Alianza Latina’s ‘Fuego’ is sure to be lit

One night every October, the sounds of salsa, bachata, and merengue fill Metcalf Ballroom in the GSU. Alianza Latina’s annual event, Fuego, aims to bring together people of all ethnic backgrounds, and even other schools, to celebrate Latino culture.

The Tab sat down with the president of Alianza Latina, Luis Castro (COM ’18), to talk about the history and significance of  this event.

Is ‘Fuego’ the biggest event for Alianza Latina?

‘Fuego’ is definitely our largest dance for the fall semester. We also have another huge Latino dance in the spring called Explosión, and we collaborate for a Latino, kind of Spanish formal with a lot of other Latino organizations on campus. We have two in the spring and one in the fall, where we have different dances, basically. We also have really large collaborative events, but as far as social events, it’s definitely the largest event that we have on campus for the fall semester.

What is the history behind Fuego? 

That’s a little interesting. I think it came several years ago. It was a collaboration between the Latino fraternity on campus, called the Phiotas, and they worked with previous incarnations of Alianza Latina, to kind of celebrate Latino culture at the end of Hispanic Heritage Month in October. That’s kind of where it came from in the past. In more recent years, Alianza Latina has definitely taken more of an ownership over it, just for logistical reasons, and planning reasons. It’s often easier, for such a big event like that, to just work on your own, and focus on having your e-board do everything they can to make it a great event.

Camila Romero, Public Relations Chair for Alianza Latina, added, “it’s really awesome because it’s actually the first time in a while that it’s landed on the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month, so I’m really happy about that.”

Castro continued, “Not only is it one of the most fun events that we have all semester long, if not the most fun event we have all semester long, it’s also a huge fundraiser for Alianza Latina to create a lot of the programs that you see later on in the year. For example, last year Denice Frohman, an award-winning poet, came and did spoken poetry on campus. That type of thing doesn’t happen unless we get some kind of funding for ourselves besides what we get from SAO.

Is the ultimate goal to have people of different ethnicities come together to celebrate Latino culture?

Besides the formal funding side of it, it’s honestly such a great way for Latinos who are involved with AL, who are involved with other Latino organizations, who aren’t involved with any kind of Latino organizations on campus, but who love the music, the culture, the food, the people, the language, the dancing; it’s definitely the best way to get everyone together under one roof, in one place enjoying that kind of environment and music and fun together.

Obviously inviting other schools is a perfect way to meet people from other schools. It’s stress-free, less formal, and just really relaxed, and a great environment to just meet people who you would never have met before. These schools are always inviting us to their events; it’s kind of just this informal network of all of us just reaching out to one another.

For people who have never been to the event, what can they expect?

A lot of times, people are intimidated about coming to Fuego because they’re worried like, ‘oh, I don’t have a date, I don’t know if my friends will come with me, I don’t know how to dance, I don’t know what to wear.’ None of that matters at all.

To break it down from the beginning of the night, we have BU Salsa, and Sabor Latino, two of BU’s Latino dance orgs on campus, to give lessons at the beginning. They’ll teach you a little bit of salsa, little bit of bachata, little bit of merengue, just to make sure that everyone who may not know how to dance, or may not feel that comfortable, just a little bit of brushing up before they get on the dance floor. That’s usually the first 15-20 minutes of that dance, maybe even 30 minutes depending on how late everyone is in arriving.

As far as what you wear, you have everything from people in suits, heels, and dresses to sneakers and jeans. You wear what you’re comfortable in. It’s just a good time. Music is playing from the moment the event starts, some light refreshments on the side, but the focus is really on dancing and talking to other people, and meeting a lot of new people who you may never have known before.

Fuego is this Saturday, October 15, and it starts at 10 p.m. It will be at the Metcalf Ballroom, on the second floor of the GSU. Tickets are $8 in advance if you buy them online on EventBrite right now, and they’ll be $10 the day of.

Castro ends with reassurance to anyone with second thoughts: “You don’t have to be Latino, you don’t have to speak Spanish, you don’t need to know how to dance, but you do need to come willing to have fun.”