Recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month at PNB

Written and compiled by PNB Company dancer Amanda Morgan

Foreword

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I found it important to highlight the many Latine artists that help make Pacific Northwest Ballet what it is. We range from being onstage to working behind the scenes to help the organization run as smoothly as it does. Our stories, our cultures and our histories are what make us who we are and how we show up to PNB everyday. 

Hispanic Heritage Month isn’t just about individuals who have done incredible things in the past, but about the current people who are carrying on that legacy into the future. It’s important to honor where we come from, while also acknowledging the continued work that needs to be done within our communities. This can be just by educating oneself about the current global issues affecting Latin American countries, or reading literature written by Latin American authors. 

Being Latine to me, means being resilient. It means supporting each other in community. It means salsa music playing on Saturday mornings for “cleaning time”. It means the smell of oil and spices coming from the kitchen. It means being connected to multiple continents. It means energetic dancing. It means everything to me, and I hope you see how much it means to others as well. 

With gratitude,
Amanda Morgan 

Ayumi Matsuda

PNB School Faculty Member

What does being Latine mean to you?
It means seeing life light heartedly and with passion. 

How does your culture influence you in your work?
I am originally from Mexico. The rhythms of my country influence my peace and my exercise. 

What are your favorite parts about your culture?
The food, the people and its history. 

Jonathan Batista

PNB Company dancer

What are your favorite parts about your culture?
Music. Brazilian music, including Samba, Bossa Nova, Forró, Funk, is celebrated for its infectious rhythms and heartfelt lyrics. It’s a favorite part of Brazilian culture for its ability to uplift spirits.

What makes you proud to be Latine?
What makes me proud is a celebration of my broader Latin American Heritage and the unique characteristics that come with it, such as Cultural Diversity, language and literature, music and dance, cuisine, natural beauty, social and cultural movements, historical significance, innovation and creativity, and lastly community and family. In essence, being proud to be Latine encompasses embracing the rich tapestry of Latin American culture, the contributions of the region to the world, and the sense of belonging to a diverse and vibrant community that spans across borders.

Will Moser

Foundation and Government Relations Manager

Where does your family come from? Did they immigrate to North America?
The majority of the Hispanic side of my family comes from Chihuahua in Northern Mexico though my great-grandfather may have been born in Spain before immigrating to Mexico. When the two sides of my Mom’s family made it to the US, they settled in El Paso, Texas, which is its own brand of Mexican-American.

How does your culture influence you in your work?
Following on from the previous question, it’s actually the impact of other cultures on my own that most influences my work at PNB. Growing up as a chubby brown girl, my Mom was always told she could never be a ballerina because she was too short, too dark, too fat. She had never even been to the ballet until I was an adult and took her to see The Nutcracker for the first time. She cried as she talked about how beautiful it was and told me how she’d never gotten to experience it before and by that point in her life had just assumed she never would. I cried when I got my job at PNB because I told her I would use every last ounce of any power or privilege I might have to make sure that no other little brown kid would ever again be made to feel that this artform I love isn’t for them.

What are your favorite parts about your culture?
The easy answer is “the food” but the more thought out answer is the history and culture related to food with the bonus that you get to eat it! Aside from it just being delicious, Mexican cuisine’s abundance of “peasant foods” reflects the ingenuity and resilience of the people of Mexico across its history. It also exemplifies the slow-food movement long before that was a trendy topic. Loaded with dishes that take a long time to prepare and have steps that can involve the whole family from toddler to abuelita, food, and the act of making it, is what ties me the most to my Mexican culture. 

What makes you proud to be Latine?
The realities behind some of the stereotypes about Mexican people actually makes me really proud of my Hispanic heritage. Obviously, some stereotypes can be used negatively and not all of them fit every person, but as a person with dozens of cousins and aunts and uncles, I can’t imagine life without a huge family. I may not always like all of them, but I’m proud of them nonetheless! 

Dammiel Cruz-Garrido

PNB Company dancer

Sarah Kolat (neé Marroquín)

Executive Assistant to Peter Boal

What does being Latine mean to you?
Like many mixed-race people, my identity is complex and ever-evolving. For me, Latine is an amalgam of physical being, perseverance, and a life grounded in my family. 

Where does your family come from? Did they immigrate to North America?
My father came to the United States at the brink of the Civil War in Guatemala to attend the Pan American school in Kingsville, Texas. He was 16, the oldest of six children, and the only one of his siblings to have the opportunity to leave Guatemala to pursue an education. We are Ladino, or mixed Indigenous/Spanish, with ethnic ties to the K’iche’ Maya peoples of Chichicastenango and Spain. My father moved to Seattle after high school and attended SPU and UW and has lived here ever since.

Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan

PNB Company dancer

What does being Latine mean to you?
To me, being Latine means sharing in a beautifully rich culture. I love our history, values, tales, and learning more about the complexities of our ancestry. Specifically, being Mexican-American feels like an identity of its own and I love the shared experience I have with so many other individuals whose families raised them in the US with a very strong Latin American upbringing. 

Where does your family come from? Did they immigrate to North America?
My mom is from Puebla, Mexico. Her parents migrated to the US first while she stayed in Mexico with her three sisters and my great-grandmother for two years. The rest of the family eventually joined my grandparents in the US when my mom was just 13 years old. My dad lived his first few years in Merida, Mexico before moving to Succotz, Belize. He came to the US to go to college where my parents met and fell in love! 

How does your culture influence you in your work?
Our culture is extremely dedicated and hardworking, bringing warmth and joy into everything we do. When I was younger I remember feeling like my upbringing was very strict – I had to maintain straight A’s in school in order to continue my ballet training. Now, I’m so grateful my parents instilled that level of focus that I carry with me in everything I do.

What are your favorite parts about your culture?
Besides our food (the BEST), I love the importance we put on family! I was so lucky to live in a multigenerational household where my great-grandmother helped my parents raise me. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are with her. 

What makes you proud to be Latine?
One of the most beautiful parts about being Latine is how diverse each culture that falls under the umbrella is. There is so much diversity within Latinidad alone. I feel so proud to be the result of a people who have overcome many obstacles and still continue to make incredible impacts in the world.

All photos courtesy of interviewees unless otherwise noted.