Lively Latino Festival is a hit at the Priory Lively Latino Festival is a hit at the Priory (January 07, 2004)

Spanish and French students at Woodside Priory School delighted the campus community with a Latino-Indigenous Festival when they demonstrated lively dances from Central and South America in Portola Valley.

One pair of performers had the audience roaring with laughter as they gave lessons on flirting Latino style.

With help from parents, the students also treated classmates to a buffet of at least a dozen foods -- from pollo with mole sauce to yucca root and plantain.

After opening the festival with the Lord's Prayer in Spanish and a parade of flags, students in native costumes performed dances from such countries as Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

The dances represented the blending of traditional Aztec, Inca and Mayan cultures with the more recent Spanish culture, said freshmen Nolan Green and Eleanor Gold. They narrated the program in English and Spanish.

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