From September 15th to October 15th, the United States celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month. It was originally signed into law as just a week in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson. President Ronald Reagan approved legislation expanding it into a full month in 1988. It celebrates the heritage of Hispanic and Latino Americans and their contributions to the country. Berkshire County is celebrating, too. Starting noon Saturday, Festival Latino of the Berkshires will take place at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Festival President Angela Palmer tells WAMC that the day will be filled with music, song, food, and dance.
PALMER: Saturday, from 12 to 6pm, we're going to have a beautiful exhibit of folkloric Latino dances from Mexico, Cuba. We're going to have food represented from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic. You're going to hear music from a Colombian singer and Afro Colombian band coming all the way from Colombia as well.
WAMC Now, when you think back to past Festival Latino of the Berkshires, what's a good example of the kind of atmosphere or event people are going to find on Saturday?
Think fiesta, think Carnival. It's a party, people! We are here to, everyone is there sharing what they know best, right? You have home cooked Latin meals. You have people sharing songs that are dear to their country, dear to their hearts, and just looking for that feedback and also looking to share that with other people who may not experience that from day to day. The dance is the same thing. It's just this, it's a history that is being shared with the next generation of people, who might not have been to Mexico, who are not, might have ever understood the difference between a Cuban drum beat and a Colombian drum beat, right? And, it's just kind of showing the uniqueness of every different Latin American country, for the people here in the United States.
What do you think is maybe misunderstood about the Latino experience in America in 2024? Are there any themes about that community's experience, here in the Berkshires, maybe, that some folks might not understand or even take for granted?
I think sometimes, especially right now, with the state of politics, it can get a little skewed that the Latin immigrant is taking away jobs and so forth. And I disagree with that. As someone who is born as an American citizen, but with parents who immigrated from Colombia, just trying to contribute to the community like anybody else. And the festival being an example of just showing that look, we have a past. You guys have Irish step dancing and St Patrick's Day. Well, we have Cinco de Mayo and Hispanic Heritage bonds.
Is there anything about this I’ve not thought to ask you that you want to make sure folks understand about the festival?
So, like I said, it is a jam-packed event for Saturday. So, starting at 12, we'll have opening remarks. Around one o'clock, the Berkshire Children's Chorus will be performing bilingual songs. So, I'm really excited just to see that. Again, that's just, I feel like that's going on that impression of the Berkshires, of how the community is changing, how the face is changing. There's so many students that are Hispanic or of Latin descent that they want to include those songs in their lineup. Other things that we're going to have highlighted is that we're bringing two great performance dance ballets from New York City. We have one from the Bronx, Estampas Folkloricas Mexicanas, and the other one is called Oyu Oro, which is an Afro Cuban dance performance and including drums in a drum line as well. So that's going to be a really beautiful, beautiful exhibit of folkloric dances in St James Place. And the last thing that I just really wanted to highlight is that the party doesn't end at six. The Mahaiwe Theater is continuing the collaboration by having a free performance by Grammy Award winning band The Villalobos Brothers starting at 7 p.m. So all people have to do is register ahead of time, whether online or at the festival, at their booth, and they can go to, again, another free concert to complete the celebrations of the day.
