelling children into a journey which connects them to their ancestors." As an example Padilla presented a series of stories that recounted the life of his grandmother.
"This is the story of my family " who we are and why we are here," he said.
Following Padilla's speech was a performance by the Welfare Poets, who used a combination of music and poetry to "fight for national liberation." By emphasizing the diverse make-up of the Latino community, the Poets hoped to celebrate "the richness of Latin American culture."
"Don't refer to me with words that blur my identity," they sang, in a song entitled "Who I Be?"
Earlier in the week, the Native Americans at Dartmouth and MEChA co-sponsored a Columbus Day speech delivered by Colin Calloway, chair of the Native American Studies department, which gathered a crowd of over 40 students.
Calloway's address presented Columbus in a non-European context, portraying him not as the "discoverer" of the Americas but rather as the link which brought about the union of old and new worlds.
On the Saturday afternoon preceding the Noche Dorada, Gloria Rodriguez of the New York based "de Almas Latinas" (The Souls of Latin American Women) held a workshop for female students.
"In a culture that emphasizes collectivism, we must maintain a cultural community while keeping time for the individual," she said.
Rodriguez raised issues such as racism, sexism, and classism which she described as "concepts that relegate a submissive role to the Latina."
Through her work in de Almas Latinas, Rodriguez hopes to promote "both the personal and spiritual growth" of participants.
