A parade of students, from the youngest in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 to those in high school, carried the flags of 21 Hispanic nations, including Spain, to help transition the annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration from education and food to entertainment.
Walking from the hall outside the gym, where people ate Latin favorites and saw exhibits, into the Orlin Trapp Auditorium for a show carrying the flags, Lauren Francart, a District 60 family and community engagement manager, said the evening was celebrated in a variety of ways.
“The goal of the program is to not only engage the community, but also to showcase the individual work of students about Hispanic heritage,” Francart said. “We’re showing all sides of Hispanic heritage to the community.
Parents, students and other community members saw dancing, heard music, as well as learned from both students and teachers about different countries in Latin America during District 60’s Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration on Thursday at Waukegan High School’s Brookside campus.
In a district where a significant number of students are children of immigrants from Latin American countries, much of the program and some of the exhibit presentations were bilingual, presented in Spanish and English.
On display in the gym were projects developed by teachers and students from 12 of the district’s 21 schools, including the high school, middle schools and elementary schools. Nations included those from North, Central and South America, as well as Spain.
“Spain is a Hispanic country,” Francart said. “Culture from Spain is part of the culture of many countries in Latin America.”
North American countries included both the United States and Mexico. Francart said immigrants — including some students — have incorporated parts of their native customs into the American way of life.
Along with Mexico, the United States and Spain, projects were on display about the history and culture of Argentina, Panama, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Uruguay.
Antonia Ocampo, Anahi Rea and Laura Trejo showed highlights from Mexican history in their exhibit. Ocampo said one focus of their effort was former Mexican President Benito Juárez, who served from 1858 to 1872.
“He was the most photographed Mexican president,” Ocampo said. “The camera was invented when he was in office. He was the first indigenous president of Mexico.”
Standing in front of the Panama exhibit dressed in Panamanian attire was Lissette Rosa, a teacher at Oakdale Elementary School. She said the exhibit showed cattle are an important part of the country’s economy.
District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said the evening was about honoring the Hispanic and Latino contributions to the community and the nation. Studying the past helps navigate the future.
“By learning from the past and celebrating the present, we empower our students to imagine a future of possibility, inclusion and shared success,” she said. “Events like this are opportunities to learn from one another, to build community and to strengthen the bonds that unite us.”
Marlene Jacobo, an Abbott Middle School seventh grader, was one of several people talking about the project she and her classmates did on Argentina. She said they looked at things ranging from food to history.
For more than an hour, people ate and perused the exhibits. Then they watched and heard a program of music, dance and more as Mariachi Estrellas de Waukegan, the district’s mariachi band, Ballet Folklorico and Sistema Ravinia Lake County were among the performers.
Sistema Ravinia Lake County entertained with classical music to complete the program. JoAnn Flores-Deter, the organization’s program manager, said it gives young people from places like Waukegan an opportunity to learn classical music, along with social development and community building, for youngsters in third grade through high school.