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Once again, Fletcher students faithfully paid $15 dollars of hard-earned federal funding and queued outside in sub-zero weather for yet another cultural night, this time courtesy of the entirety of the Spanish speaking world. With Hispanics generally comes humidity; and true to this spirit, the temperature in Dewick was scalding as Latin libidos flashed across the stage in a night of swirling vocals, sinful dance moves, skipping records, falling decorations, and general lack of decency.

The festivities kicked off with a Capoeira routine that left half the audience rotating their heads and the other half renewing their gym memberships. One particularly spirited young girl did a couple of flips that left nothing to the imagination, but since most of the front row was female the show went on without incident. Thea Gelbspan then commanded the stage and crooned out a couple of Cuban revolutionary numbers that left some Miami Cubans a little hot under the collar, accompanying her on guitar was the Fetcher debut of Ofilio Mayorga whose string-plucking bespoke of other hidden talents.

The night then raged on with a slender and impressive Spanish dance, courtesy of the conquistador-ish choreography of Lourdes Martinez-Garrido. The Spanish theme was continued when the evening’s presenter, Isabel DeSola dressed up as a matador with a wooden kitchen spoon for a sword, proceeded to mock fight with Januarian-at-large, Munish Puri. Puri excelled in the role of the bipedal bovine and realistically slumped on the floor after being stabbed with the wooden utensil. The scene inspired maniacal laughter from two individuals sitting in the front row, especially since the final bow managed to break the thread holding the overhead decorations.

The night’s accidents did not stop there however. The next number was the infamous Reggaeton layout featuring the now revived Munish Puri, newcomer Will Sullivan, and Caucasian Conga staple Nick Lesher as the “Bad Boys from da Hood.” Veteran dancers Yanina Seltzer, Amy Margolies and Dana Binnendjik along with new discovery Erin Clancy played the “Good Girls Turned Bad”. The irony was not lost on the audience as the books that the girls were reading on stage to simulate academic interest were International Security and Econometrics. The girls, now halfway across the stage, realized there was no music being played and proceeded to violently admonish a hapless undergrad who tried to explain that the laptop was “acting weird.”

The segment was restarted and proceeded to go smoothly with pelvises and rear ends rarely missing their mark. The boys wooed the girls into dancing naughtily and the girls made the boys jump over each other to please the audience, who was hooting and screaming loudly by now. The good times, however, were brought to halt as the aforementioned laptop finally collapsed in midsong just as the girls’ left hips was swinging over the guys’ right shoulders. In true Fletcher fashion, the group decided to continue dancing anyway and finished the set without a hitch, unless you count the music coming back on again a hitch…

The audience, previously snickering, was about to get a surprise of its own. Apparently, there was a large portion of students waiting outside in the cold because a glorified undergrad intern at the ticket door had a power trip and refused to allow more people in… why?  Escalating diplomatic efforts by Fletcher organizers were rebuffed with the following logic:
 
No more chairs
Can’t we get more chairs?
No.
Why?
Only undergrad professional chair-getters can get them.
Where are these getters?
They went home.

So, in a tactful flair of persuasive negotiation, Fiesta Latina organizers managed to convince the logically challenged representative to let people in, in exchange for getting rid of the chairs altogether. Subsequently, in a not so tactful fashion, presenter Paulina White told the audience to shut their trap and get out of the chairs immediately. Crude but surprisingly effective, people hopped to it and the folks waiting in the cold were finally let in.

The show proceeded to be quite successful. A string of great singers took to the mic and were joined by some impressive Fletcher musicians. Christina Sass’ “Oye Como Va” was especially appreciated as the entire audience, now forced to be standing anyway, started dancing wildly. The dancing would continue not only in the aisles but on stage as well as the final performance was a huge troop of students danced the Meringue on all levels. It is still perplexing to this reporter why the dancing couples were paired so distinctly different from one another in terms of height but then again, I am no dancer. The final bow had to give way to even more dancing until the whole crowd was forced to leave.

Before I left, I asked one of the audience members, an intoxicated male, what he thought of all this hard work being botched by a series of hilarious mishaps, and what he thought the organizers should do in terms of reimbursing the dissatisfied crowd. I mean, when one shells out $15 one expects results, right?

The male replied: “Whatever man, I just had three beers and saw18 chicks shakin’ it on stage!”

…Hasta La Fiesta Siempre!!
 

Donatien