Cinco de mayo celebration ELAC style

 

By Dulce Carillo

The Mariachi Alma Jalisciense brought the Cinco de Mayo spirit to East Los Angeles College and the surrounding community. There was food, drinks, a lot of applauding and singing with the Mariachi Alma Jalisciense by the Performing and Fine Art Complex last Thursday.

Couple of the songs that the Mariachi sang were “Tragos amargos,” and “Una pagina mas.” Andrea Martinez, the new dance teacher, sang with the mariachi and took Elan students out to dance with her. There was a surprising performance by a young boy from the UCLA Community School Children’s Ballet Folklorico called the “Ixytly-Yolotl,” who sang the song “El Aventurero.”

The first performance opened with young girls and women. Suddenly men entered and the girls left the stage. The men were dressed all in white and wearing guaraches. The women wore a mix of red, orange and pink skirt with hats on. Opposite to the men, the women were barefoot.

The stage went dark for another performance, then the Mariachi Alma Jalisciense and Martinez, began to play for the folklorico dancers. After the folklorico, the dance class known as the “ELAC danzeros y salseros,” performed a danzon. The dance was choreographed by  ELAC dance instructor from Rick Crawford.

The next dance was by the Ballet Folklorico East Los Angeles name the “Sinaloa Dance.” The performers wore colorful clothing such as green, red, blue, purple, pink and yellow. Before finishing their first song, the song “El Sinaloense” came out and had the audience screaming, applauding and dancing from their seats. The dancers began to dance zapatiado, a well known dance from Mexico.

The last performance couldn’t have been better. The song “La Canelera” by Los Capos de Mexico got the audience wild. The women from the ELAC ballet folklorico performed with an all black costume including their hats with gold accessories. It got everyone from the recital hall to stand up and applaud so much.

“It was great seeing the students and the community here…it was a gammit of society here in campus,” said Martinez