Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration

Adams Dancers

This was a great weekend. I had the opportunity to attend St Paul Public School's Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration on Friday October 5.  The evening included several dance groups, art projects, food and a salsa band with salsa dancing. There were about 300-400 people from the community.  It was especially exciting to see a couple dance groups from the school that I work at.  The children work really hard during the school year and during the summer to learn dances from Mexico that they share with others at events such as this one.  I also met several new people and caught up with old friends I had not seen in awhile.

Adams Dancers

Aztec Dancers

Crafts

Adams Dancers

Enjoying the celebration

Salsa Band

I think that fascinates me, is the celebration of their culture.  It is so important and the celebration is a lot of fun.  I think, as we have been discussing in class, most Americans don't celebrate much of their culture.  Yes we have baseball, apple pie, and fourth of July, but what is our culture.

Aztec Dancers

Adams Dancers

Adams Dancers

Culture, according to one source, Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.  I know in my family, we have our beliefs, values, experiences, etc that we share, but I am not sure we necessarily celebrate it.  My family has a family reunion every year, where for one weekend, about 300 of us get together and celebrate our family.  I think that is part of a cultural thing.  However, I think we have our own "cultures" within our own homes as well.  Things we celebrate just as families.  Maybe that is more traditions, but I think traditions can help define us and our culture as well.