Ursuline High School presents cultural festival

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Neighbors | Submitted.Ursuline High School recently put on the Festival of the Americas on April 23.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Abbe Love and Sydney Heinbaugh are pictured with one of Joyce and Cor Kester's alpacas at the Ursuline High School Festival of the Americas.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Paulina Montaldo, a Spanish teacher at Ursuline High School, posed with Quin Ward and Nadia Torres at the Festival of the Americas on April 23. Montaldo decided to organize the festival to offer the community exposure to Latin American culture close to home.

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Neighbors | Submitted.From left, Sydney Heinbaugh, Abbe Love and Alecandra Haluska were among the students that performed at Youngstown State University's 5 de Mayo celebration on May 1.

Ursuline High School hosted Festival of the Americas on April 23.

“As a Spanish teacher, I always noticed the lack of cultural Hispanic events in the area. Presentations were as close as Pittsburgh or Cleveland, and were very difficult and expensive to take my Spanish students to,” Paulina Montaldo, a Spanish teacher at Ursuline High School, said. “Because of this, I came up with the idea to start the ‘Festival of the Americas,’ a cultural event involving Spanish students in the Youngstown area.”

For a couple of weeks, the students got together after school and Montaldo taught them folkloric dances, while others came up with their own choreographies. Students performed in some costumes owned by Montaldo and others belonging to Sociedad Mutualista Mexicana, who let the class borrow them for the event.

Se ±or Jalapeno’s Restaurant on Belmont Avenue donated food for the event and a local band from Canfield, The Labra Brothers (Adrian, Christian and David), volunteered to play, as did Bruno Serrano and his Peruvian pan flute.

Dance performers at the event included Guerreras de Adoraci ≥n (Worship Warriors) from Spanish Evangelical Church in Youngstown and Copihue Chile from Pittsburgh.

Through everyone’s contributions, Montaldo’s students were able to offer Ursuline students and their families, as well students from other schools in the area who were also invited, a festival to enjoy and learn about music, dances and culture from different countries in Latin America. Students presented a variety of dances from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and the Dominican Republic. The event was free and open to the public.

UHS seniors Alexandra Carnathan, Quin Ward and Ramsay Bagheri were the chairperson, MC and DJ, respectively.

Spanish club officers Kennedy Romeo and Marie Bond were in charge of collecting donations for Angels for Animals in Canfield.

All sophomores students presented a display of trifolds with bilingual information on countries, traditions and touristic sites in Latin America.

UHS alumni Joyce Kester and her husband, Cor, brought their alpacas Anisha and Noche from their farm in Pulaski, Pa., to greet everyone at the school entrance on Wick Avenue. Students had the opportunity to pet them and learn about the uses of their fur.

The school cafeteria was decorated with “papel picado” banners (perforated paper, a traditional Mexican decoration for special holidays), colorful paper flowers made by students and flags.

More than 280 people attended the event.

“It was truly a successful event and an even better turn out - something that has created demand for ‘Festival of the Americas’ to be an annually held event,” Montaldo said. “We hope that Spanish students and clubs from other schools in the area be a part of it in the future, as well.”

The Ursuline students went on to perform at Youngstown State University’s 5 de Mayo celebration on May 1.