Students served up heaping portions of food, music, dance and culture with a distinct Latin flavor on Friday.
The Hispanic American Student Association kicked off its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the Reflecting Pond with its annual Pachanga. The event brought a diverse group of students together to socialize and enjoy the musical aspects of Hispanic culture.
Pachanga is a Spanish term for a friendly gathering or celebration.
"It's just like a big party," said Stephanie Morales, a molecular and microbiology major and HASA president.
With all of the seats filled, Pachanga had a crowd of more than 100 people dancing, laughing and mingling together.
"HASA's goal is for Pachanga to show our culture to everyone," Morales said.
Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Sept. 15 and ends Oct. 15, is a period set aside to honor Hispanic culture and contributions to society. Sept. 15 also marks the independence day for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. As explained by Christopher Alvarez, HASA vice president, the month is a time to celebrate and share Hispanic culture with all Americans.
HASA, which was established in 1985, is a student organization focused on supporting and uniting Hispanic students at UCF, as well as promoting Hispanic culture.
"People think you have to be Hispanic to join HASA, but that is not true," said Christina Lowery, early childhood education major and HASA community chairwoman. "We want diversity in HASA, so we promote ourselves to get people of all cultures to join us and come to our events like Pachanga."
The celebration began at 7 p.m. with the sounds of hip-hop and reggaeton music provided by Power 95.3, an Orlando hip-hop radio station. Along with music, the radio station showed its support for this event by giving away prizes, such as pens, calendars and CDs.
"Our demographic includes many Hispanic females between ages 16 to 19 and 19 to 25," Power 95.3 promotional assistant CJ McCalla said.
To stay in line with the culture of the event, the food selection had a Hispanic flair; tortilla chips, quesadillas and Cuban sandwiches were served.
Not all things at the event were Hispanic though. Free Monster brand energy drinks were given out as well.
The night continued with five dance performances by student organizations. Hispanic and Latin music for the performances was provided by local disc jockey, D.J. Y-Not.
The first performance was a stroll by members of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. Wearing matching burgundy tops and blue jeans, the sorority sisters received lots of cheers and applause for their energetic performance.
"[Lambda Theta Alpha] supports HASA and their events because a lot of our members are usually in HASA," health services administration major Sasha Perez-Loor said.
The audience was also entertained with a salsa dancing performance by Pulso Caribe, a Latin dance group at UCF.
"I loved the salsa dancing," HASA member Tracy DiSevo said. "It was really awesome."
Additional performances by belly-dancing group Shimmy Knights and the fraternities Lambda Theta Phi and Lambda Sigma Upsilon kept the crowd cheering and dancing.
Despite an 80 percent HASA budget cut that affected promotion for Pachanga, the event had a surprisingly good turnout, Alvarez said.
At the end of the night HASA members were pleased with the Pachanga festivities.
"The event turned out very well," Morales said. "If it wasn't for the support we have as an organization from other organizations, such as Lambda Theta Alpha, Pulso Caribe, and the many others, this event may not have been as successful as it was tonight."
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