nothin They Danced Amid The Dinosaurs | New Haven Independent

They Danced Amid The Dinosaurs

In the shadow of reconstructed Camarasaurus, Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus, the African Arawak Connection launched into another wild round of drumming. The group’s three members urged listeners of all ages to join in on a refrain of Coquí coquí that was intended to mimic the loud, near-singsong mating call of the eponymous Puerto Rican frog. 

Lucy Gellman Photo

In the Hall of Mammalian Evolution (Pasillo de Evolición Mamifera) next door, notecard-sized portraits of Pelé, Sonia Sotomayor, Ellen Ochoa and others lay neatly out on a craft table. Beside them, a cluster of children – some with their faces ferociously painted – cut and pasted their photos to Popsicle-stick frames. Further into the room, four small bodies crowded around a makeshift sandpit for a fossil dig.

Back among the dinosaurs, the African Arawak Connection moved onto another song, percussionist James Moss instructing audience members to link arms. It’s really important we stick together as a community for this,” he explained to a cluster of pint-sized listeners, who milled around the front of the room before tentatively linking hands and slowly, joyously taking a lap around the hall.

Welcome to the 12th annual ¡Fiesta Latina!, held Saturday at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. One of the biggest programming initiatives of the year, the six-hour festival was designed to both celebrate and bring attention to Latin American traditions abroad and in New Haven during Hispanic Heritage Month, offering kids from across the city a panoply of ways to learn about Hispanic culture past, present, and future.

Like Alisa’s House of Salsa, joined later in the afternoon by the Mariachi Academy of Connecticut, Carlos y su Momento Musical, and Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale. Warmed up by the African Arawak Connection, a group of around 100 kids (and a few rogue adults drawn in by the beat) joined Alisa herself to demonstrate the basics of salsa. Salsa originated in New York out of a smattering of Latin American dance traditions but has heaping, steamy portions of Cuba and Puerto Rico thrown into its best iterations.

In a crash course in Inca and Taíno culture, Jorge Estevez kept visitors small and tall alike on their toes – often literally – with a display of objects used by Taino populations past and present. 

Meanwhile, activities like Latin American flag coloring, arranging scale models of pupal life stages, a Fur and Feathers” demonstration with live birds native to Latin America, and a scaled-down fossil dig sated more hands-on learners …

… while a chance to handle an African Hedgehog and Blue-Tongued skink pleased really hands-on ones. 

At the core of ¡Fiesta Latina!, explained the Peabody’s event coordinator and camp director, Josue Irizarry, was a hope that New Haveners of all cultures and ages would come away with a richer understanding of what honoring and exploring Hispanic heritage means in the year 2014.

My goal for this event is not only to get kids in New Haven to come to the museum, but also to get different cultures. It’s very important that we’re teaching people about the Hispanic culture because it’s a variety of cultures that we have that are not all the same. It’s [also] a great opportunity to teach New Haven not only about the culture, but also about science, and to get kids engaged.” he said.

Inside, new faces and tiny feet poured into the Great Hall (El gran pasillo) for the next act, strains of Mariachi already audible from the foyer, where parents called to their children in not only English and Spanish, but also Mandarin, French, and German. Despite the constant rain outside, the event had already brought in 1,100 visitors. Irizarry had four hours left. So there was, of course, only one thing for him to do.

He grinned, and rushed off to another activity.

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