On Thursday, Sept. 18, La Hermanadad de Sigma Iota Alpha, an ALFSA sorority hosted an event for Hispanic Heritage Month called “Jueves Gigante” at the Sodano Coffeehouse.
Jueves Gigante was set up to follow “Sábado Gigante” or “Giant Saturday” when translated in English, which is the longest running television variety series in history broadcasted on Univision.
“Sábado Gigante” is a Spanish-language show with a mix of various contests, human-interest stories and live entertainment.
Jueves Gigante was a two-hour night filled with fun challenges such as hanky panky, chop stack and several others.
Two people played against each other in each round and had to complete challenges within a minute. Winners received a cool prize.
In hanky panky, each person received one tissue box and contestants had one minute to take out all the tissue using only one hand.
In chop stack, each person got four chap sticks and a pair of chopsticks. Contestants had to use their chopsticks to stack the four chap sticks on top of one another.
Pilar Grullon, a sister of Sigma Iota Alpha, shared her experience in planning this successful event for Hispanic Heritage Month.
“In this event we are basically playing some of the games they would play for Sabado Gigante. This year was not so hard to plan since we had this event last year and it was successful. This year it took us about a week to plan which games to play and what materials we needed to buy. We have a lot more events coming up so keep an eye out for our flyers,” Grullon shared.
Richard Oh, a senior biology student at St. John’s shared his experience in participating in the chop stack challenge and what brought him out to this cultural event.
“As a Korean-American, I enjoy being immersed [in] and celebrating difficult cultures. I was aware that it is Hispanic Heritage Month and I had a couple of friends who I studied abroad with last fall who told me about the event.
“I decided to come and we had a mini Discover The World reunion with some people from my rotation. I like the fact that the group of us who showed up to Jueves Gigante, we are all very diverse,” Oh said.
“We are Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, White, African, etc. I think that although we are different, we share the same values and appreciate different cultures. Tonight I participated in chop stack where I used my impressive skills to win. I won a $5 metro card and I am so excited because I can use it to go into the city and come back from the city,” Oh said.
There will be more events until mid October to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
“We have a lot of events coming up. We basically put up all the information for events on a flyer, so be on the look out,” Grullon said.
