On Friday, the Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Association held a dance at the El Rey Theatre, commemorating a day that had not yet occurred - Cinco de Mayo.
The dance was put on by the graduate students in order to raise money to send fellow students to conferences around the nation to present their studies. The evening featured traditional Spanish music, courtesy of Angel DJ and Sonido Tiger DJ, in the non-traditional method of compact disc DJing.
Many New Mexicans know that Cinco de Mayo is the holiday that commemorates the defeat of the French army by the Mexicans at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. However, part of the dance, organizer Stewart Griffiph said, was to raise awareness of the holiday, which he feels is still neglected in America, even in an ethnically diverse area such as New Mexico.
When the doors opened at 9 p.m., plenty of people were already there and the crowd gradually grew with the festivities peaking around 11 p.m.
A common misconception is that Cinco de Mayo represents the Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday is actually celebrated on Sept. 16, beginning in 1810 and officially in 1821, when Mexico actually achieved its independence from Spain. Cinco de Mayo did not occur until more than fifty years later, when France sent troops to collect some of the debt the Mexican government owed.
As a holiday in New Mexico, Cinco de Mayo works wonders for any organization that embraces it as a full celebration of the roots of a people and the cultures that those people love.
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Griffiph, one of the co-presidents of the Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Association, said that all graduate students in the department had been given tickets to sell throughout the week, both on campus and off. Figures were not immediately available, but the box office reported strong sales the night of the dance.
Melba Amador, the other co-president of the association, said about 150 people showed up for the dance, with about one-third of all tickets purchased at the door.
The association usually has a dance or other special event, paired with a conference of its own, Griffiph said, but this year the conference fell through so the students decided to take advantage of the Mexican holiday.
Griffiph also said that the conference for next year was scheduled for October, though he did not rule out the possibility of another Cinco de Mayo celebration.
