Coatesville Area Intermediate High School was alive with the sound of music, the swirl of colorful costumes, and the spirit of cultural pride as students led a vibrant celebration during Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n
With nearly 25% of the students identifying as Hispanic, the school’s annual event is a proud tradition that continues to grow.<\/p>\n
“I’m Mexican American and I’m very proud of it,” Dajana Horace, a 10th grader at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School, said. “Every day is a celebration for me.”<\/p>\n
Dajana and her best friend Vivian Vilchis took the lead in organizing a school-wide assembly on Thursday that showcased Hispanic culture through traditional dances, music and powerful tributes.<\/p>\n
The pair spent four months planning and rehearsing to make the event unforgettable. It included a monologue with Dajana dressed as singer Selena Quintanilla and Vivian dressed as labor leader Dolores Huerta.<\/p>\n
“It actually started in eighth grade,” Dajana said. “I had the thought over the summer that we should do something for Hispanic Heritage Month, because the last program they did, they didn’t really show what Hispanic Heritage Month is about.”<\/p>\n
Coatesville Area Intermediate High School principal Cliff Maloney said he supported the students’ vision.<\/p>\n
“Before three years ago, we did a couple different things where it was over the announcements and we maybe brought in a small assembly,” Malone said. “This is much more meaningful because it’s our students who really drive this.”<\/p>\n
For 10th grader Michael Bennett, who danced on stage, the event was also personal.<\/p>\n
“I’m 25% Puerto Rican, 25% Dominican and 50% African American,” Michael said. “People don’t think I’m Hispanic because of the tone of my skin, so it really gave me a sense of happiness and accomplishment to show everybody that I really am Hispanic.”<\/p>\n
What began as an idea between two friends turned into a unifying moment for the entire school. At the end of the assembly, the audience joined the students on stage in a spontaneous, joyful dance.<\/p>\n
“I really appreciated all the people that did this,” Dajana said. “They put in their time, their hard work, their effort, and I think that was the best part, honestly.”<\/p>\n
The celebration wrapped up with a community event open to the public that included food and music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coatesville Area Intermediate High School was alive with the sound of music, the swirl of colorful costumes, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1557,2129,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-5061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-chester-county","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}