Mi Familia, the largest Latinx student organization on campus, hosted its 14th annual Somos on Saturday in the Talley Student Union Mountains Ballroom, showcasing different aspects of Hispanic and Latinx culture to the NC State community through music, dance and other forms of art.
Each Somos contains an overarching theme, with this year’s being titled “Somos: Fuertes, Unidos and Here to Stay,” which means “We Are: Strong, United and Here to Stay.”
The event’s description reads, “We must not allow fear and adversity to keep us from being united. We must be strong during these rough times, and remind everyone that we are here to stay.”
One of the emcees of the event, Nicholas Rinz, a junior studying textile technology management and president of Lambda Theta Phi, a Latino fraternity, described how the content of the evening was inspired by recent scenarios.
“It’s a fictional story, but it’s based on real events from the past year,” Rinz said. “They were all fictional characters, but the stories were real.”
The bulk of the evening was a theatrical performance divided into multiple acts, with a variety of musical performances between acts. The showcase opened with a scene titled “Childhood,” telling the story of a girl named Rebeca and her new friends Ayanis and Cristiano, all children of immigrant parents, during their early days of schooling. In one instance, Rebecca and Ayanis, both Spanish speakers, were told that they couldn’t play baseball with other kids because they were speaking “Mexican.”
The first act was followed with performances by Sube Ritmo, NC State’s Latin dance team, and two songs performed by guitar player Rahul Kathard, a senior studying biomedical engineering, with vocals sung by Michaela Bate, a senior studying civil engineering.
The second act of the evening portrayed Rebeca, Ayanis and Cristiano in high school, and Rebeca experiencing the struggles of being an undocumented student. One such struggle portrayed was financial planning for college; under state law, undocumented students living in North Carolina pay out-of-state tuition at public state universities.
Ayanis Lindo, a senior studying zoology, followed up with her theatrical performance with a ukulele song titled “Cheap Date,” energizing the crowd before the beginning of the third act, “College.”
Throughout the night, the overarching theme of “Fuertes, Unidos and Here to Stay” confronted the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, with a compilation video of controversial campaign statements being played between the third and fourth acts.
“Some candidates ran on fear-mongering and racism,” Rinz said, introducing the final act, which was set during the election of Trump. “A divide was clear among the American people.”
Following the performance, Mi Familia recognized the group’s graduating seniors, and ended Somos with the presentation of the Nelson Award, given in honor of Nelson Santiago, former assistant director for Hispanic Student Affairs.
“We give an award to someone who has supported Mi Familia and the Latinx community throughout the entire year,” said Didier Turcios, the president of Mi Familia and a junior studying statistics.
This year’s recipient was Jennifer Brown, director of Multicultural Student Affairs, who accepted the award emotionally and thanked the members of Mi Familia who had been there for her during the previous year.
“There were so many times that I wanted to give up this whole year,” Brown said. “I couldn’t have made it this year without y’all. You’ve been a blessing. You all kept me coming to Talley and coming to MSA.”
Turcios concluded the event by emphasizing unity in the Latinx community, despite the circumstances and events of the previous year.
“This year has been tough for our community,” Turcios said. “But we’re strong, we’re united and we’re here to stay.”