Noche Heretica Overview

Noche Heretica at Western

As we near the 20th anniversary of the first celebration of La Noche Herética (in 2022), it is a wonderful time to reflect back on the legacy of this great tradition.

The Noche Herética is an annual event traditionally organized by the Spanish and Hispanic Studies programs’ undergraduate and graduate students, as well as with the collaboration of the professors at Western.

The night features art, theater, dance and song, as a way to bring together our student community with the local Hispanic and Latinx community as well as with the broader multicultural Canadian community in London, Ontario.

The idea for the event first arose in 2002. A group of energized undergrad students of this generation, envisioned something that would excite their colleagues and so they met one fateful night, in the now non-existent Bubblegum Cafe, on Oxford and Talbot, to discuss strategy and to come up with a name that would capture the essence of what they were dreaming up together.

It was then, that one of the members of the group, Tom, who had been inspired by a discussion in Professor Rafael Montano’s class on Carmen Boullosa’s Teatro Herético, suggested that the cultural event they were conjuring up, be called La Noche Herética.

And the rest, as they say, is puro cuento!

Professor Dominique Russell took leadership of the event from the outset and directed both undergraduate and graduate students through the production and performances of theater plays, often works of her own creation.

In 2006, the graduate students began to take a more active roll, and actually came to produce, direct and perform all aspects of the La Noche Herética from 2006 up until 2012

From 2012 onwards, La Noche Herética, has once again come to showcase the efforts and creative sides of both undergraduate and graduate students and continues to be a very special and distinctive component of life in our department, one that brings together all of our students, professors, and the local Canadian and Latinx community at large.

Please take a moment to go down memory lane with us, and enjoy the following collection of highlights from some of the past 17 years of Noche Heréticas. And don’t forget that you already have a date with us, to celebrate the next iteration of La Noche Herética, on March 19, 2020, at 6:30 pm. This time around we will be hosting a live Latin music band to close out the night; so bring your dancing shoes and get ready to party until 1 in the morning!

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