PHOTO: The Slacker Chronicles with Eric Yanez, The Signal blogger and social media community manager. Image by The Signal Staff Member Eric Yanez. — The Signal blogger Eric Yanez. Image by The Signal Staff Member Eric Yanez.

Pachanga Latina!

By Eric Yanez Last updated Apr 7, 2015 98 1

I have not done my homework this week because my Latin passion kicked in. I performed with a group at this year’s Cultural Extravaganza – our name was Pachanga Latina – and the pressure was on. Dancing is all in the hips and, as Shakira would say, “Hips don’t lie.”

Dancing in the cultural extravaganza was a blast. Doing it with some amazing people made it even better.

It’s sad to think it is all over. I am going to miss the practices, even though I tended to slack off and not frequently attend them. In my mind those practices were legendary – memories I know I will cherish. All in all our performance was the bomb! I have to admit going backstage made me feel like I was a superstar – and setting foot on stage made me feel like Beyonce! As we stood on stage ready for the music to start, all I could see was the audience clapping and cheering.

I loved the feeling of being cherished. When the song finally started we all flew into action. It wasn’t until a few seconds into the song that we all noticed they weren’t playing our original song. I quickly turned to my partner and she was in shock as well.

We all knew the show had to go on – that’s rule one of showbiz, right? – so we performed the dance exactly as we had practiced. The song was just a slowed down version of our original one and we weren’t going to let something so simple stop us. All of us were surprisingly in sync and we gave a flawless performance. Well, it was flawless to me. There were a few hiccups, but considering the slowed-down song was unrehearsed, and considering that slackers like me were onstage largely unrehearsed as well, I consider our show quite the accomplishment. Long live Pachanga Latina!

There were many other great performances that night. I just loved seeing how each culture has their own way of demonstrating their songs and dance styles. It was really fascinating to watch and to participate in. As the end neared, I was ready to see the cultural walk and, man, was that a great sight to see. Seeing all of the flags being proudly displayed made me realize how many different cultures there are at UHCL. We truly are a big melting pot. I give the Cultural Extravaganza 5/5 stars.

I can’t wait for next year!