A standing room-only crowd enjoyed the best food, music and dance that Latin America has to offer during Friday’s fourth annual USA Hispanic Night at Wildwood Elementary School.

While Mirelys Torres and Lizbeth Arce dished out flan, rice, nachos, salsa dishes, cielito lindo and other Hispanic food, English Latin Language parent liaison Lourdes Cordero and English Second Language coordinator Isabel George were ensuring that each of the performers — representing schools and grades throughout the Middletown City School system — were set to go backstage.

Cordero began Hispanic Night as a way to recognize all Hispanic culture.

“I saw the need for the community to get to know the Hispanics (or Latinos) that are part of this community. Whenever we held a school activity in relation to the Hispanic culture, everything was referring to the Mexican Culture. I am from Puerto Rico and I love my brothers and sisters from Mexico as well as the other Hispanic countries, so the assumption that we are all alike was frustrating to me,” she said. “Furthermore, I heard many derogatory comments from people who think that all Hispanics are illegal. So I thought it was time that people understood the achievements of Hispanics in Middletown.”

The theme of Friday’s event was “Latinos Unidos working together from the school, to the community and for the community of Middletown.”

George, who is originally from Uruguay, said the night is a way to recognize and celebrate people from all cultures. Wildwood hosts the program each year because it is the site of the district’s English Second Language program. George says the school’s diversity can be seen in the hallways.

She said she saw a pair of first-grade girls bounding down the hallway together just the other day, and neither one spoke the other’s language.

“They gave me their message, and then went happily back to class, each speaking their own language and yet somehow they were understanding each other perfectly,” she said.

The night marked the grand finale to National Hispanic Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

Cordero said the district’s diversity helps to enable the students to have a better idea of the world around them.

“I think this is what makes our building unique and special. Because our children, parents and staff have the opportunity to work with diverse cultures, it has expanded the doors of knowledge. Our children grow up with contact to other languages and cultures. They are not afraid of people that speak differently and are in fact very receptive to learning other languages and about different cultures. They grow up knowing that a person who speaks more than one language will have more opportunities in life,” she said.