Department of Applied Social Sciences Celebrates Diversity Through Latin-Themed Party

On Friday, February 17, BU Metropolitan College’s City
Planning and Urban Affairs, Gastronomy, and Criminal Justice students and faculty kicked off the spring semester with a Latin-themed party hosted by the Department of Applied Social Sciences. The afternoon brought together the diverse community of students from the Metropolitan College to enjoy Venezuelan food, Latin music, salsa dancing, and lively conversation.

Professor and Chair of Applied Social Sciences Daniel LeClair commented “It’s a good honor for our international students and creates a sense of community. It shows how many students are from Latin America.”

Luis Quintanilla (Master of City Planning ‘17) said that the event was “organized with the intention to show Latin American culture and flavors as well as its colors, flags, soccer shirts, and music, with the hope that everyone present enjoys it.”

The event also featured an array of Venezuelan cuisine. “These are the most typical foods in Venezuela,” Diego Lomelli (Master of City Planning ’18) said as he began to introduce the arepas, patacones, and tequeños from local Venezuelan restaurant Los Chamos.

Alejandro Delgado (Master of Urban Affairs ’17
), was in charge of selecting the Latin American music and videos playing in the background. Delgado shared that last year, the Celebrating Diversity party happened during Chinese New Year and explained that the idea of this year’s party was sparked by a conversation last year with associate Professor of Practice and Director of City Planning and Urban Affairs, Madhu C. Dutta-Koehler. “Madhu and I were talking last Christmas and I said, ‘Why don’t we do Latino?’”

As more people streamed into the room, some students broke up in pairs and started swaying and salsa dancing to the beat. “Everybody’s dancing, it looks really fun!” Sydney Manning (Master in Gastronomy ‘19) said.

“It’s a good opportunity to encourage students to meet and share information about classes and cultures. You start to think about America and Latin American cities and I think that comparison is amazing,” said Cristian Casanueva (Master of City Planning ‘18).

– Savannah Wu, CAS ‘19