Mexican-American women gather for a week of celebration
The annual celebration of female diversity called Semana de la Xicana wrapped up Thursday night with a few hours of both Spanish and English hip-hop.
The music and dancing ended a week of events that included Mexican dancers performing indigenous routines and a spiritual workshop.
Ruby Gonzalez, a junior business management major and organizer of the events, said the week was a celebration of female strength.
“The whole week was to honor women within the culture and to show the power of them,” Gonzalez said.
Xicana is a modification of the term Chicana, meaning a woman of Mexican origin or descent, and has the same pronunciation.
Thursday’s event drew about 60 people for the performances of two female hip-hop groups from Los Angeles.
“There’s been lots of community support,” Gonzalez said. “To see this support is beautiful because we’re still a race. This needs to happen everywhere.”
The first musical act was Cihuatl-Ce, a solo female artist who sang about the struggle of diverse women and called for the representation of a diverse female nation. She sang in both Spanish and English as she enthusiastically interacted with the crowd, calling for the audience to join in the singing.
The second group was a hip-hop trio, also from Los Angeles, called Guerrilla Queenz. One of the members, Eyerie, described their music as “revolutionary lyrical bullets” that are delivered by interchanging Spanish and English lyrics with a fusion of a reggae and hip-hop sound. During Guerrilla Queenz’ set, the members spoke about issues including youth, the future, religion and the environment.
“Gorilla Queenz is one of the more revolutionary groups out there, speaking to inner city kids and helping them realize what they are a part of,” Gonzalez said.
Eyerie said many of the issues the group deals with still lie beneath the surface.
“Some of these things we need to open our eyes about,” she said.
Men were not absent at the week’s female-centered events. Jeff Vaden, a senior at the University of Northern Colorado said he attended three of the events.
“I had a good time,” he said. “People that attended definitely took things away from it.”
Eyerie said that Semana de la Xicana is great for Boulder because it is not often that these women are able to come together to celebrate their diversity with a week of cultural events.
“There are lots of indigenous communities with women that are not being heard,” Eyerie said. “I want to dedicate this show to the women who have no voice.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Alex Reiner at alex.reiner@colorado.edu.
