Folklorico Club celebrates culture through dance

Folklorico Club requested to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at Suzanne Middle School Thursday, Oct. 10 during lunch. 

Juniors Rebeka Diaz, Yaretzy Perlera-Pinto and Emily Yamaguchi performed two dances from the Jalisco region of Mexico to the songs “El Cihualteco” and “El Son de la Negra.” Thursday’s performance was their first time performing as a group outside of campus. 

“It was exciting to be able to see the kids happy watching our performance and engaging with us. After the performance, we did a public dance where they came in and danced with us. It was really cute and fun to see them all excited,” vice president and treasurer Yamaguchi said. 

Since other members just started learning the dance, this performance consisted only of the three experienced members. They met every Sunday 9-11 a.m. in front of Westhoff Elementary School to practice for the performance. As the performance date neared, they practiced more often after school on campus. Club president Diaz choreographed and chose the music for the dance.

“I picked [those songs] because they are traditional songs that are danced specifically for Hispanic Heritage Month. They sound cheerful and make me and my cabinet members proud of our heritage,” Diaz said. “I don’t think [middle schoolers have] ever experienced this kind of Hispanic culture at their school so I hope for the kids who are of Hispanic heritage, they felt really happy and inspired to be proud of their heritage.”

Folklorico is not just a club for Mexican culture but for all Hispanic cultures. For instance, co-vice president and secretary Perlera-Pinto is of Salvadoran heritage and had the opportunity to perform a Salvadorian Folkloric dance last school year at the campus courtyard. 

“Freshman year, I was doing a bunch of other stuff, so I didn’t end up joining until I saw more people performing. At that time, the president was Salvadoran, and I am Salvadoran, so I saw it as an opportunity to learn about Mexican dances as well as dances from different cultures,” she said. 

At the end of the dance, middle school students lined up and started a chain of high-fives with the three dancers. According to Diaz, she hopes that these dances will inspire middle schoolers of Hispanic descent to feel proud and appreciate their heritage. 

“This is a really good highlight of high school. If you want to join a club that has something to do with performing and being able to show your talent and appreciation for the culture, then I feel like [Folklorico] is a really good club to join,” Yamaguchi said.