Fiesta Latina

Here you see members of the North Valley public Library Spanish Conversation Group who did most of the decorating, cooking and organizing of what turned out to be the most attended event in the 100 year history of the Library with over 160 people.

Final report on Hispanic Heritage Month at North Valley Public Library

It was a fast paced, event filled month! So many new faces and new ideas. Some of the events that took place were historical and cultural presentations, travelogues, musical and dance performances and cooking demonstrations. We were able to work with "Global Grizzlies" the student-run organization from U. of M. doing work in developing countries, nationally recognized musicians performing Mariachi and Flamenco music, native people from Chile, Guatemala and Mexico, world travelers, and a chef from Colombia. Watch for some photos of events to follow this post.

Piñata Fun and Latin Dance Night!

On Thursday, Oct. 8, Missoula Public Library celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with a fun-filled day of events. In the afternoon, we learned how to decorate piñatas with Eileen Cummings of "Spanish Anyone?"



Then we turned down the lights and turned up the music for Latin Dance Night. Missoula's local Flamenco group Patio Andaluz gave a beautiful performance of a variety of flamenco dances.




Members of the Downtown Dance Collective demonstrated salsa moves so fast that we could not even catch it on camera! However, they did slow things down a bit teach the audience some basic moves. Everyone also enjoyed tapas from Columbia, Mexico and Spain from The Silk Road.

Fiesta Latina a HUGE Success!

Our 2nd annual Hispanic Heritage celebration "Fiesta Latina" was a huge success. This event was the kick-off for our month long celebration of independence (from Spain) for seven Latin & South American countries. Fiesta Latina was a record breaking library event: 160+ people attended - more than any other event in the history of our library! Our Spanish conversation Group donated most of the food which featured recipes from each country. Oscar Macz from Guatemala performed native guitar music and sang traditional songs. Kimberlee Carlson and friend Maria performed several dances from various countries and encouraged many folks to join in the dancing. Fun was had all and photos will follow soon as well as reports about our travelogues.

Planning continues for Hispanic Heritage Month

This is what we did this week for our Hispanic Heritage project:
1. Submitted our application for a Humanities Montana Opportunity Grant
2. Sent out our press releases
3. Contacted two radio stations regarding possible interviews
4. Created a brightly colored poster
5. Talked to a sign shop about a vinyl banner
6. Attended a Missoula salsa dance for networking
7. Secured a speaker to present travelogue on Chile
8. Contacted UM advisor to Foreign Students about presentation on Guatemala
9. Updated our NVPL website calendar of events
Busy week! Very exciting to see and hear the enthusiasm from so many, both Latin Americans and others. Next week: create the banner for outside the library, research where to obtain affordable maps and flags of our targeted countries to display, research traditional recipes.

Webinar

Diana Miranda at Austin Public Libraries in Texas did a webinar on selecting Spanish language materials for the collection.

I've not watched it yet, but it sounds interesting. Here is the link to the Texas State Library & Archives Commission blog to get access to the archived webinar (Wimba) and Diana's PowerPoint. Might be worth a look!

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/librarydevelopments/?p=955

Planning "Spanish Heritage Month"

Hello, All! We are in the midst of planning for our first month long celebration "Spanish Heritage Month" to be held this September. (We got the idea from the ALA book "Bienvenidos!" by Susannah Mississippi Byrd.) Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally begins Sept. 15th which is the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; Mexico declared its independence on Sept. 16th, and Chile on Sept. 18th. This is a time dedicated to learning more about Latino history and culture. We are working on a Humanities Montana grant - wish us luck! Our plans currently include a community celebration Sept. 4th (First Fridays in Stevensville are always big nights) complete with dance performances, native dress, guitar music and singing and lots of food! The rest of the month we will have weekly themes: history, literature & art, music and food. Events will include two travelogues (Nicaragua and Costa Rica), a bi-lingual story time, and Latin American recipes, including histories and samples. Our Latino community members are "all jazzed up" to participate. Watch for more updates!