RBR Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

Red Bank Regional celebrated its first annual Hispanic Heritage assembly in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, an important celebration for a diverse school. The program, a combination of vibrant Latino music, dance, poetry and culture was organized by the school’s Multi Cultural Club and Principal Risa Clay, who is also the school’s English Language Learner Supervisor.

            The Key Note speaker, Dr. Hector Morales of Shrewsbury, shared his personal story of how a middle-class boy from Puerto Rico came to the United States and graduated the youngest in his dental school, from New York University. He explained that, although his father wanted him to become a house painter, one life experience at the age of eight set his destiny. He suffered a serious accident and could have lost his front teeth, until he was adroitly treated by an oral surgeon.

            He related to the students, “I told the doctor that if he could save my teeth and my smile, I would promise to become a dentist.”

            Although his proclamation had little effect on the surgeon, who did save his teeth, it became a driving force in his life as he told the students, “Don’t seek to become someone important but rather a productive person who has something important to contribute.”

            He explained his philosophy of life as “Querer es poder,” translated, “If there is a will, there is a way.”

            When he graduated dental school, and although he greatly missed his home country, he saw great opportunities for a bilingual dentist in America.  He now has a successful practice in Red Bank and lives in Shrewsbury with his wife and two daughters; the oldest is a freshman at RBR.

            He urged the students to “take advantage of this wonderful foundation you are receiving here at Red Bank Regional, a school as diverse as the colleges you will attend and the world you will live in.”

            The student body was then treated to a procession of beautifully clad young ladies in the traditional ball dress for Quinceañera. The custom is the special celebration for Latino girls on their 15th birthday marking their transition into womanhood. The dresses were provided by the dress shop, Kinsineta, in Red Bank which specializes in this celebration.

            The Alborada Dance School performed classic Latin dances including the Flamenco.  Red Bank Regional’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) students shared their talents for the occasion with the Creative Writing Majors performing poetry of famous Latino poets, and a powerful contemporary duet written by the students on the struggles of Latino students in American society. The RBR VPA string majors, led by strings teacher Jeffrey Boga, performed musical pieces indigenous to Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico,  ending with a spirited Mexican Hat Dance which had a the entire audience clapping.

            The students were transported on a virtual tour of Latin America via a giant power point presentation set to lively Latin music and detailing country facts and the pictures of famous people from throughout Latin America.

            The show stealer came as Red Bank Pre-school students ascended the stage. The three and four-year olds attend school in a building on the regional high school’s campus.  They wore crayon-colored flags of different Latin American countries and performed a bilingual presentation of The Itsy Bitsy Spider to the audience’s roar.

            In their introduction to the first annual RBR Hispanic Heritage program, Principal Clay, (speaking in English) and RBR senior Monica Ureña (speaking in Spanish) announced, “Although we all come from many different places, the word Latino and its rich culture is what binds us together so we proudly state, “Yo soy Latino.”

            And on that day the entire school could say the same.