Photo by Juliana Gabriel/The Siskiyou
Band members of La Sonora Dinamita perform at the Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday night in the Historic Ashland Armory.

The Latino Student Union’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday was a huge success this year due to the appearance of La Sonora Dinamita, a popular Colombian cumbia group.

"We planned to have this band two years ago," Jorge Tovar said.

Tovar and his friend Tessa Benedicktus are two SOU students who met at last year’s Cinco de Mayo celebration.

"Jonathan said he sent out 500 e-mails [to the band]," Benedicktus said, referring to Jonathan Chavez, the LSU president.

Inside the Historic Ashland Armory, women’s stilettos cast shadows on the shiny floor and colorful paper streamers hung overhead. A woman in a green checkered apron and a few young girls made asada tacos in the corner of the dance hall and sold cups full of watermelon, pineapple and honeydew.

"Viva la Mexico! Viva las estudiantes!" a La Sonora Dinamita singer shouted. The band received much applause and whistling before and after each song.

When the music played, almost everyone in the room started to swing their hips, even the littlest girls in their heels and dresses. The band was led by one male and two female singers. The armory was packed with a few hundred people by 10 p.m.

La Sonora Dinamita was originally formed in 1960 and later disbanded in 1963. In 1975 Julio Ernesto Estrada "Fruko" Rincón reformed the band. Then in 1981, Mélida Yará became the lead singer and released the hit song "Mi Cucu."

"Hi mamacitas!" The band cried out to all the females in the audience.

One of the singers summoned all the girls in the audience closer to the stage for their performance of "Mi Cucu," a humorous song about a man following a pretty woman down the street and praising her beauty, and brought several girls on stage to sing along. Brass instruments, drums and maracas completed the band.

"My dad listened to this," Tovar said after the excitement began to die down somewhat. "They’ve been going on for a long time."

The sound of cumbia music is light-hearted and appeals to all ages. Cumbia is folk music that began with courtship dancing among African slaves and has now accepted European influences and is part of Colombia’s national identity.

"Over the years they have evolved to become the music of the people," Chavez said during the celebration.

Chavez enlisted the help of La Gran D 610 AM, a local radio station, to convince La Sonora Dinamita to play for the Cinco de Mayo celebration.

"The Latino community hears that name, and they’re like, 'Wow!'" Chavez said.

The mission of the LSU is to share the Latin culture with the SOU community. The LSU began its annual Cinco de Mayo celebration on Monday afternoon with a taco sale in the Student Union courtyard, complete with music and dance troupe, Ballet Folklorico.

For more information about LSU and their upcoming events, call 552-6031.