Karen Prado presents Brazilian culture at the Latin American Festival on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.
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.
Aztec dancers perform at the Latin American Festival on Saturday, Sept 21, 2024.
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.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 11:07:00
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