The Spanish American Club, Inc. hosted “Mardi Gras-Earth Day” at Polish American Social Club

By Charlie Quiles

The Spanish American Club, Inc. hosted Mardi Gras/Earth Day Dinner/Dance Event on Saturday, March. 17 at the Polish American Social Club in Port St. Lucie located on Prima Vista Boulevard.  Our members, it seems, view these dances as a monthly ritual. One lady by the name of Mary put it this way, “I need this, at least once a month and sometimes more”. (That’s when the other Latin American club in Port St. Lucie holds its bi-monthly affair). Yeah, many of our members agree with her. The allure of the Latin sound is so appealing that we need our fix, so to speak. It was no different with this evening’s festivities.

We started the night feasting on a choice of roasted chicken (Have I mentioned before how huge that bird is?), salmon fish or a vegetable lasagna (a new dish suggested to satisfy our vegan members). Both the chicken and salmon were served on a bed of rice pilaf with a side of mixed vegetables. For dessert the house chef prepared a flavorful pastry dish filled with fruit in custard pudding and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Con barrigas llenas y corazones contentos (with bellies full and hearts content) as my wife would so aptly put it we were all drawn to the dance floor by those addicting Latin sounds I had mentioned before. First up, how about a tune to drive those evil spirits away. DJ Ramirez offered up singer Pitbull’s ‘Echa pa’lla’.

The dance floor quickly filled. Everyone was flailing their arms up in the air, then down and then side to side with gestures, we believe, to cast our demons aside. That definitely freed up our souls and the night progressed from there. Boleros, salsas, merengues, bachata and the unique pasodoble were the order of the night. Lest we forget, plenty of cumbias A break in the music came when public relations director, Ray Guadalupe, awarded the winners of the door prizes. With hecklers yelling out,

“Chocolatealo, muevelo, duro, duro!” (a good humored call to mix it up good like you do with a hot cup of cocoa). A volunteer turned the cage with the potential winning numbers. At times, he even lifted the cage shaking it vigorously to the delight of the crowd. He picked a ticket and handed it to Ray. This process continued until the lucky group consisting of Stella Páez, Alma Lacayo, Cecilia Pulido, Maritza Rivera and Gilberto Ferri were selected (The Club thanks all of those members who donated these gifts, by the way). The 50/50 raffle drawing had two happy winners Theresa Peña for $75 and Alma Lacayo for $40 (proceeds benefiting our Club’s scholarship fund). Notable tonight were the drawings for three ‘baskets of cheer’. They were won by Félix Sanabria, Carlos Bonet and Millie Asencio.

The ‘March Madness’ birthday members were honored by the Club with the celebratory chant, ‘Happy Birthday to You’. They were: Virginia Gonzalez, Tiffany Rivera, Jack Letra, Diane González, Dana Peterson, Norman Payne, Gina Simonelli and Lance Tholke.  At this point, we were all eager to resume the dance. However the DJ played a piece of music not normally heard in this venue. It sounded like something out of ‘Zorba the Greek’. We were all momentarily puzzled by it until we noticed a solitary dancer performing his own rendition of ‘Zorba’. A young lady joined him for a brief period but then retreated back to herseat. By this time the audience was completely enraptured. They were going up to him and tucking dollar bills in his belt, in his shirt pocket, wherever they could make them stick. It was the most amusing display you could ever envision. After it was all done, señor Ray Matias gathered up all of his earnings and donated it to the Club. It was the most remarkable event of the night.  The dance continued for the rest of the evening. Smiling faces and laughter expressed the degree of fun that we were all enjoying. President Ruben Aleman thanked all of the attendees and reminded all of us of the upcoming affairs for the month of April.

Again, as usual we would be remiss if we did not mention the monumental effort put forth by President Ruben Aleman and his dedicated Board of Directors. A special shout out goes to Ruben Alemán, Ray Guadalupe and Nancy Rozon for the beautifully prepared ‘baskets of cheer’ and finally Carlos Mejía and Uta McFadden (Who helped selling the raffle tickets). The club is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 to promote the Hispanic heritage on the Treasure Coast.