Every year, Americans celebrate the National Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, embracing the contributions and influences of Latin America in American history and culture.
On Saturday, Sept. 17, Siloam Springs celebrated with their own Hispanic Heritage Festival at the Chatauqua Amphitheatre in Memorial Park downtown. Live music, mariachis, hispanic food trucks and folkloric dancers filled the festival. Families and several JBU students came to this event to enjoy the hispanic heritage celebration.
Lulu Rodriguez, a Salvadoran mom who celebrated her hispanic heritage, expressed her delight with the event’s success. “My two little girls had fun getting their faces painted and enjoyed playing on the trampolines in the kid’s area,” she said. “I consider that for Siloam Springs to host this activity it is really cool because they help to celebrate our heritage and culture.”
The purpose of this event is to create an environment where hispanics feel welcomed and celebrated about their heritage and culture.
The next day, Fayeteville continued this Hispanic Heritage Festival at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks on Sept.18. Some of the students from JBU had the opportunity to present cultural performances as a part of the festival. International JBU students from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica were able to perform a folkloric dance to represent their countries in the most passionate and joyful way. Their folk costumes were prepared carefully, and the performances were previously practiced.
Each dance uniquely represented a country. Freshman Erick Maldonado shared, “After participating and being able to contemplate everybody’s performances it made me think about how our countries will always be part of our life. Even though I am away from home this event really reminded me of how Independence Day is celebrated back in my hometown,” Maldonado added.
The festival also created a space for local business owners to sell their art pieces and merchandise. Food trucks were everywhere with delicious traditional food. “I had sweet beans and pork. The food was really good, it made me feel like home again,” expressed freshman Fernando Paz from Honduras who attended the event and expressed his excitement for the performances of other JBU students. “What I liked the most was the unquestionably garden itself, the plants, and flowers all over the place”, shared freshman Michelle Larin of El Salvador. “For me, it was the traditional dances from other countries, especially the ones from Hawaii and Tahiti”, shared another JBU freshman from El Salvador, Adriana Abarca.
This festival was a new experience for all international students from JBU, especially representing their countries in front of hundreds of people.
For more information and free resources to explore more about National Hispanic Heritage Month, you can visit https://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/ .