Periko & Jessi Leon declare Celebración full of “incredible energy”

One of the highlights of this year’s Celebración event was the appearance by Periko & Jessi Leon, the Latin Grammy-nominated musicians who performed at the Homecoming barbecue at National Hispanic Institute headquarters, met with students during the program, and infused excitement and music into a weekend already bristling with energy and ideation.

“It was great spending quality time with DishLATINO and Periko & Jessi Leon to brand our partnership at NHI’s international showcase,” said NHI Associate Vice President Zachary Gonzalez. “I am personally excited about the discussions that took place for how we can continue teaming up to build larger platforms for impacting youth. Como dicen nuestros amigos, sigue haciendola!”

Periko & Jessi are known to American audiences, in part, for their contribution to DishLATINO’s Sigue Haciéndola campaign celebrating Latino pride within the United States. Periko & Jessi’s “Somos Latino” song served as a theme for the campaign, and was a centerpiece of their Celebración performance.

It was notably also the song they chose to perform for their appearance on Fox 7’s Good Day Austin show, as part of its popular “Music in the Morning” segment.

Periko & Jessi were thrilled to be part of the event. “We loved getting to connect with the students, celebrate their successes and encourage them to keep following their dreams,” said the duo of their Celebración. “As musicians, we thrive on the energy of the audience, and the energy from the NHI students and leadership was incredible.”

Representatives form DishLATINO — a sponsor of Celebración as well as NHI summer programming — also got to see the energy of NHIers first hand.

“Meeting the students and seeing them hard at work on their Celebración projects makes me even prouder to partner with the NHI as they develop the next generation of Latino leaders,” said Karina Garcia, who represented DishLATINO at the event. “We share NHI’s goal of celebrating our Hispanic heritage and investing in the future, which are values at the heart of DishLATINO’s charge to ‘Sigue Haciéndola.’”