The 23rd annual La Fiesta del Pueblo transformed Fayetteville Street on Sunday with vibrant colors, upbeat music and mouth-watering aromas from various food trucks and tents. This annual celebration, which is the longest-running Latin American-oriented festival in the state, provides opportunities for people all over the Triangle to come together, enjoy good food and music, and learn about and celebrate Latin American culture. 

The event began in 1994 when El Pueblo, a local nonprofit, decided to host a public gathering in Chapel Hill for the growing Hispanic community in the Triangle. While the expected turnout for the celebration then hovered at around only 300, over 3,000 people came out for the event, and it has continued to grow in attendance since then. 

William Porter Saenz, the communication coordinator for El Pueblo, explained how the celebration has changed overtime. 

“We have since moved to downtown Raleigh,” Saenz said. “While the festival’s original idea as a fun gathering is still the same, we have further developed this by inviting nonprofits, country exhibits, artists and performers to the event.” 

Now, the event attracts about 20,000 people each year.

The growing event now includes a stage with bands and performers, a youth fair, a children’s area called Niñolandia, a health fair, country exhibits, local artists, arts and crafts vendors, nonprofits and food trucks. 

The stage, located in the center of City Plaza, has hosted the Mexican folk group Flor y Canto for years. The headliner this year was Banda Blanca, who had a number one hit in the early ‘90s that has since been covered by Pitbull.

“We’re very excited to have them come perform for us all the way from Honduras,” Saenz said.

The youth fair, created by El Pueblo’s Youth Council, educates people about the programs that El Pueblo offers to youth. These include information about “Derechas Sin Fronteras” which focuses on sexual health and reproductive rights, and “Pueblo Power,” El Pueblo’s social justice group.

Cynthia Rios, a teenage volunteer in the youth fair, believes that the fair provides a broad range of opportunities for teens. 

“The purpose is to get people involved in the Hispanic community,” Rios said.

While the youth fair is run entirely by teenage volunteers, the health fair is run by adult health leaders.

“[The volunteers] are trained at El Pueblo to share health and resource information within their communities,” Saenz said. 

The fair also had Wake County Human Services providing free HIV testing and UNC Health Services offering blood pressure checks and dental screenings. 

These nonprofits ranged from local Spanish newspapers and radio stations to political grassroots organizations and large nonprofits such as the YMCA. 

The festival also featured country exhibits from Latin American countries such as El Salvador and Venezuela. These exhibits focused on providing specific facts about each country such as the capital city, type of currency, traditional dress and some unique cultural aspects of each country.

While the festival provided an abundance of information to all attendees, it also covered downtown Raleigh in different aspects of Latin American culture. Local artists manned tents showcasing their unique art with its vibrant colors and arts and crafts vendors displayed goods ranging from hats and clothing to key chains and even small instruments.

The aroma of food from the sea of food trucks and tents on Fayetteville Street also drew in people. Attendees could choose from a variety of different foods such as empanadas, arepas, tacos, coffee, paella and pinchos from a variety of different countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Ashley Meehan, a volunteer at NC State’s linguistic tent during the festival and a graduate student at NC State, found the festival to be a fun, but at the same time accurate, depiction of Latin American culture. 

“I think [this festival] shows variety,” Meehan said while describing the range of music, food and dress. 

Another aspect Meehan found interesting was the combination of English and Spanish. While the festival was focused on Latin American culture, most of the tents had information in both Spanish and English, and many of the people volunteering were bilingual.