The Latino Diamante Awards shine a light on members of the NC Hispanic community

On Saturday, over a hundred people gathered in the Cary Arts Center for the annual NC Latino Diamante Awards — a night of culture, dance and performances alongside emotion-filled speeches. 

Since 1996, the Diamante Arts & Cultural Center has hosted the event to honor the achievements of individuals and organizations that have impacted Latino communities in North Carolina.

The Diamante Center is North Carolina's longest standing Latino Hispanic arts and culture organization. This year, they presented awards in six categories: art and culture, business, community involvement, health and science, education and advocacy. 

At Saturday's event, the organization also presented the Jaime Leon Youth Award, a financial award for Latino high school students, and the Lizette Cruz Watko Lifetime Achievement award that recognizes an individual who's spent over 10 years contributing to the Hispanic community. 

Lizette Cruz Watko is the founder of the Diamante Arts and Cultural Center. She started the center in 1998, two years after the first Latino Diamante Awards. Watko gained recognition for starting the first Spanish-language newspaper in North Carolina, “La Voz de Carolina,” in 1993.

Erik Valera, interim executive director of the Diamante Arts and Cultural Center, said that the organization changed some aspects of their programming for this year's event.

“Typically in the past, we have said in advance who the winners are,” Valera said. “This is the first year that we've released the names of the nominees, and we’ve invited everyone who was nominated. Then we’re going to find out the winners at the award ceremony.”

Valera said the new change was made in an effort to be more inclusive. Previous nominees were never informed they were nominated for an award and their names weren't disclosed to the public.

This year, around 64 individuals were nominated. Members of the individuals' communities submitted their name to the Diamante Arts and Cultural Center. Then, a committee outside of the organization selected the winner in each category using a set of criteria.

Valera said the 2024 Latino Diamante Awards wants to acknowledge community support. 

Tammy Andino attended to represent her law firm, Mantilla Immigration Law Office. Her firm is one of many that sponsored the ceremony.

“I love galas like this, it's wonderful,” Andino said. “With the Latin community, I support it wholeheartedly. My daughter's Latino, so we represent the Latino community.”

The ceremony began at 5 p.m. in an auditorium and opened with "Shine," a spoken word piece by local poet and comedian Flores Tochihuitl, known as "Dr. T," accompanied by guitarist Brosnan Granger and vocalist Eden Granger. 

Following the opening was a performance of “Diamonds” by Rihanna in Spanish by Dellys Arzolay, the executive director of Club Hispano de Artes. During the song, children and adults from her organization surrounded the stage and held flags representing each Latin American country as well as the United States.

The show had two lively master of ceremonies with a causal presenting style. At the start of the show, master of ceremony Nélida López informed the audience that she would be presenting in both Spanish and English, and all winners gave their acceptance speeches in Spanish.

Nominee Denisse Díaz won the arts and culture award for her Peruvian dance group she started four years ago. Díaz grew up doing Peruvian dance, and said she was inspired by that passion to start the troupe.

“She has a passion for dancing,” Díaz's translator, Enrique Poña, said. “She likes to transmit to people the love for the dance.” 

Díaz's win that night was met with cheers and celebratory hugs from her friends and family. Earlier, Díaz said she was surprised to be nominated because it was her first time.

Throughout the ceremony, several winners were filled with emotion and supported with boisterous applause and cheers from the audience. Many expressed their love for families and community members in acceptance speeches.

López, who lived in Asheville before moving to Chapel Hill, also spoke to the crowd about the impact of Hurricane Helene. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales went to help those affected by the hurricane in western North Carolina.

A part of the ceremony was dedicated to a moment of silence for those affected. Audience members raised an LED diamond ring given to them before the ceremony to represent “shining bright” for people in Western North Carolina. Following, was a reprise in English of Rihanna's “Diamonds” by a group of five Spanish singers called Voces Latinas de Carolina del Norte. 

There were several other soulful song and dance performances throughout the evening. 

Dance troupes included the Eduardo de Rosamaria's Flamenco Ensemble and Flor de Hidalgo, a group dedicated to traditional Mexican culture and dance. 

A local puppeteering group, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, often joined the performers in the background of their performances, making the message of songs come alive to the audience. 

At the end of the ceremony, every guest was invited to a dance party — the perfect conclusion to a night of joy and celebration.

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said that the ceremony opened with a performance of "This Little Light of Mine" by guitarist Brosnan Granger and vocalist Eden Granger, accompanied by a spoken word performance by Flores Tochihuitl. The performance was a spoken word recitation of "Shine" by Flores Tochihuitl, accompanied by guitarist Brosnan Granger and vocalist Eden Granger. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.