Hispanic Fest Overcomes 2020's Craziness to Set the Bar For Virtual Events

While traveling through Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador, Luciana learns the richness of Hispanic culture through dances, fashion, and more. Photo: Hispanic Fest 2020

By NAFISA HAQUE

Running down the streets of Brooklyn, you could see the excitement of the Midwood students and hear their cheers and light giggling. “Did you hear that? The war is over!” Puzzled onlookers had no way of knowing they were witnessing the filming of Virtual Hispanic Fest 2020.

With only a few weeks to produce a 30-minute video, the cast of Hispanic Fest set out to create something that was the first of its kind, a showcase for the many virtual events set for this year.

“We might have set the bar,” said Rafael DiMaggio, one of the two Hispanic Fest commissioners. “It was a good representation of how things could be in upcoming festivals.”

Click here to view Hispanic Fest 2020 on YouTube.

The film follows Luciana, an orphan who never got to know her parents nor her cultural background. After getting yelled at by the orphanage’s director, she storms off and gets into an altercation involving a traffic cone, waking up to find herself in a strange and different place. She runs through four countries: Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador, learning along the way the richness of Hispanic culture through dances, fashion, and more.

The crew filmed in a variety of outdoor settings. Photo: Hispanic Fest 2020

Tiffany Ordoñez, the lead actress, described her experience playing Luciana as “a long process.” There was “a lot of rehearsing,” she said, “and constant traveling, but it was also really fun. Getting to go to different places was especially fun. We got to film on the beach, and even though a lot of us were shrieking because of how cold the sand was, the sunset over the water was beautiful.”

In Mexico, Luciana learns about Día de Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), an important holiday for celebrating and remembering loved ones who have passed. In Cuba, she learns about Afro-Cuban dances, in Argentina, she learns about fashion, and in the Dominican Republic, she learns about the bachata and the country’s legendary partying.

There, she meets Romina, played by senior Adda Villalobos, a “bold, vivacious, kind of character, [who is] really fun to play, honestly,” Villalobos said. “It was like putting on clothes in the morning. It’s just really me.”

Commissioner Walter Rosales described the scene between the two as his favorite to film. “We didn’t know what we were going to do for the dances,” he said, “but at the end, we were able to pull off the dance out of nowhere.”

Luciana is then scared by a running crowd of people in El Salvador, excited to hear that the country’s war is over, screaming, shouting, and jumping up and down. After a dance of celebration is performed, the storyline reveals a big secret before cutting to the next scene.

“Now it's time for you to wake up.”

Suddenly, Luciana wakes up to hear an earful from other orphans about how worried they were about her. While she never ends up finding out about her parents or what her ethnicity is, she learns the important thing is that she has people who care about her.

As Ordoñez puts it, “Going to all these countries really showed Luciana home is not a ‘where,’ but who you’re with.” The film ends with shots of New York, filmed from a drone, before cutting to bloopers and credits.

Like Luciana, the cast behind Hispanic Festival faced quite a few obstacles making this year’s event happen.

The biggest struggle they faced was “the time frame,” DiMaggio said. “We were put on a pretty strict schedule. We had to put six recording days in a seven-day week. It was so packed. It rained on certain days, and we couldn’t record on other days.” Altogether, the team only had about a month.

The film could not be officially Midwood-affiliated since, due to the pandemic and remote learning, there could be no constant teacher or administration supervision.

The crew was basically on their own with equipment and student outreach, DiMaggio explained. “It was really hard to get everything together, especially with the time frame. We also had to take a lot of money out of our pocket.”

Social distancing protocols added another obstacle. Rosales said, “We had to follow guidelines like no touching, no spins, we couldn’t do dips, we couldn’t be together in small spaces. It just messed everything up for us, but at the same time, we were able to overcome that.”

DiMaggio would have preferred a solely off-stage role, he said. “But I had to do what I had to do. So we included myself and Walter in a lot of things. But that’s just, you know, being commissioner.”

The challenges kept piling up: obtaining the equipment, balancing school, dealing with multiple outdoor filming locations.

Ana Martinez, a junior dancer, wasn’t too fond of the cold weather, which made rehearsals hard, she said. Still, she was grateful to “meet new people.” Other participants shared the same sentiment.

Villalobos said, “The people here are amazing, like family.”

Besides the shared challenges, many funny and chaotic moments brought the crew together.

“I was standing on a rock at the beach and Rafael came out of nowhere with a flower,” Rosales said. “He was getting on one knee ‘proposing’ to me, and I was like ‘Aw, Raf,’ and I grabbed the flower and smashed it on his head.”

“Later on that night, we ended up at Prospect Park, and we saw a trash can on fire,” Rosales said. “We were like, ‘What’s happening?’ We rushed to go get water to put out the fire, and then the fire department came.”

After a few delays, the film premiered on November 22 at 6:30 p.m. on YouTube, with promotion on social media.

This year’s virtual presentation was only Midwood’s second Hispanic Fest ever, but both commissioners made it clear that 2020’s edition would not be the last, even with both of them graduating this year.

Reflecting on his role as commissioner, Rosales said, “At the end, whatever your product was, you’ll always feel proud of the accomplishment because you see everybody’s individual effort and how much work they put into it.”

Ordoñez said, “Everyone showed a passion and dedication to this festival, even when the odds were stacked against us, and I really appreciate that.”