Mi Familia, a Latino organization here at N.C. State will celebrate the tenth anniversary of SOMOS. The celebration will be Saturday, March 16 at the McKimmon Conference Center at 6:00 p.m.
The members of Mi Familia (My family in Spanish) are very excited to achieve this great feat of keeping this project on track for so long, and for always dazzling their audience every year since its beginning.
Each year, Mi Familia members suggest and vote on the event’s proposed slogan or motto. This year’s motto, “SOMOS: Una Familia” (“WE ARE: One Family”), reflects a primary vision of the organization: being a part one big family.
The purpose of the event is to celebrate and appreciate the culture, traditions, and talent of the Latino community by featuring its different traditional and contemporary forms of artistic expression, including but not limited to folklore, choreography, dance, singing, and poetry.
Last year’s event theme was “WE ARE: The Revolution” and about 200 people attended.
The current Executive Director of Mi Familia, Guadalupe Jimenez Arce, stated the importance of the tenth anniversary. ”We are celebrating ten years of progress not only here on N.C. State’s campus, but also in Raleigh, NC. It was the beginning of trying to improve the Latino community by making a pathway for those who did not have a voice, did not feel comfortable coming to N.C. State. It’s important to celebrate that.”
SOMOS seeks to unite all different kinds of people in one place to honor the diversity of the organization and will always be for the community. The event is open to the public with a two dollar entry fee and students in the area can get in for free if they show their student ID at the entrance.
SOMOS always attracts the public by expanding its diversity through the mix of traditional and modern talents. This year the program was able to bring together individuals and groups who are part of the university community as well as those of the local community.
This formidable lineup includes Nazaare, an electrifying dance group very full of energy, singer and songwriter Priscilla Townsend, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with her delicate vocal and subtle rhythms, Latin dance group Sube Ritmo focusing on merengue, bachata and salsa. Magetsi, part of a 4-H club which has won awards for promoting Latino culture with Latin American folkloric dances, will also perform.
Figures from our university community, including NCSU’s Music Department’s lecturer Jonathan Gangi and spoken word poet Herrison Chicas, a student from Chapel Hill, will also perform.
This is the effort made to make it a worthy celebration for the public. Since its start 10 years ago, Mi Familia has been the vehicle to promote the richness of the Latino community by creating a space to discuss important social, cultural, even political ideas and issues that the student body and local community face.
For Jimenez, having an open forum to celebrate Latino culture and issues is what is important. “It makes me feel better that we are helping the Latino community here at State, and North Carolina.”
