The Campus Activities Board hosted a celebration of Mexican-American heritage Sept. 16 with food, music, contests and a photobooth in PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus.
Fiestas Patrias is an event CAB hosts every year in honor of Mexico’s independence.
In Edinburg, the event took place last Wednesday in the Quad.
Daniela Ramirez, CAB Cultural Committee chair, said this was her first time hosting the event and wanted students from different backgrounds to get an insight of what Hispanic culture is.
“To me, I really love Fiestas Patrias,” Ramirez said. “It’s a part of my culture and I love showcasing [to] everybody who we [Hispanics] really are.”
Free tacos, aguas frescas, frijoles a la charra, fruit cups, espiro-papas and elotes were served. Students could also get candy and cookies.
The venue was decorated with papel picado and sombreros.
The evening was spent playing loteria games with several winners earning VBucks and ended with the breaking of a piñata.
Music education sophomore Mariana Ramirez won the jalapeño-eating contest after eating seven peppers.
“I regretted before I started it and then I was like ‘No, it’s OK, I got this’ and I got really pumped,” she said. “And halfway through I was like, ‘This is really nasty. I don’t want to do it.’ And then somebody threw up, and I was like, ‘No, I’m next.’”
Mariana won $100 in VBucks.
She also competed in the costume contests and took home a pair of Apple AirPods.
Isaac De La Garza, an accounting sophomore, earned $50 in VBucks in the taco-eating contest. De la Garza was the first competitor to finish eight tacos.
Enrique Granados, biomedical science junior, captured the grito contest after a difficult tie breaker with Enya Poole, mass communication senior.
Both students had previous experience. Poole would practice at family parties and other grito contests and Granados was in a mariachi band.
Granados said he hoped there wouldn’t be any other rounds because he was getting tired. Poole said she thought Granados was going to win because he had a raspier voice.
Granados won $30 in VBucks.
Karla Gonzales, a nursing freshman, said she thinks this event was a good way to showcase Hispanic culture because non-Hispanic students get to experience things that are not part of their culture.
Biology senior Alexis Elicerio (from left), visual art senior Amaury Lopez and electrical engineering junior Eugenio Rangel compete in a taco eating contest during UTRGV’s Fiestas Patrias Wednesday on the Quad the Edinburg. Contestants had two minutes to finish their tacos and resulted with Rangel as the winner. AMANDA VELA/THE RIDER
