National Hispanic Heritage Month festivities at Los Medanos College continued Wednesday evening, with Lotería Night — a fun-filled evening hosted by the Puente Program and Puente Club at LMC

The event was open to the LMC community and their families Oct.11 in room L-109. The night was focused on cultural celebration. The guests who attended enjoyed food, watched Folklorico dancers and played Lotería, a game similar to bingo.

While this event was a celebration of Hispanic heritage, it also provided a fun and safe place for the LMC community to get together.

“I’m excited to have fun and meet new people,” explained Puente Club President Briana Orozco prior to the event. “We wanted to create a stress free zone.”

The night kicked off with food and Lotería at 5:30 p.m. and continued until the live entertainment began at 6:40 p.m. As Lotería finished up, former Puente Club member Jorge Guerra announced the performances that would be at the outdoor quad. Attendees congregated outside to watch the singing and dancing provided by Pittsburg High School students.

The students, in brightly colored costumes, performed Folklorico dances — a traditional Mexican dancing technique that focuses on local folk culture. At the beginning of the evening, Orozco said she was “hopeful that there would be a lot of people.” Her hopes came to fruition as a crowd of over 50 people formed to watch the performance as the loud music and roaring cheers echoed throughout the LMC quad.  

After the dancing, Pittsburg High School girl group, self-titled as “Haac,” sang a few songs such as ‘Wings’ by “Little Mix.” Pittsburg High student, Berenice Andrade gave a solo performance of ‘Si Una Vez’ as well, and despite sound issues with the speaker, kept the audience engaged.

Following the performances, the crowd returned to L-109 for more fun and games until 8 p.m. when the evening was finished with a lottery and prizes.

This is not the only event that the Puente club and program have put on before — just earlier this month the club and program put together some fun events in celebration of Hispanic heritage month. Orozco explained that the club has “done fundraisers before, we had an art day and did dance lessons,” adding that the dance lessons were done just two weeks ago on Club Day Tuesday, Sept. 19 in the outdoor quad.