There will be no hot dogs sold at this year’s Fiesta Latina. No cheese dogs, either. That’s just the way Rebeca Urhausen likes it.
Instead, the three-day festival, running Friday through Sunday, will feature authentic cuisine, art and music from Latin American countries.
“We feature real traditional food,” said Urhausen, Fiesta Latina committee chair. “We want to show the community the best we have to offer.” Urhausen expects that this weekend, rain or shine, more than 20,000 people will descend onto Washington/Jefferson Park, located at Fifth Avenue and Washington Street. The cost is a $3 donation.
This year’s festival offers 16 traditional food booths, featuring authentic cuisine from Peru, El Salvador and Mexico, bands running all three days at the sound stage and an artistic exhibit featuring 10 international and local artists.
The festival is Eugene’s version of Cinco de Mayo, which is celebrated in many cities across the United States with large Chicano populations. Cinco de Mayo honors the Mexican army’s defeat of French forces at the “Batalla de Puebla” on May 5, 1862. While the holiday is generally a Mexican and Chicano festival, Fiesta Latina celebrates the traditions of Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas.
“We don’t want it to be an all-Mexican event, we want it to be a Latin American event,” Urhausen said.
To do this, the Fiesta Latina organizers have set two rules for any food vendor, music group or artist who wants to show their wares at the festival: They must be of Latin descent or they must cover Latin themes.
Fiesta Latina “will give students a chance to get in touch with a community that you may not always have the chance to be in touch with,” University graduate student Maria Ladona Schaad said.
Urhausen said she always tries to bring in new talent into the music lineup each year.
This year, three new bands will be playing. Son Melao will open the
festival at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Saturday is the debut of Ramsey y Los Montonos, a new 8-piece salsa orchestra hailing from Portland. Los Mex Pistols Del Norte will also present a new, stripped-down line-up Saturday.
Sunday, the festival will preview Amy Joyce Mills, a mezzo-soprano, who will interpret Mexican songs.
“She sings beautiful,” Urhausen said. “She is my discovery of this year.”
The festival also offers local and international artists showing paintings, photos and sculptures.
“These artists are from all walks of life,” festival committee member William Kent said. “We have people who have been in the event before, a few students and a girl from Springfield High School.”
Kent, a University student, acknowledges that most students will attend the festival because of the music, food and salsa dancing. While his choice of artists may be lesser known to the community at large, he attempted to make people aware of the many aspects of Latin culture.
“One weekend of Latin culture may not be enough, but it’s a good way to introduce yourself to the cuisine, art and music.”