Unity, even as the community grows bigger and more diverse, was one central theme at this year’s Latin American Festival, bringing more than 14,000 attendees to Ballantyne’s Backyard this past weekend.
“This is the way to be in community amongst Latinos together,” Luis Cruz said. “We are in community with diverse countries that are our brothers and sisters.”
Even though they’re often seen as a monolith, there’s a huge amount of diversity in Charlotte’s Latino community. Cruz came with his wife, Gloria, to enjoy food, music, dance and art from about 20 countries in Latin America — especially from their homeland of the Dominican Republic. They moved from there about five years ago.
This year’s Latin American Festival included cultural villas, where volunteers from countries from across Latin America featured their culture.
Emily Nunez is a Charlotte-born Dominican American. She was showcasing her work at the Dominican Republic cultural villa.
“You can come out here and see that there are so many different cultures between each country," Nunez said. "They have different traditions, they have different customs, like different clothing and accents and everything.”
Another country represented at the cultural villa was Brazil. Karen Prado helped represent that country and talked about how Brazil is the only country in Latin America that speaks Portuguese.
“Everyone thinks because we are Latinos we speak Spanish," Prado said. "But our community in Brazil, they are so lost because they started to speak Spanish with us — and we don’t understand anything.”
Charlotte’s Latino community has grown rapidly in the past few decades. The Latino population in the region has seen a 50% increase since 2010, with more than 270,000 Latinos living in the Charlotte metro region as of the 2020 Census.
Apart from the cultural villas, Saturday’s festival featured music and dance from many countries.
Mario Sabareta, a native of Puebla, Mexico, was part of an Aztec dance group that performed on Saturday. Hundreds of years ago, the dances were performed as rituals to honor and worship gods.
“We want everyone to know our culture, to keep this alive,” Sabareta said. “We don’t want this go in the past and nobody knows about it.”
Performances from other groups included El Alma de la Luna Dance Academy, Rodrigo and Wendy Latin Dance and Rumbao Latin Dance Company.
The festival wasn’t just about celebrations. Numerous organizations also provided resources to the Latino community, such as voter registration and information on child care.
As the presidential campaign enters the homestretch, Republicans and Democrats are both courting Latinos, whose votes could make the difference in a closely divided state like North Carolina. Maritza Ortiz, of Latino Tu Voto Cuenta, was at the event encouraging Latinos to vote in November.
“Everyone should be voting, but definitely Latinos should be voting,” Ortiz said. “Our vote matters. Democracy is on the ballot. Especially local elections count more than presidential because local issues are handled here.”
The Latin American Festival also brought together dozens of volunteers, like Diego Torres, who has been involved in the festival for more than 10 years.
“It is like a bridge between people who have been born here and people who are arriving from different countries,” Torres said. “Bring music and food and everyone comes together. That’s the universal language.”
