Rockford — Songs, sayings and stories — sung and spoken in both Spanish and English — sounded through the hallways during a recent National Hispanic Heritage Month event at Roguewood Elementary.
In recognition of the monthlong celebration, which lasts from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Roguewood brought in Erica Soto, artistic director of Compañía Teatro Hispano de Michigan, or Michigan Hispanic Theatre Company, to perform for students. Soto’s theater company, formed in 2023, is a nonprofit that promotes Hispanic cultures through Spanish-language theater productions and classes in the Grand Rapids area.
Scores of students gathered in the school’s cafeteria to hear Soto, who is originally from Puerto Rico, sing, read stories, play the ukulele and talk about the various flavors of Hispanic culture.
“There are so many different cultures,” Soto told students. “There are 22 Spanish-speaking countries, (but) that doesn’t mean that every single country has the same story, has the same music, has the same foods, right?
“If you think about the friends you have, they also may come from different places and have different traditions and ways of doing things, and that is really, really cool, and we get to celebrate that.”
Soto also read from “Where Are You From?” by Yamile Saied Méndez, “Tales Our Abuelitas Told” by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, and “Dreamers” by Yuyi Morales.
For Spanish-immersion and Traditional Students Alike
Roguewood Principal Amie Santillán said that one of the school’s teachers saw Soto perform at the Grand Rapids Public Library, and recommended that she be invited to give a special presentation as part of the school’s Hispanic Heritage Month activities.
Santillán was all for it, and so was the school’s parent-teacher organization. A little more than 50% of Roguewood’s students are part of a Spanish-language immersion program, she said, and the school has been making an effort to integrate more cultural components that resonate with both student populations.
“What I’m trying to do is say, ‘This is our identity as a school,’” Santillán said. “It’s not two schools — this is who we are.”
‘I believe that educating folks, especially young people, about new cultures is a really important way for them to be able to see the world around them and connect with others around them.’
— Erica Soto, artistic director, Michigan Hispanic Theatre Company
The performance did just that, said fifth-graders Haiden Lux and Lilia Liggins. Haiden is in the Spanish-immersion program, while Lilia is a traditional student, but both found a lot to love about Soto’s songs and stories.
“I really like it because I want to learn music and Spanish, and it’s really enjoyable, because I can learn some things from the presentation,” Lilia said. She added that she was even able to understand a little bit of Soto’s Spanish.
The music was a highlight for Haiden. He said it gave him a new perspective on some of the things he learns in class.
“We don’t really listen to music in Spanish; we just talk in Spanish and learn in Spanish, but we don’t hear a native speaker, speaking Spanish and making music and stuff,” he said.
Soto, a longtime educator who previously taught music and theater at West Michigan Academy of Arts and Academics in Spring Lake and at Grand Rapids Public Schools, told SNN she hopes students left the performances with a new appreciation for the diversity of Hispanic culture.
“I believe that educating folks, especially young people, about new cultures is a really important way for them to be able to see the world around them and connect with others around them,” she said. “I want them to come away with new phrases, new ways of saying things, new songs in their heads — just new ways of understanding how stories can be told in another language.”
She added that she wants students to know that “they also have the power to tell stories and tell them how they want to, in so many different ways.”
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