‘Presencia Latina’ Celebrates Cultural Richness

According to Mexican-born, Texas-raised Maria Teresa Herrera ’07, there are a lot of misconceptions about her culture, even within the Ivy League.

“I feel that people think that everyone who is Latino is Mexican, even at a place like Harvard where there are Latinos representing all the Latin American countries,” she writes in an e-mail.

Herrera is not alone in her desire to straighten out such views. Four years ago, members of Fuerza Latina, a pan-Latino student organization at Harvard, decided to produce an artistic exhibition with the aim of showcasing the wealth and diversity of Latino art. This Saturday, “Presencia Latina” will be making its fourth annual performance at Lowell Lecture Hall, showing once at 4 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. Co-produced by Herrera and Jonathan Rosa ’08, and co-directed by sophomores Marisol Pineda ’08 and Eloise T. Quintanilla ’08, the show hopes to continue in its tradition of giving audiences an idea of the full breadth and depth of Latino culture.

This year’s “Presencia Latina” will include what Pineda calls “as large a variety as possible.” The evening performance will include a food festival with dishes hailing from several different countries, including Mexico, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Peru.

Opening with a poetry reading, the show will feature a wide spectrum of dances ranging from samba and reggaeton to salsa and hip hop, as well as a performance by Mariachi Veritas, who have taken part in “Presencia Latina” in the past. A local children’s performance company will also be making an appearance.

“Each of the groups has its own qualities,” Pineda says. “There are the traditional pieces, and then you have pieces that are a fusion of all the Latino heritages. And then you add their upbringing, the hip hop culture that has blown up in the US...It is a cross-section of all the different forms of art, you would say.”

“Presencia Latina” in many ways seems to resemble another annual show focusing on the artistic traditions of different ethnicities at Harvard—last February’s “Cultural Rhythms.” But although the latter included performances featuring many cultures—including Latino ones—and was hosted by Mexican actress Salma Hayek, the producers of “Presencia Latina” stress the necessity of putting on yet another show.

“Being that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US and being that Latinos and Latin Americans comprise about six to seven percent of Harvard’s population, it’s important to let others whom we live with…know about our culture,” Illiana C. Quimbaya ’05, a graduate student serving as stage manager for this year’s production, writes in an e-mail.

“There are over 25 countries in Latin America, each with its own individual flavor. Usually there are two to three acts at Cultural Rhythms representing these countries. Cultural Rhythms doesn’t do justice to the diversity of Latin America,” she writes.

Audience members can also anticipate a refreshing show that is not simply a regurgitation of previously viewed material. “Presencia Latina” has made an effort to include a number of performers outside of official campus organizations, with some performances simply the work of groups of friends that got together. “Presencia Latina” will also feature a group chiefly consisting of freshmen performers.

The production team held auditions at the beginning of the month in order to allow interested students ample time to organize a group and rehearse routines.

“You don’t have to be part of a professional group or a traditional group to be part of Presencia Latina,” says Pineda. “So many groups want to be part of Cultural Rhythms, and this is a venue for groups to showcase their arts.”

—Staff writer April B. Wang can be reached at abwang@fas.harvard.edu.