Latin Caucus Party

Last Wednesday I attended the first Latin Caucus welcome reception at the Robeson Gallery. There was a great Latin jazz band led by Frank Villafañe, and also various latin foods for lunch, though sadly, the flan was all gone by the time I got there.

Amy Ortiz, who works with the MFA program, painted the image that appeared on the cover of the event program (left).

There was a short performance by Miguel Algarin, founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, which, if you aren't familiar with it, hosts public performances of the many varieties of poetry emerging from New York City's Puerto Rican and African-American literature. (You can check out their website, www.nuyorican.org, for more info). He is also a former chair of the Puerto Rican Studies department at Rutgers. Unfortunately I missed his reading, though I did catch him dancing at the reception before he left.

Below are some photos of the event from Saskia Agustin of the School of Public Affairs & Administration. I'm working on getting some audio/video of the band that Claudio Mir of the MFA program sent me up on our YouTube channel as well. In the meantime, you can go to Frank's mySpace page to hear his music.

Miguel Algarin (right) with Vilma Perez:

Frank Villafañe (on piano) and his band:

One of the guests tries her hand at the conga drums:

Group photo:

At left, Amy Ortiz and Adela Diaz take a break to pose for a photo.

You can see Saskia's full set of photos from the event on Picasa.

Celebrating Latin Culture

Did you know that October was Latin Heritage month? Earlier in the month there was a big event celebrating Latin Culture on the Norman Samuels Plaza, with music, dancing, food and information about health and education. A few days ago Karla Ramos submitted some photos of the event, here's a little taste of what you missed if you weren't there.

In the left photo below are performers Manolo Basauri and Cynthia Hurtado. The right photo shows Maggie and Michelle Sialar of the group "Alma Peruana" who also performed at the event. (Looks like fun - I'm sorry I missed it!)


In addition to the performances, there were also fraternities, sororities, and groups from around campus that had informational tables, like the Red Cross (below, left photo), and a voter registration drive (below, right).

So... any other cultural events you guys want to share? Did any of you celebrate Diwali this week? We're the most diverse university in the nation, so I know there's got to be other photos you can send me... I'll be waiting...