Students in the Resilience Academy (RA) and Salt Point Center (SPC) honored Hispanic Heritage Month, which ended Oct. 15, by experiencing the culture of the many Spanish speaking countries around the world.
In RA, Music Teacher Dean Karahalis taught the students about the late Ritchie Valens, a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for the classic song “La Bamba,” sung entirely in Spanish. Despite the song being released almost 70 years ago, most of Karahalis’ students recognized it. He noted that it was a game changer for popular culture.
“It opened new doors for Hispanics and it also opened doors to Americans to hear a foreign language in a rock song,” Karahalis said. “It introduced Latin rock into the world, which people had never heard before.”
Karahalis played both Valens’ version of “La Bamba” as well as the 1987 cover version by Mexican-American rock band Los Lobos for the students, the latter of which incorporated mariachi sounds. He later showed students an acoustic guitar, a common instrument in mariachi music, allowed them to strum a few strings to compare the sound to an electric guitar – the type Valens used in his version, and demonstrated a bass.
SPC students learned about Hispanic culture through dance, rather than song. Dance Teacher Kathy Muenz taught her students how to do the mambo, a dance originating from Cuba in the 1930’s. It is based mostly on forward and backward movements incorporating rock and side steps, as well as occasional points, kicks and flicks of the feet, with Muenz adding that it is similar to other dances she has previously taught her students.
Inspired by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, students in Amy McCann’s SPC Spanish classes colored in pictures of individual wings, which were then assembled to create a large mural with space for people to stand between to make it appear as if they have wings.