History
In 1995, Mr. Miguel Vargas, Founder and Director of BAJUCOL and a graduate student at the Northeastern University in Boston, through meetings with other Colombian Professionals, and the Colombian Chamber of Commerce of East Boston, and members of the community, realized the harm that had been inflicted by the media in its portrayal of Colombians as drug dealers. Motivated by the need for promoting the true culture and image of Colombia, Mr. Vargas founded the Ballet Folkloric Juvenil Colombiano.
In 1996, BAJUCOL was incorporated as a non-profit organization and in 1999 received its 501(c) (3) status from the Internal Revenue Service.
During 1999–2001 the group inspired Colombian professionals from Boston University, MIT and Harvard University to get involved with planning the annual show, allowing Bajucol to become a fertile space for a mentoring program. Professionals had the opportunity to interact and learn from the youngsters, gaining some understanding of the challenges that immigrant youth go through in the U.S.
While the youngsters were being taught, their families were exposed to other resources as well. Given their expressed need to learn about legal issues related to immigration, the mentoring portion of the intervention brought a panel of lawyers and educators to inform their youngsters and their families about the topic. While this meeting served families by providing education about the topic, it also exposed other Colombian professionals to the difficulties some of the families have to endure in this country. Initiatives like Bajucol and the effort of Miguel Vargas are great examples of how to bring together youth, adults and the larger Colombian community to feel connected to the Colombian reality in different ways.
Bajucol also provides a supportive place to establish positive relationships with peers and adults, such as, Miguel who the kids refer to as a father figure. For the newly arrived, Bajucol becomes a supportive environment while they adapt to the U.S. In the context of the U.S. where there are mixed messages about immigrants, either making them exotic, a threat or the object of racial discrimination, alternative cultural and artistic representations make such negative messages palatable for both youngsters and others
Bajucol also has brought professional well-known artists and teachers from Colombia and other Latin American countries and well know ballet groups around New England.
Bajucol also works on a yearly basis on its annual show which is presented with a renewed repertoire annually at the John Hancock Auditorium of Boston. Through dances, music and audiovisual materials, the spectator is visually transported to the five different regions of the Colombian folklore: the Andes, the Atlantic Coast, the Eastern Plains, the Pacific Coast, and the Amazons.
Active year-round, BAJUCOL, provides 10 hours per week of intensive training in folkloric ballet as well contemporary and modern dances to approximately 30 youth and children from families of the various Latin American communities of Boston. The majority of the Ballet members are college and high school students.
Although the majority of the dances belong to the Colombian repertoire, BAJUCOL also performs dances from other Latin American countries. In keeping with its mission to create an open forum for cultural exchange, BAJUCOL, in addition to Colombians, has members from different nationalities including the USA, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Japan.