In my freshman year at Amherst College (1975) I had our dance troupe ADRORACION travel to the School and perform at the first Cultural show I produced on campus PALANTE. Luis E Figueroa Jr Al Brizuela Jose Emmanuel Mejia and my cousin Gina G Chaluisan came up along with twenty other friends from the Bronx including the late Isa Diaz. The closing number was Earth, Wind & Fires Africano https://youtube/watch?v=uoz0wb5Po-U a song I still consider is ahead of its time. Fond memories ... l-r (Isa Diaz-Tino Torres- Luis E Figueroa Jr- Al Brizuela-Roxanne Ortiz) 1975 1975: My high school friends (15 in all split 8 women/7 men) and I formed the Adoracion Dance Company with my brother Ron and his friends in May 1974 presenting a combination cabaret show (comedy skits to open for 15 minutes/choreographed pieces to close for a half hour). We performed Salsa, Hustle, Swing and African dance numbers. And we had a small quintet of writers drawn from the Cardinal Hayes School Newspaper who created original material the group . These inluded . John Russell (future PHd Harvard/Gifu University Japan) and future NY Times reporter David Gonzalez. We used music recorded by Eddie Palmieri, Afro Caribbean Celia Cruz/Tito Puente/La Lupe LPs and Earth Wind and Fires Africano as our closer. Adoracion (named after the Palmieri composition) appeared in parish auditoriums and Aspira sponsored open air events through 1976. The company ontinued when I left for College under the directorship of Luis Figueroa, Yvonne Armstrong and the late Isa Diaz. Our Latin Student organization at Amherst La Causa decided to present a cultural show case for November 1975. We had already formed an alliance with the Latina Student Organization at Mount Holyoke (La Unidad) and they offered to help with dancers/poets and soloists. (The Mount Holyoke supporters were dubbed Salsoul. We were disco heads in November 1975.) Pictured here is the actual program of that first showcase I co-produced with Les Purificacion, Tomas Gonzalez and Rick Morales (which ran for more than 25 years annually until discontinued after Spic Chic was presented on campus in 2004.) It was an organic black box theater affair blending word with music and dance adopted from the talent shows ASPIRA Clubs presented in the NY High School System during the 1970s. (The Aspira Showcases format had grown in style from Political Guerilla Street Theater presentations dating back to the 1960s.) For me the picture program is a snapshot of who we are as College Educated Nuyoricans in 1975 while finding ourselves under culture shock in the Pioneer Valley. In effect, we were The Other in every sense of that derogatory concept as taught by the Amherst College English Dept. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other) And no one knows this better than Les Purificacion, Tomas Gonzalez and John Lozado (pre med) who until we arrived were the only members of La Causa founded in 1973 by Purificacion (A Philipino by Birth) and Tomas (Half Mexican/American). Along with Rick Morales, this team was in charge of the money for the program. So it could not be a failure. They had been at very vocal odds with the student funding committee regarding underfunding of La Causa and the fraternity dominated preppy student assembly was not very open-minded, as well. So it is interesting for me to study what was produced in the Live Show. Flowing from Afro Dance to word to song to mis en scene the show interweaves the various elements to make one statement, Move Forward! (Palante). As the program notes, the iconoclastic Nuyorican cultural cues are taken from Author/Activist Piri Thomas, Mr Salsa Latin NY Publisher Izzy Sanabria and Young Lord Felipe Luciano (pre-Badge 373 1973). We have reconstructed the premiere utilizing archival material from the actual event (Of Note: The Carlos Mendez Guitar Solo digitized from a damaged cassette) plus have added Piri Thomas and Felipe Luciano in the spoken word section of the Anniversary Broadcast. Program Supplied by: Alana La Bel Mount Holyoke College BA 1979 Palante Premiere Show Nov 15, 1975 Amherst College La Causa Reconstructed for Broadcast after 37 years in the WEPAwebTV media vaults Experience a unique snapshot of a singular event in 70s Nuyoricans Attending Higher Private College/University
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 19:02:39 +0000
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