On April 24th, 2025 the AHS Diversity club put together their second annual Cultural Night, showcasing different backgrounds to the community.
Cultural Night brought students, families, and faculty members together to experience performers, clothing, and food from all over the world. The event, organized by the Diversity club along with the Spanish club, took months of preparation.
“Cultural Night was an event for different demographics and cultures to come in and show their performances and songs and dances to our student body and community,” Adolfo Jimenez (‘25), the president of Diversity club and main coordinator of the event, said. “I helped bring in some of the performers by reaching out to them online, and also promoting and making sure that, like, there’s enough people there that are willing to help set up the event and make sure it goes smoothly.”
In addition to the performances, food and drink played an important role in representing the different ethnicities, creating a welcoming atmosphere for the celebration.
“I was working with the President to kind of contact performers, contact like food services, kind of like get things approved,” Mayra Cruz (‘26), a diversity club member said. “We could only get one food truck here, so I thought… in order to showcase like my culture, I could bring in some of the drinks that we kind of like regularly make. So I made a Bucha.”
People that attended experienced a wide spectrum of traditions from folklorico dancers, to Irish dancers, to different choir arrangements, to Native American speakers.
“My favorite thing about the night was that the Spanish Club had aguas frescas… they had hibiscus tea, water type of thingy, and like strawberry water,” Amy Lopez Gonzalez (‘26), an attendee said. “And also the Irish dancers, because their costumes are sparkly.”
Both the organizers and the attendees emphasized how events like Cultural Night help build awareness and reduce ignorance by exposing people to perspectives beyond their own.
“It’s important because you get to experience different cultures, and the more awareness we have within the community, the better it is for everybody,” Cruz said. “That way you get to see who’s like sitting next to you, who’s like living next to you without knowing that they ever were there.”
For some, the night was also an eye-opener about what culture means, and experiencing it first hand was way different than learning about them in textbooks.
“It taught me that, like, other cultures can also be shown in so many different ways, not just like in books and you’re reading about something,” Lopez Gonzalez said. “ I feel like it’s important because at least this year, they got to share a lot more like different cultures, not just Hispanic.””
The plans for next year are already underway, with a goal of expanding the celebration even further.
“We’re gonna make it like more district wide,” said Jimenez. “At least that’s what a lot of like staff members want to do next year.”
