To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), Crossville Para
una Acción Solidaria (CPAS) is hosting its third annual Cumberland Hispanic Festival at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Oct. 18, from 12-9 p.m. Admission to the festival is free.
Local Latinos and school groups will share information about Spanish-speaking countries at culture booths, and festival organizers have planned several activities specifically for children. At the information table, visitors may purchase a passport for children to take to each culture booth.
Musical performers Luna Morena, Trote Norteno, Revolfusion, and Mariachi Viva México will travel from Nashville. Dancers from Pasión Flamenca in Knoxville will demonstrate a traditional dance from Spain called flamenco. Swingbooty, also from Knoxville, will present its genre of gypsy swing.
“We also have many local Hispanics setting up vendor booths with authentic cuisine from their home countries and traditional and non-traditional arts and crafts,” said Alysa Medina, lead organizer and a founder of the Cumberland Hispanic Festival.
Costumed Chinelos dancers from Manchester, Tenn. will perform their traditional dance from the state of Morelos, Mexico. Local children and adults will perform folklórico dances from Mexico. Volunteers Lecherisha Uribe and Mariana Zubieta Pérez started teaching local children how to do the traditional dances before the 2012 festival. Uribe said, “There is a lot of hours that go into it – from the lady making the dresses to picking up the kids for practice. It’s very time consuming. But we have an awesome group of different ages, and they’ve come a long way.”
Medina, who is the East Tennessee organizer of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said, “Three years ago, the members of CPAS decided to host a small festival celebrating diversity and Hispanic tradition during the month of Hispanic Heritage.”
Medina said, “[CPAS] has been working to inform others of their rights under Tennessee law, advocate for better policies that affect immigrant communities (locally, statewide and nationwide) and create a more welcoming community where immigrants are recognized as positive contributors to their communities.
“It is from this last goal,” Medina said, “of . . . creating a more welcoming community that the Hispanic Festival was born.”
“As for the different groups of Hispanics that have made Cumberland County their home,” Medina said, “there are immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Spain, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Ecuador. I’m sure that I am missing some countries, but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head.”
Researchers with the University of Tennessee Center for Business and Economic Research reported that Tennessee is third in growth rate of Hispanic residents nationwide. People of Hispanic descent live in every Tennessee county; however, the highest concentrations of Latinos are in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and their surrounding towns.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics living in Cumberland County number 2.7 percent (about 1,500). Of the 6.5 million people who live in Tennessee, 4.9 percent (325,000) are Hispanic. Hispanic Americans make up the largest minority group in the U.S. The bureau now recognizes people of Hispanic origin as an ethnic group rather than as a race since “people who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.”
Since Cumberland County is located along the dividing line between East and Middle Tennessee, this festival draws visitors and performers from both regions.
“The [2011] festival was simple,” Medina said, “and was a grassroots effort, as many members of the Hispanic community chipped in to make the day successful.
“[In 2012,] CPAS was approached by the production director of the playhouse, Jim Crabtree, about the possibility of the Playhouse hosting the Cumberland Hispanic Festival for 2013. We were glad to enter into this partnership, as the playhouse has been a leader in our community for years in promoting diversity in Cumberland County.”
While President Lyndon Johnson established a Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, President Ronald Reagan established Public Law 100-402 in 1988, to change this observation to a full month. This month-long celebration of Hispanic Americans’ contributions to the U.S. begins on Sept. 15, which is Independence Day for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The month also incorporates the Independence Days for Mexico (Sept. 16) and Chile (Sept. 18) and Columbus Day (Oct. 12), or Día de la Raza as it is called in Spanish-speaking countries.