Students gather on the dance floor in Kingsmen Park at LASO’s annual end-of-semester event, “Caile to the Baile.”
Hosted for the first time in Kingsmen Park, California Lutheran University’s Latin American Student Organization held its annual end-of-year celebration, “Caile to the Baile,” on Friday, May 2. The change in venue this year brought in a packed dance floor for a night of live music and food.
Sophomore Anny Zermeno, co-president of LASO, said the baile is inspired by Latin American culture, where crowds gather to dance, eat, and shop from local vendors. Zermeno said attendees typically wear Western-style clothing, including cultural hats and boots.
“‘Caile to the Baile’ kind of replicates this idea of bailes that we have in Hispanic culture. This is a small one compared, but a lot of people like to go to, like, big arenas…where you literally dance the whole time,” Zermeno said.
Junior Jenny Quintero, also a co-president of LASO, said the baile’s change of location from its usual Memorial Field location was one of the many changes officers faced during the event’s one-month planning period.
From finding a new club adviser, reconfiguring their board of officers and securing last-minute funding from the Associated Students of California Lutheran University Government Senate, Quintero said LASO officers pushed through challenges to uphold their club’s goal of representing Cal Lutheran students.
“Especially with everything going on in the world right now, politically, I think it’s more important than ever for Hispanic students on campus to feel like they belong and to feel safe and welcome,” Quintero said.
Zermeno said while the party atmosphere of “Caile to the Baile” showcases a new side of Latin American music and culture for some, it still feels like home for students who grew up in Hispanic households.
“I feel like when you’re younger, you get the experience in, like, Hispanic culture because you’re always listening to the music. There’s always a party and it’s kind of the same atmosphere,” Zermeno said. “A lot of people don’t ever experience that. A lot of my friends aren’t [of] Hispanic or Latin descent, so it’s, like, their first experience.”
The band, Tamborazo Ejecutivo De Conejito Contreras, based in Oxnard, brought traditional tamborazo music to the event.
“It’s music that you grew up listening to since you were a little kid, so these types of songs, it kind of just makes you start tapping your foot,” first-year Yabin Navarrete said.
The band took the dance floor themselves to share their signature tamborazo style with attendees, inviting students, and faculty.
“My favorite part about tamborazo is, I personally cannot dance, but one of the most exciting things about that is if you just tap your feet or move a little, like, it looks like you’re moving to the music, so you don’t have to be, like, an expert dancer or anything,” Zermeno said.
After the band’s set, the crowd danced to traditional and modern hits from Latin American cultures, spanning different genres and countries of origin.
“We are dancing to banda earlier, and that’s also something very Mexican that a lot of Latinos dance to cumbia and right now they’re playing reggaeton, which is, you know, from Puerto Rico and it just unites everyone,” senior Cesar Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo said having a variety of cultures reflected in LASO’s events stood out to him upon coming to Cal Lutheran. Lorenzo said simply having food from different cultures represented was a key moment that resonated with him.
“I think the tacos are, like, a very, you know, spot-on choice of food when it comes to Mexican [culture], but I understand that, you know, there are not only Mexicans here at Cal Lutheran. The last time they had pupusas, so I really like that they include other nationalities,” Lorenzo said.
Junior Abigail Marin Iniestra, secretary of LASO, said having the opportunity to dress up and see other Latinas in their traditional outfits made her feel proud of her culture.
“It means a lot as a Latina, as a proud Mexicana. This is a way of me representing,” Marin Iniestra said. “Being able to have a space in our community, in our campus, to display this is just heartwarming.”
Senior Michel Lupian, a member of LASO for all four years of her college experience, said she will miss the family and “home away from home” she cultivated throughout her years with the organization.
“It’s really helped me to really be more involved.” Lupian said. “It helped me build friendships along the way too that I’m…truly miss a lot after I graduate.”
