Espanolandia is a day-long Irvington High School event that occurred April 11th, celebrating Spanish culture and language. The annual celebration was held in Irvington’s main gym, hosted MeCha and Mr. Ballado’s Spanish 4 class. To do Espanolandia, participants must be in a Spanish class (For Spanish 4, Espanolandia is required, while for lower classes an interview is necessary) or be part of a Spanish affiliated club. Attendees have to be comfortable with missing all six periods and speaking spanish for the duration. Hosts signed up to attend various booths that portrayed different elements of Latino tradition, providing food, games, and immersion within the culture. The experience proved fun and informative for all participants.
Kaia Liu (10) manned La Iglesia over the event, the Espanolandia church booth that provided a marriage ceremony for students to receive rings, answer questions, receive candy, and do pushups should they get the questions wrong. La Iglesia has been a consistent presence throughout Espanolandia’s history. Although this year was Liu’s first time running, La Iglesia still proved a major attraction. “At least 400 people [came by over the day],” Liu said. “Running it is kind of stressful, since people sometimes don’t know how to speak Spanish, but overall, it’s pretty fun.”
At Loteria, a booth that invited players to win prizes through a bingo game, Nathan Nhan (12) and Vedant Sanghvi (11) shared Liu’s enjoyment of the event. Although Loteria is more recent than La Iglesia as a booth option, it too received an abundance of visitors, perhaps too many. “[We ran out of food] for the attendees, so just having more would be great,” Nhan said when asked if there was anything that the event could be improved upon. “But I understand that that’s expensive right now, and the whole event costs a lot of money.”
Due to its many-faceted nature, Espanolandia’s composition required extensive work from members of MeCha and Mr. Ballado, ensuring that there would be enough fun, engaging events that helped showcase Latino culture, as well as buying Latino food and decoration.
Loteria is a bingo-style booth that allows students to play around with and match pictures displaying elements of Latino culture and tradition. “Espanolandia is probably one of the best events of the whole year,” Sanghvi said. “It feels a bit hectic at times. But that’s why it’s one of the best school events in the year.”
Although Nhan is graduating Irvington, Sanghvi has expressed a hope to be able to participate in the event next year.
In sum, Espanolandia has proven to be a greatly enjoyable event for all involved, allowing participants to have fun and immerse themselves in Latino culture. In addition, it helps attendees practice their Spanish skills by conversing with fellow Spanish speakers. Espanolandia will likely return next year, especially as participants in the event feel eager to return.
