For more than 30 years the motto of Hispanic Week has been Together in Harmony. This year, it has not been the case.
When this edition begins to circulate, Thursday, June 15, when it comes to Hispanic Week, we will have surpassed the Ecuadorian, Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Dominican Nights where representatives of each participating country boast about their culture. This year, we were informed by the directors of the Guatemalan Night, that it was canceled at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts with the organizers of that festival.
From the beginning, it was known that the directors of the Puerto Rican and Dominican Nights wanted to celebrate their Nights in the Campagnone Common as in previous years, contrary to the wishes of the Hispanic Week board informing them that they had reserved the halls of the Senior Center for both groups. The room is very small, they argued. We think they were right. Luckily, it seems that they reached an agreement and finally announced that the celebrations would be in Campagnone Common.
It seemed like everything had been fixed, but no. On Tuesday, June 13, one day before the presentation of Puerto Rican Night, members of the board of Puerto Rican and Dominican Nights appeared on the morning show El Tapón, directed by Santiago Matias at MEGA 1400AM to denounce that the Hispanic Week board denied them the use of some electric cables of their property, without which they could not carry out the presentation of the Puerto Rican Night so they would have to suspend it. “If you cancel the Night, we will cancel ours”, seconded the directors of the Dominican Night.
The story of the cable is so long and ridiculous that we prefer not to mention it, since ultimately the most important thing happened. Puerto Rican Night was given the go ahead, as expected. “But Hispanic Week charged us $1,500 for using them,” informed Victor Manuel Hernandez, a member of the Puerto Rican Night Organizing Group.
Hispanic Week’s board of directors should be ashamed of itself for their behavior this year because they are destroying that organization.
