More than 250 students and community members packed into the Student Center ballrooms Saturday night for the 14th-annual Noche de Gala, a salsa dance party organized as part of SIU’s month-long celebration of Hispanic and Latino culture. 

The party combined cultural dances of Bachata, Salsa, Merengue and Cumbia as participants danced to live music by Afinca’o — a group of musicians from the Chicagoland area that specializes in Salsa, Cha-Cha, Latin Jazz and some Merengue performances.

Michael Cuthbertson, president of Sigma Lambda Beta — part of the multicultural Greek Council at SIU — said the gathering was in part about increasing cultural awareness.

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“Noche de Gala gives people an opportunity to broaden their ideas about the culture,” he said.

For Marcus Abston, a graduate student in zoology from Chicago, Noche de Gala reminded him of his mother.

“My mom lived in Mexico for a while and used to salsa dance with me,” Abston said.

Renier Rosario, the lead singer in Afinca’o, which used basses, trumpets, pianos, bongos, tenor sax, trombone, congas and timbales to achieve their special sound, said the event had a good vibe and crowd.

“Music and dance are a part of Latino culture,” Rosario said. “Music unites us all as one.”

Staff writer Tyra Wooten can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @twootenDE.

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