Tango, salsa spice up OCC’s Latin festival

Five-year-old Melody Fermin bopped her hips to the sounds of her brother Alex Fermin playing the guitar. The 6-year-old probably had not played a day in his life, but he already appeared comfortable hugging the piece of wood and strumming like a professional.

Behind Alex and Melody, a professional guitar player performed a soft tango as a woman was tossed about on a dance floor by two men she seemed unable to choose between. The dancers were one of the final acts at “Dia de la Raza,” a Latin food, music and dance festival held Sunday afternoon at OCC.

Coordinated by OCC dance professor Jose Costas, the event brought together several aspects of Latin culture. Costas’ OCC Fiesta Latina Dancers began the performance with a display of dance numbers.

Ursula Mencini of Riverside returned to her old community college on an invitation from Costas. She performed a few dances for the audience, including a tango and salsa.

“I love the rhythms and the hip movements,” she said. “The energy, passion and choreography, I love it. It’s so much fun.”

Mencini wanted to keep talking about her love for dance but she found herself speechless watching the Ballet Hispanico dancers, a visiting dance group from New York. During their performance, two men fighting for one woman kept 23-year-old Mencini and everyone else at the festival entranced with their performance.

The Fermin children happened upon the festival by accident, but enjoyed every minute of it. Melody got her hair done in rainbow spray-on colors and multi-colored bows at the Crazy Hair booth, while her mom Lilianna Carbajal and aunts, Corina and Cynthia Carbajal, danced to the music and checked out booths surrounding the stage area.

The sisters did not plan on attending the festival, they happened upon it after attending the weekend swap meet held in the OCC parking lot off Adams Avenue. Once they got there, though, they stayed until the dancers stopped moving and the musicians stopped playing.

“Culture is more important than anything else,” Lilianna Carbajal said. “It’s good to express or culture and get together and celebrate once in awhile.”

Much of what people know about their culture comes from the past. A booth hosted by the Orange County Mexican American Historical Society represented Hispanics’ rich cultural past with a collection of pictures from the old days of orange groves, rancheros and barrios.

Pictures of families, high school classes and weddings from the 1920s and further back in time, surrounded those who entered the booth. Board member Russ Barrios of Orange

“There’s a lot of history, it’s been here a long time,” Barrios said. People need to know about the good and the bad of the Mexican American past in the county, Barrios said.

“They need to know it happened,” he said.

Having grown up here the 60-year-old found much of his cultural history a surprise even to him, and he sees the society’s collection of the photographs as an important connector for future and present generations.

“Everyone’s interested in the history of Orange County,” Barrios said.

The Carbajal girls cannot wait to make this event a yearly part of their family history. They already plan on coming back next year.

“We are going to bring our mom and dad, because they like the music,” Lilianna said.

“That was the best part.”