Mi Gente member Tadina Ross shares a dance with Provost Peter Lange. Ms. Ross did the design work and marketing for Latin Chic at the Library.

Flowing white draperies, live palms, and the vibrant strains of Bossa Nova, salsa, samba, and tango transformed the library into a Latin paradise on the evening of 29 February for a semi-formal campus party. Organized by Mi Gente, Duke’s Hispanic student association, the party celebrated the group’s 15th anniversary on campus.

And what a celebration it was! Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, university trustees and staff, and Duke alums and friends mingled with each other in the Perkins and Bostock libraries and the von der Heyden Pavilion, enjoying live music that reflected the rich diversity of Latin American culture.

Expanding partygoers’ perceptions of Latin American culture was a primary goal of the student organizers. One, Victoria Woodbury, said in a Thursday, 28 February article in The Chronicle, “We want to convey the many different sides of what it is to be Latin — there isn’t just one country, there isn’t just one style, there isn’t just one genre of music.”