Embracing Diversity at Cultural Community Night

On April 25, Del Mar held its second annual Cultural Community Night. The event took place in the cafeteria from 5 to 8 p.m., featuring a variety of foods, clubs, and performances from different cultures.

The event was a collaborative effort between the Associated Student Body (ASB) and the Student Equity Club to bring together the different cultures of Del Mar. 

Tiarra Islas Meneses, President of the Student Equity Club, says, “So I helped kind of reach out to outside, like outside organizations, rather than like the clubs and stuff, that was more ASB this year. But last year me and my club organized some of the advertising, but we did get a lot of help from ASB as well.”

Meneses explained the club’s effort to focus on diverse cultures through the event. 

“…We believe that what every student really needs in order to have like, a good education, in order to like, you know, want to come to school, is to also feel at home,” Meneses said. “So we try to bring those cultures in, those traditions in, from everyone.”

Groups at Del Mar, such as the Robotics Club and Art Club, attended with their stands, selling snacks or crafts to raise funds for their clubs. 

“So what we have at our booth, it’s basically all handmade crafts that we as the club have created,” said Itzel Ramirez Garcia, a junior with Art Club. “I was basically looking forward to, like, showing off what Art Club can do, because I feel like we’re not really seen much, so I thought this would be a nice way for us to be exposed. When discussing what she hoped the nights impact would be on the community, Garcia said, “I guess to like, have everyone be prideful in their culture, show your pride for wherever you come from, even if it’s a small state.”

Many kinds of food from different cultures were provided at the event as well, ranging from taco trucks with quesadillas and carne asada to food stands offering pastel tres leches and Japanese cream puffs.

The first performance of the night was by the Lincoln High School Mariachi, who performed songs like ‘La Charreada’ by Linda Ronstadt, ‘Esta Vida’ by Jimmy Zambrano, and ‘Hermoso Cariño’ and ‘Guadalajara’ by Vicente Fernández.

Natalie Pedroza, a freshman performing with the LHS Mariachi using her voice and guitar, began her musical journey in middle school and has continued playing at concerts and events outside of school.

Pedroza describes the group’s preparation process for Cultural Night, saying, “Since it’s a class, we just kind of, we make the set list of what we’re gonna sing. We make it long, just in case, like they want other songs or extras, so we just practice them in the classroom all together as if we’re actually performing.”

The next performances featured traditional dances from Del Mar’s own Nicaraguan Club, showcasing traditional Nicaraguan dance, and the organization Kuumba, which included drumming and several West African dances that the audience could follow along with.

Dani Wadlington, a math teacher at Del Mar and former Kuumba dancer, invited Kuumba to Cultural Community Night the year prior and helped bring them back this year.

“I thought it was really fun,” Wadlington said. “…I think they live up to their name, right, Kuumba means ‘creativity’ in Swahili, I believe. It’s just good to see the energy that they brought, that they had, the whole cafeteria dancing with them, it was very much not about them performing, it was just about coming together as a community, and I appreciate that.”

“I feel like in San Jose in general, a lot of African culture does not get recognized,” said Junior Nalani Jackson, who volunteered to dance with Kuumba during their performance. “And for it to be in a cultural night as it was and for there to be so many different bases of it such as like the drummers and the dancers, and them wearing their traditional gear with like the skirts and headwraps and stuff like that, and having the real drums that show their culture, I feel like that was really good for everyone to see so it could show that like there is diversity in San Jose and there is diversity at Del Mar.”

After Kuumba, Del Mar’s Corridos club performed multiple songs, and the night ended with Brazilian dancing, inviting people from the audience to join in.

The dancers, Celeste Davila and Weslei Guimarães, mentioned that this is their third year coming to Del Mar. “It’s nice to see the other dances, the other cultures that are also brought in, I mean it’s very rich to see the differences and also the similarities between all of the different dances and cultures,” Davila said. 

Sophomore Kimani Yarber was another student active during the event, dancing alongside Jackson with Kuumba and the Brazilian Dancers.

“I thought it was actually very cool, because I think it really, especially for me, it pushed people out of their comfort zone, like I never thought I would have ever done that,” Yarber said. 

“I think not only did it help the community but it helped the club leaders,” said Jackson. “Kimani came up with an idea for us to include in BSU a traditional African dance club, so we’re gonna try to add that as an attribute next year.”

“I really think that it’s a really unique experience to get to experience other people’s culture,” Wadlington said. “I feel like, you know, sometimes when you’re in a diverse community you think that just by being next to someone whose culture is different that you’re experiencing that, but you’re not, so a night like this is really cool to showcase peoples cultures through performance.”