Colorful paper banners and strings of flags adorned Great Hall for the annual Mujeres* Culture Show. Vendor tables lined the room, and attendees enjoyed food and drinks from a buffet, including packaged traditional snacks.
The program on April 3 featured individual poetry and music acts as well as performances by student dance groups, including the Bryn Mawr Tango Club, HaverRitmo and Pulso. During 15-minute breaks between performances, organizers led raffle drawings and games. Attendees visited vendor tables throughout the night to purchase handmade goods such as jewelry and crafts.
The show opened with a tango performance by two members of the Bryn Mawr Tango Club, who danced to “Mil Pasos” by Soha featuring Antoine Essertier.
Senior Sariah Marrero then presented two original poems, “Blended Coffee” and “The Pledge of the People.” The first explored cultural identity, while the second reimagined the U.S. pledge as a form of protest.
HaverRitmo performed “En Otra Sintonía,” a dance that blended Afro-Caribbean styles. Sophomore Glenda Da Rosa Mayeregger followed with a galopera, a traditional Paraguayan song and dance characterized by fast rhythms and expressive movement.
Pulso performed “De Tijuana a Tecate,” a traditional vaquero folklórico piece from Baja California, Mexico. Sophomore Alessia Seijas sang “Somos Tú y Yo,” a song from a popular Venezuelan telenovela.
For the final act, senior Jean Rojas appeared as a surprise performer. Rojas led audience volunteers in two interactive activities. In the first, participants performed a hula hoop trick in pairs. In the second, they raced across the hall while balancing a hoop between them in a relay-style competition.
Sophomores Natali Hernandez and Glenda Da Rosa Mayeregger served as event coordinators, a position they volunteered for after joining Mujeres* in their freshman year.
“I joined because I had a lot of affinity spaces in my high school, so I wanted to continue that,” Hernandez said. “I think it’s really important to have affinity spaces, and Mujeres* just seemed like the right community for me.”
Mayeregger said she was drawn to Mujeres* as a “very safe and community space to share traditions.”
“I used to do a lot of organization during high school, and it’s something I really enjoy doing,” she said, adding that she wanted to contribute her experience while learning more about how the affinity group works.
Hernandez and Mayeregger began planning the event in September with guidance from the organization’s leadership, coordinating with dance groups Mujeres* had previously partnered with and inviting students to sign up to perform.
“The first part was mostly just trying to get ideas … outlining everything that we had in mind,” Mayeregger said. “Most of those ideas made it to the end … but also, along the way, you realize you’re going to be flexible sometimes.”
“It’s a lot of communicating with others, like the multimedia team, Conferences and Events,” Hernandez said. “Especially if we had any changes to our layout or anything like that, we had to communicate with them.”
The show’s theme this year was “La Feria,” which translates to “the fair,” and was intended to reflect the role of fairs as shared cultural spaces across Latin America.
“We wanted something that could be interactive, and something where we can include a lot of different stuff,” Mayeregger said. “That’s how we came out with La Feria, because it’s something that is very present in every Latin American community.”
“We just started branching off from that in terms of what games we would have, the kind of food we would serve, the performances and breaks,” Hernandez said.
She added that flexibility was essential in planning the event: “We had an agenda in terms of when stuff would be going on, but realistically, that was going to change … depending on how long it took people to perform and switch performers.”
“I think that’s something really nice that we did, just giving every person the creativity to do whatever they want to be doing,” Mayeregger said. “We just need joy. That’s the only thing we need. So bring whatever you want to bring to the space that can contribute to that goal.”
In addition to the Culture Show, Bryn Mawr will host La Gala next year, an annual Tri-Co event that rotates among campuses. This year, Swarthmore College’s ENLACE will host La Gala on April 25.
Students can follow @bmc_mujeres on Instagram for updates on upcoming events.
