Cultural events are essential for fostering strong and supportive communities, say two organizers of Noche Cultural, an annual Latino cultural event in Springfield.
The purpose of Noche Cultural is to be a space where the Latino community, especially youth, can see themselves represented and connect with their cultural heritage, says Antonio Huerta, the director of the nonprofit organization Comunidad y Herencia Cultural.
Noche Cultural is Saturday, July 20, at Island Park in Springfield.
In Eugene it’s rare to have an event that brings together more than 300 people from the Latino community, says Jessica Zapata, the founder of Eugene Arte Latino.
But last year Noche Cultural had around 3,000 people coming and going throughout the day, and about 90 percent of them were Latino, Zapata says.
Noche Cultural events kick off at 4 pm with the Mexican duet Dueto Piel Canela and end at 10 pm after a local band, Banda Perlita Del Sur, plays for an open dance floor.
In between, there will be performances by dancers from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, as well as Argentine and Bolivian music and dance, and a group from Mexico that sings Purépecha music, Indigenous music from the state of Michoacan.
There will also be a folkloric dance presentation by Azúcar Community Group, a Latin dance club in Eugene.
Noche Cultural is a family-friendly event with activities for kids including bouncy houses, face painting, art workshops and a soccer field, Huerta says.
To address the lack of opportunities for the Latino community to gather in a celebratory way, Comunidad y Herencia Cultural created Noche Cultural in 2016, Huerta says.
Comunidad y Herencia Cultural supports opportunities for the Latino community to come together and honor their heritage and lived experiences.
“It makes our communities better in many different ways,” Huerta says, “from language itself to culture and spaces and opportunities, where different members of the community can feel welcome and represented.”
The event also creates business opportunities for the vendors, he says. The companies providing the tents, tables and chairs, as well as food vendors, Delicias Tiki Tiki and Las Faroles Taqueria, are all Latino owned.
Eugene Arte Latino is another organization that promotes Latino culture in the community. Zapata, its founder, collaborates with Comunidad y Herencia Cultural to put together many Latino cultural events, but Noche Cultural is the largest, Zapata says.
Eugene Arte Latino brings artists from Latin America to Oregon to promote Latino culture, provides spaces for teenagers and children to continue practicing the Spanish language and encourages parents to continue teaching it to their kids, Zapata says.
Eugene Arte Latino travels around the state organizing Latino art workshops, participating in parades and creating costume exhibits of charro outfits and equipment used in Charrería, a traditional Mexican equestrian sport.
Having specific spaces where people can learn about Latino culture in the Eugene and Springfield community, where a lot of people aren’t exposed to the culture, is beautiful to see, Zapata says.
“We hear the comments from the Anglos that go there, and they are super happy to be there and learning about, for example, Oaxaca music or Oaxaca dances,” she says.
Zapata grew up in Mexico, so it’s crucial to her that her children continue their culture here in the U.S., she says.
“For me, it’s important just to share my culture, because it’s a beautiful culture that we have in Latin America,” Zapata says.
Zapata teaches Spanish at Willamette High School. She says she loves encouraging her students to preserve their parents’ language and culture, which helps them respect where their parents are from, she says.
“That is a way for them to know their parents much better,” Zapata says.
Many people who move to Oregon from Latin America have to work multiple jobs and aren’t able to enjoy what is happening in the community, Zapata says.
“Presenting these activities is like opening spaces for them to have family time,” Zapata says, “where they can get together and they can listen to the music they are not able to because some people are not able to go back to their countries.”