A Night to Remember: Brewster Students Experience Cultural Showcase at Bates College
By Kara McDuffee
When the Venezuelan flag was raised on stage, Eva cheered. When the Mexican flag appeared, Amelie screamed. And when the Puerto Rican flag went up, Anika smiled ear to ear.
That is what a room full of belonging looks like.
In April, Brewster students joined World Languages teacher Cristina Salazar and Department Chair Margarita Proulx for an evening at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. The event was a cultural showcase produced by two student organizations, the Caribbean Students Association and Raíces Unidas, Bates' Hispanic and Latino club. For two hours, performers filled the stage with Brazilian samba, spoken word poetry, singing, dancing, and a shared sense of community that had the entire crowd on their feet. The show was performed in Spanglish. Not one person was quiet for the duration.
For Salazar, the night carried personal weight. As a Bates alum, she helped build the cultural showcase tradition from the ground up, leading coordination of the event for two consecutive years and successfully advocating for a dedicated budget for affinity groups and cultural programming at the college. Seeing that legacy continue, and now seeing Brewster students inside it, stopped her in her tracks.
"This show is representation," Salazar said. "A reminder of home away from home. These students come from so many different backgrounds and cultures, and the show allowed them to truly connect with learning through art and storytelling."
For Proulx, the evening offered something she hopes students carry back with them. "They were grateful for the opportunity to see a cultural perspective they would not have had otherwise," she said. "The Brazilian Samba stood out as a highlight, but the spoken word was a profound moment for us all."
The students did not just watch. They cheered, they danced, they went on stage. And when it was over, many of them said the same thing: they felt good about themselves.
That response is exactly what Brewster hopes for when students step outside the classroom and into experiences like this one. A school that already celebrates its community of students from more than 24 countries, Brewster continues to look for ways to deepen that cultural richness, whether through events, exchanges, or evenings like this one that students bring back with them long after they leave.
The conversation about how to expand those opportunities is ongoing. But it starts, as the best ones do, with a room full of people celebrating where they come from.
