By JESSICA RIPPLE
Charangos, quenas, zamponas and wank’aras were the instruments of order at Baile Latino Tuesday night.
The instruments, made of armadillo back, bamboo and goat skin, were played in a concert by Los Hermanos de los Andes for the Baile Latino. The concert was part of a cultural celebration for Heritage Week sponsored by the Service Leadership Involvement Center and the Multicultural Student Services Office.
Activities like the Baile Latino benefit BYU because they increase the public awareness of various cultures, said Alton Wade, vice president of Student Life.
“We can learn to appreciate each other through music, dance and language. That’s an important part of a BYU education,” he said.
Los Hermanos played Andean folk music from Bolivia and Chile. The band was created in 1989 by Edgar Zurita, who was a BYU student. He joined with other civil and mechanical engineering students, who also played instruments from his native land.
Since that time, the group has played throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Europe and Asia. Their purpose is to preserve and share their rich and unique heritage, using authentic instruments dating back to the ancient Incan civilization, according to their mission statement.
Vern Heperi, director of Multicultural Student Services, liked the music because of its uniqueness. “It is a culture we are not familiar with around here so it is especially interesting,” Heperi said.
Alvaro Salazar, a BYU graduate with a master’s degree in engineering management, is also a member of Los Hermanos de los Andes. For him, the music symbolizes nature.
“When you hear it, you feel like you are in the Andes Mountains. The pan pipes are the sound of the wind,” Salazar said.
A latin dance followed the concert. Arturo Reyes, a 22-year-old disc jockey from Provo, said he plays every style of music from Brazil to Mexico.
“I play the merengue, salsa, quebradita and Spanish hip-hop,” he said.
Cultural food was served at the dance. Traditional Mexican food such as taquitos; horchata, which is rice water; pastries; tortilla chips and salsa; guacamole; and beef tacos were available for every one to try.
“The Mexican pastries were my favorite,” said Steve Ibarra, a sophomore from Sunnyside, Wash.
“I thought the event was successful because I saw a lot of people there who were experiencing the culture for the first time,” Ibarra said. “They were just out there dancing and having fun. They loved the food and wanted to know what was this and what was that.”
The evening was successful because it brought a variety of people together and showed them a different culture, Heperi said. “The event highlighted the good of the culture. It was a nice opportunity for people to understand that there are many things we share in common even though we are from different culture,” Heperi said.
