Last week, the sound of trumpets and maracas filled the air of the usually quiet Shapiro Family Courtyard at the Museum of Fine Arts. Those in attendance remained fixated on the captivating dancers dressed in traditional vibrant colors moving rhythmically across the floor in celebration of the MFA’s Latinx Heritage Night.
The celebration included live dance performances, music, drop-in art making, tours, spotlight talks, and dining specials, all rooted in uplifting the Latinx community and honoring its culture and heritage. This event was the first of the museum’s $5 Third Thursday series, where museum goers can attend community celebrations and live performances with $5 admission from 5 to 10 p.m. every third Thursday of every month.
Laura Zapata, an attendee of the event, said that gatherings like these are instrumental in community building.
“It makes people feel like they are at home and forget everything else that is happening in the world,” said Zapata.
Other attendees echoed similar sentiments and said that the celebration reminded them of home.
“[I] often feel removed from my culture because I’ve been living in a white-centered space, ” Kiko Laureano, an actress who recently moved to Boston from Minneapolis, said.“Getting to be around other Latine people has been a blessing.”
Yara Liceaga-Rojas, the founder of Poetry Is Busy Studio, led an event named I Live(d) Where You Vacation. The event is described as a “collective reflection on gratitude, legacy, craft, labor, art making, care practices, and value through a visual storytelling experience in relation to what we define as home.”
Liceaga-Roja felt thankful “that an institution like the [MFA] in Boston is willing to take care of the Latinx community in such a beautiful and celebratious way,” also noting that Latinos “are extremely diverse and really, really extraordinary and … being in a community, working our things through art, I think it’s really amazing.”
In another activity, spotlight talk artist Ismael Muhammad Nieves said he felt honored to be invited to be involved with the event. During his talk, he described how his painting “In Despair She Returned to Ismael” showed all his emotions in relation to Puerto Rico, especially after Hurricane Irma in 2017.
“We have more in common than we have differences, and I’ve never seen anybody who didn’t nod their head to some Cumbia,” Nieves said. “I think it’s important to find a way to immerse communities in what’s important to you.”
Walking into the museum, people were greeted with the ALX100 Pyramid in the lower rotunda. The sculpture is illuminated and covered in different vibrant colors with flowers and leaves celebrating 100 of the brightest Latino changemakers from across the commonwealth, with their names scattered across. The installation is traveling across Massachusetts in hopes of “reminding us all of the interconnected contributions that drive Latino prosperity.”
We Are Advancing Latino American Prosperity (ALX) is a collaborative non-profit with the mission of advancing Latino American prosperity and leadership representation. The piece was created in collaboration with the 2024 ALX100 Honoree Patiño Vázquez. The 2025 ALX100 Pyramid reflects the three pillars of the organization’s work: policy, business, and leadership, Eneida Román, President and CEO of We Are ALX, told The Beacon.
“This powerful piece symbolizes the unity, balance, and strength of our community,” Román said
Paola Pedraza, the business programs operation specialist at ALX, said the message her organization is trying to provide is “just like you hear it,” with her finger pointing to the music. She said she wants people to have fun and get a little piece of the Latino culture.
The highlight of the night for many was the various dances and music in the Shapiro family courtyard.
“I just saw a Colombian group dancing and singing a cumbia and it was beautiful. Definitely my favorite part of the night,” Zapata said.
Brianna Diaz, a professor at Boston College, agreed, saying that watching the dance performances made her teary eyed because “it was so nice to see the history and culture represented.”
Isabella Cruz, a marine science major at Boston University, was at the event with many other students rushing for Epsilon Eta, the professional environmental fraternity at BU. She said her favorite part of the night was seeing the dancers.
“Everyone just becomes so carefree. Dancing heals the soul,” Cruz said, adding that when she was younger, growing up in New Hampshire, she didn’t see a lot of representation for Latinx culture.
“I definitely think other museums should spread out and celebrate a lot of other cultures,” Cruz said.