First song festival offers language practice, culture

The first Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival will be 5 p.m. Friday in the Frangipani Room at the Indiana Memorial Union. This competition will feature nine IU undergraduate students singing songs by Ibero-American artists while a jury evaluates their performances and chooses the top three presentations.

Each member of the jury will focus on a specific part of the presentation: Spanish and Portuguese diction, music and singing. Some faculty members and students of the folklore department and Latin American Music Center will also give special performances.

The idea for the song festival came from Israel Herrera, a lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He said he mentioned this idea in his classes and a number of his students responded positively.

“Many of my students are part of bands or play different instruments,” Herrera said. “I thought this would be a good way for them to practice their Spanish and have a fun experience at the same time. It is an event that gets together their enthusiasm for music and interest in a language.”

Members of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, La Casa Latino Cultural Center, the Latin American Music Center, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and the International Latin American and Spanish Student Association contributed to the creation of this event.

Juan Manuel Soto Arriví, interim director of language instruction for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, was one of the supporters of this event.

“Israel came up with this exciting idea of having a singing contest for students of Spanish, and I offered him my full support,” Soto said.

Soto has helped Castro with the fundraising, as well as participating as a judge during the auditions to select the singing contestants.

Tiffany Hogan, a junior majoring in Spanish, is one of the nine undergraduate students participating in the competition. She will be performing the song “Equivocada” by Mexican singer Thalía.

“I thought that this festival would be one great way to practice my language use and meet other Spanish speakers on campus,” Hogan said. “This event shows that learning a language can be a lot of fun, and a way to put together all that grammar, vocabulary and diction.”