Chandler Celebrates Hispanic/Latinx Month

Hillary Blunt, Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Throughout the course of this month, our community engaged in a wide variety of experiences and classroom activities to honor and recognize Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month.
One of the highlights included coming together during our All School Assembly for a special musical presentation featuring Las Colibrí and Inspiraciones de Danza Mexicana.

 
Las Colibrí (or “The Hummingbirds”) are a mariachi ensemble from Los Angeles, California. Comprised of women who are mothers, educators, and scholars, they have played various mariachi festivals, sold out popular venues, and shared the stage with talented musicians and artists from Los Angeles to Guanajuato, Mexico. They are a unique all-string instrumentation (no trumpets) like the early 20th-century mariachi tradition. Las Colibrí plays traditional songs like sones, huapangos, and rancheras, but they also play jazz, rock, oldies, and R&B through their innovative arrangements. Their music features traditional mariachi instrumentation consisting of a Guitarrón (the Bass guitar), Guitar, Vihuela (soprano Guitar), and Violins. 

During the assembly, Las Colibrí was joined by Inspiraciones de Danza Mexicana (Inspirations of Mexican Dance) - a performance group committed to inspiring other youth and the community by celebrating Mexican culture through folkloric dance.  As individual artists and a cohesive group, Inspiraciones promotes Mexican performing arts with dance classes, workshops and performances. Our students and employees thoroughly enjoyed listening to the beautiful music and viewing the traditional dance that accompanied the musicians. Our kindergarten through fifth-grade students also had a chance to engage with Las Colibrí in a lesson about the various instruments used in the mariachi band and danced and sang along to familiar songs. 

In addition, this past week, our second All School Assembly recognizing Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month was led by Chandler’s 7th-grade Spanish classes. During the assembly, our students showcased their Spanish skills and taught the school about influential Hispanic figures such as Sonia Sotomayor, Marc Anthony, and Lionel Messi. 

As Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month draws to a close, I want to give a special thank you to our families who took part in this month’s planning team. Their contributions of time and talent truly helped to make this month a wonderful experience for each member of our community. 
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