This year’s Festival of Nations was all over the map. That’s a good thing.
Southwestern College’s Associated Student Organization sponsored the annual nod to world community that was tremendo, bongga, krasny, formidablé, fun’iki, ho yea and spendido.
Clubs represented Colombia, Italy, Mexico, Japan and many others. Most of the clubs brought their country’s traditional foods and shared information about their faraway land.
France was represented by the Parkour Club, which recreated a classic French café with rectangular tables, topped with a vase with flowers made out of Chinese paper.
Colorful booths decorated with red, blue and yellow flowers made by papel picado, sarapes hanging from each side of the tent and a little pink piñata was Mexico. Students from MEChA and Folklore Jaguar dressed in traditional costumes from Veracruz, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Chiapas. They also gave out Mexican food and candies.
“My favorite booth was the one from Mexico,” said Juan Carlos, 21, an engineering major. “They really showed their effort in the way they present their display. In addition, they were giving away good samples of their traditional cuisine.”
SWC’s Neuroscience Club represented Canada and distributed flyers with important Canadian facts, pins and stickers.
Clubs competed by wearing traditional costumes and providing interesting background information about the country. Each participant took part in a Q and A. Miguel Camacho wore an impressive Aztec costume and won the $100 prize for MEChA.
“This annual event is a great opportunity for Southwestern College students to know more about other countries’ history, traditions, and costumes,” said Guadalupe Olguin, 30, a sociology major. “I think that it is helpful because this kind of event not only exposed the student to their own culture, buy it also reminded to students of their heritage.”
Members of the Japanese and Korean Modern Culture Club served free green tea. They brought a Japanese door that was placed in front of their tent and displayed origami, a Japanese art that consist in folding paper in to complex figures. A large book made of wood with big sheets shared information about Japanese culture. They also displayed a sketch of the city of Tokyo at night.
Pagkakaisa represented the Philippines with a poster with some phrases in Tagalog. It was a great opportunity for students to learn some basic phrases as “Magandang hapon,” which means “good afternoon” while enjoying traditional Filipino food.
“This event let students interact with other students and learn about traditions of other countries,” said Maria Brambila, 20, a mathematics major.
She participated in the Colombias’s booth and said in the process of researching the country she learned many things that she did not know. She said it was fun to look at Colombian customs and about their traditional food like their empañadas. All without leaving campus.
