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BY PRISCILLA GREEAR
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--Some 300 Anglo and Hispanic volunteers joined together to revive
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church’s “Festival Hispano IHM,” which
celebrated the rich mix of Hispanic cultures in the archdiocese and helped
establish a parish Emergency Assistance Fund.
Despite light and intermittent rain, a predominantly Hispanic crowd of
approximately 3,000 people from across the archdiocese turned out for the Oct.
9 all-day celebration held on the parish grounds.
IHM Parish sponsored the Hispanic festival, which originated at the parish
and then was organized through 1994 by the archdiocesan Hispanic Apostolate.
Nestor Rodriguez of Puerto Rico, the festival’s director and a
parishioner of St. Lawrence Church, Lawrenceville, said the event’s
mission was to “share our culture” with the Anglo community.
“For them to know our foods, the way we have fun, the different
artisans, to really get to know us, that’s why we’ve done this
festival totally bilingual,” he said.
Representing over 20 Caribbean, Central and South American countries, the
festival wove a colorful tapestry of foods, dance, music and crafts set against
the bleak autumn sky. Unique foods were sold from countries including Cuba, the
Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Chile. Vendors sold items
including Mexican candies, jewelry and silver, Latin American minerals,
“pico rica,” homemade pickled peppers, and arts and crafts from
Colombia, while Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart sold crafts from El
Salvador.
Over 60 dance and music groups performed, including the Mexican Folkloric
Ballet, the Azteca Folkloric Ballet, the Artistic Chilean Ballet, the Colombian
Folkloric Group, Llajtasuyo, who played Andean music with an Indian flute and
guitar, and Tango Rioplatense who gave a tango demonstration. Carrying on the
festival’s rhythm, Father Jose Duvan Gonzalez of Colombia, parochial vicar
at IHM, sang a few Latin numbers.
Leonor Rosario-Johnson of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican
Association of Atlanta, a group that shares the country’s culture,
directed a group performing the merengue.
“It’s important for us to participate with other Latin countries
and give them our culture because we came from Spain,” she said.
Rosario-Johnson, a parishioner at Holy Cross Church, Atlanta, added that the
festival also presents a positive image of Hispanics to many Anglos who
don’t welcome Latino immigrants and think that they only bring problems.
IHM School also joined in the celebration. Each grade, from kindergarten
through eighth, was assigned one Hispanic country to study and art teacher
Helen Miller had students make items typical of their country. The items were
displayed in the cafeteria during the festival along with maps, flags and
information on each country. Third-graders made glazed tiles typical of Spain,
fifth-graders made yarn bowls from Honduras and “migajones,” bread
sculptures Ecuadorian youth make on birthdays. Eighth-graders made Puerto Rican
native masks and Mexican bark paintings and the kindergarten studied Guatemala
and made maracas.
Parents provided ceramics, clothes and other items from Latin America and
made pictures of various Latino Marian apparitions.
“We wanted to have every single child involved,” said Marta Lane,
the school’s exhibition coordinator and Spanish teacher.
Lane said students also studied their country in music and Spanish classes
and that the school had a Hispanic week with an assembly where youth performed
Mexican and Puerto Rican dances and wore the colors of their assigned
country’s flag. Middle school students learned Latin American dances, held
their own Pan American Games and put together an Hispanic luncheon. Students
discussed, in Spanish, issues related to their countries such as Puerto Rican
statehood, Mexican immigration and stereotypes and Chilean and Cuban poetry.
“The enthusiasm was great because it was such an integrated
undertaking,” she continued. “The children are very excited about
Spanish. I think this is just a little more frosting. This is just kind of a
coming together of what we do.”
With the support from the school and other parishes, Rodriguez said the
festival was very much a community effort. About 25 IHM parishioners began
planning the festival in January with Fernando Muñoz, Orlando Caicedo,
Elizabeth Ossa and Sonia Aguero among the many project leaders.
“One of the main objectives of the festival is to get the Anglo
community working together with the Spanish-speaking community in the project
and we have. It’s been great because there’s been a total involvement
not only (with) the church community but also the school community,” he
said, estimating that 30 to 40 percent of the volunteers were English-speaking.
“The objective was to unite them. You don’t have to be
Spanish to work with us. It’s a coming together (of) brother to brother
and I think we’ve made a lot of good friends.”
Jennifer Penso, an IHM parishioner married to a Venezuelan, agreed on the
need for interaction.
“It’s good not only for Hispanics but for the gringos
too. We need to get more Americans here too because there are so many Hispanics
here in the United States and it’s important for us to get to know each
other … The ones that are here are the most open-minded ones, the ones
that like to learn new things and learn about other cultures.”
Father Gonzalez said he was grateful for a strong festival turnout.
“Even though the weather was hard for us, many people came to
share with us this day and many (in the) Anglo community came to share with us
too.”
For him the Anglo participation was “a good sign for us that the
Hispanic community is an important community” within the church. Even
though IHM has two Spanish Masses weekly and offers bilingual services at
Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, Father Gonzalez believes the parish needs
more interaction between the parish’s English- and Spanish-speaking
communities. Yet only an estimated 30 percent of about 300 registered Hispanics
speak English.
Since the festival was revived to create a source for the Emergency
Assistance Fund, 50 percent of the money raised will support the fund while the
remaining amount will benefit pastoral work, education and formation of Latin
communities at IHM, according to Father Gonzalez. While the parish provides for
parishioners in need through its social services programs, the Our Lady of the
Americas Mission in Doraville, serving the Hispanic population, and the St.
Vincent de Paul Society need the financial support to better serve the Hispanic
population and others. Clients arrive daily needing immediate help with things
like a bus or train ticket, the payment of a utility bill or the purchase of
medicine and food.
“We have SVDP here, but they can only help to support (things like) the
rent or gas. We need to cover other emergencies-- for example, a ticket or
money for MARTA and the bus,” he said.
Raul Trujillo, a parishioner at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta,
who organized past festivals, noted how the diversity of cultures represented
at the festival reflects the growth of Hispanics in the archdiocese.
“The Hispanic community in Atlanta was a small group of
Cubans. Then Colombians and Nicaraguans (came) and as you see, all countries
are represented,” he said. “It’s grown every year (in) the
number of countries represented.”
For Trujillo, the diversity among the Latin American festival-goers
testifies to the event’s spirit.
“It’s a way to get the community together. It’s a
festival that’s really a family-oriented festival.”
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