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Celebrating heritage, language, and togetherness
Fiesta de la Alegría was a half-day, family-centred event that brought families together to celebrate and engage with their Latin American cultural heritage. The event provided opportunities for participants to (re)discover oral and material cultural heritage through traditional games, toys, piñatas, storytelling, music, and dance. The festival represented living heritage in practice, as cultural traditions were actively shared and experienced within the Latin American diaspora, specifically the young families raising Latin children in New Westminster.
I knew I wanted to do this event during Summer time but not late in the season. I decided to go ahead with June 21. I reached out for volunteers and sent posters and invitations to community organizations a month prior to the event. On the day of the event, activity stations were grouped by category. Attendance reached over 30 participants. Unfortunately, the weather conditions on the day of the event were cold and rainy -the wettest day of June-, and a concurrent festival in New Westminster may also have affected attendance.
The volunteers and I considered postponing for a later date, but participants were already on their way to the event.
Fiesta de la Alegria was supported by two volunteers and by all participants who joined in and took part as they helped each other to explore their shared living heritage.
This event provided valuable insights related to event timing, volunteer capacity, and community outreach, which will inform future programming and planning. Personally, I have learnt the importance of reaching community assets and pivoting at the right time, specifically when it comes to weather and having provisions such as tents in case of sudden weather changes.
Finally, I do appreciate hearing the family’s positive feedback and their interest in hearing more from projects I run. Many of the participants have stayed in contact and, in fact, a handful of them participated in a later project I run titled Villancicos Navideños –Spanish Christmas Carols. This highlights the importance of recurrent events to create a stronger bond among community members.
