(Photo by Talley Carlston)
By Joanna Goodwin, Staff Writer -- goodwin12@up.edu
Members of the Organización Latinoamericana Estudiantil (OLE) Club expressed their love for their culture last weekend at the third annual Latin America Night.
With tables full of traditional and delicious foods like homemade tamales, rice, beans and salsa, it was like stepping into another world that was one big party.
It was a lot of work for juniors and chairpersons of OLE Lupita Ruiz, Gaby Arenas and Ana Franco to plan, but they had a lot of support.
"It was kind of hard to organize because so many people were busy, but we had a lot of help from our families," Ruiz said. "Every club member's parents helped make food, which was really great for us."
The OLE Club has about 20 active members, and anyone can join.
"We represent the different Latin American cultures during our club meetings. For each meeting, which is every two weeks, we present a different Latin American country to the members and have food from that certain place," Ruiz said.
In this event and at the meetings, OLE opens up the Latin American culture and other features of the countries.
"We discuss the current, historical, cultural and other aspects of various Latin American countries that we are interested in," Arenas said. "During OLE night the past years we have worked to theme the night with special characteristics of Latin American Countries. OLE night provides different foods to represent the countries, dances and performers."
This year, at Latin America Night there were two main performances. The first was a traditional Baile Folklorico group from Dayton, Ore. This group of nine boys and girls ranging from about 4 to 16 years old dressed in traditional costumes with full skirts and sombreros.
They danced to several songs sung in Spanish. Their last number was a Spanish version of "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus and the group invited all of the guests to come and dance with them.
"The dancers were so cute. It was really fun getting up and dancing with them," sophomore Kaileah Baldwin said.
The rest of the event showcased band Richie Nav. The band's bassist, Mike Navarrete, is a junior at UP. The rest of the band consists of his two brothers, sister and cousin.
"Mike had told us much about his band and finally this summer we had a chance to see them perform at the ‘Fiesta Mexicana' held in Woodburn, Ore," Arenas said. "We were amazed at how well the band performed. Furthermore, Mike looked outstanding up on stage and we just knew that it was time he made his big debut on campus."
The family band started off playing in church.
"For the past three years, we have been playing together as a real band," Mike said.
Navarrete's brother Richie Navarrete is the lead singer and guitarist.
"I started off doing music on my own so that is where the name came from, it's just my name," Richie said.
Most of the family lives in Ontario, Ore., but with cousin and guitarist, Ricardo, at Oregon State University and Mike at UP, it is difficult for all of them to get together to perform during the year.
"We probably perform about five times a year at different fairs, festivals, venues and radio benefits," Richie said.
Their music can be identified as a Latino pop/rock/alternative blend and takes inspiration from other Latino artists like Juanes and Mana.
"We chose Richie Nav because we thought it would be nice to give a UP student and friend, Michael Navarrete, a chance to showcase the band he is so passionate about," Ruiz said. "Also, Richie Nav plays not only their own songs, but songs by many different Latin American bands. I think the band did a great job."
With their music now available on iTunes, Richie Nav hopes to become more mainstream and have their popularity continue to grow.
"We just want to thank everyone for coming to the show and supporting us. Please check us out at www.richienav.com," Mike said.
(Photo by Talley Carlston)
(Photo by Talley Carlston)
