The Latino Student Alliance (LSA) held their fourth annual Festival Latino de Asbury on Sept. 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Student Center to celebrate Latin culture.
LSA members served food at tables spanning one side of the Student Center, while Latin music set the mood as children played with hula hoops and students tasted authentic Central American cuisine.
Held toward the beginning of each school year, the event acts as a welcome to incoming international students at Asbury. LSA president Estrella Waight, a senior exercise science and Spanish double major, said the number of new international students this year is larger than normal.
“[The festival] is basically where the internationals can get together and kind of feel a little bit of home,” said Waight.
Now in its fourth year, the Festival Latino de Asbury has brought new faces and food every time. In the past the festival featured common Mexican food such as tacos, but this year LSA served a wider selection of more authentic food.
One food station served quesadillas with vegetables; another served chicharrones, which are a popular Mexican snack made from wheat and fried pork skin. Students had the option to mix Valentina hot sauce with it, which Waight said adds flavor without being too spicy.
Another new option was the esquites, or Mexican corn salad. It consisted of corn, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese and spices.
The last table served the dessert of guava pastelitos, which are pastries with guava paste in the middle and powdered sugar on top. The drink of choice was the flavor-rich Jumex strawberry-banana nectar juice from Mexico.
The event also acts as a small preview of the Festival Latino de Lexington, which is Sept. 13 and 14. The Lexington festival has food from almost every Hispanic country, live music, parades, visual arts and cultural dancers.
Waight said that while Asbury cannot quite recreate the Lexington festival, LSA hopes to expand the event in the future by having live music and food from more countries.
The community created and “seeing everybody laughing, dancing … and just kind of getting together” is Waight’s favorite part of the Asbury festival.
In addition to Festival Latino de Asbury, LSA hosts eight other events throughout the school year. This year will include Brazil Night, the Day of the Remembrance and an end-of-the-year bash.
