The Humanitarian Organization of Latin American Students (HOLAS) hosted their biannual Locura Latina Gala on Nov. 15. The event raised humanitarian aid money for Ecuador, a cause that the association’s members voted on supporting.
The gala began at 9:30 p.m. as guests filtered in through the many entrances of the National Arts Centre. Roudi Benyoucef, who runs a Latin dance school downtown, rallied the gala’s attendees to the centre of the dance floor where he began a workshop teaching salsa and other Latin dances.
Benyoucef encouraged students to show off their swag on the dance floor and not to be shy pulling their partners closer.
Carleton’s Latin culture is rich “not necessarily in numbers, but in the value and the quality,” Benyoucef said after his workshop. “When they do events, they do them big.”
“I love seeing people that are not Latin coming,” HOLAS president Juliana Cardozo said. “The Latin culture is very, very open and very, very welcoming.”
Benyoucef, who is not Latin himself, also commented on the number of non-Latin students participating in the event. In his dance classes downtown, he said, “we have more and more non-Latin people learning Latin dance than the Latin people themselves.”
A Brazilian student who attended the gala, Igor Fernandes, said even though Brazil isn’t technically Latin, events like Locura Latina remind him of his roots.
“We are not the same, but some things are really similar,” he said, referring to the music, the food, and the dancing going on in front of him. Fernandes said he went expecting “some great music” and he wasn’t disappointed.
DJ Chava played bachata, reggaeton, merengue, and salsa music for the crowd.
Carleton student Max John Barill said he became an HOLAS member after coming home from a year in Mexico and missing the culture, so he brings his friends to the events.
Cardozo said since HOLAS has gotten bigger being formed seven years ago, the group has been able to make little changes to Locura Latina each semester they put it on.
This semester, the gala featured food for the first time. The tacos and fajitas served by caterers behind banquet-style buffet tables offered an Americanized taste of the Latin culture, said Carleton student Ivan Elizondo.
In 2012, Locura Latina raised between $10,000 and $12,000 for a physical therapy centre in Mexico. In other years, the funds have gone towards disaster relief such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. The funds directed towards Ecuador raised from this semester’s event will go through the charity Fundacion Aldec, Cardozo said.
