STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The grandeur of the Aztecs, who ruled a large empire in central Mexico from 1300 to 1521, was on display in Bellevue’s Memorial Park this past week as Temini Yocochcayoco performed traditional dances at the annual Hispanic Heritage Festival.

The group, loosely named for ‘friend’ in the ancient Nahuatl language, began its exhibition with a woman cleansing the area in front of the stage with symbolic smoke while dancers blew conch shells to seek favor with the gods.

Then, as two dancers beat on carved wooden drums, the dancers performed dances mean to celebrate the harvest and the strength and bravery of warriors, their colorful three-foot long peacock feathers bending and swaying as they danced.

Hats offered by Corazon Ancestral were among the items for sale.

The cultural dance group, made up of dancers from Utah and Idaho, performs traditional dances that once thrived as far south as the Yucatan Peninsula, said one of the dancers. One male boasted a white and black motif with animals skulls and jangling shells wrapped around his ankles. Others carried Aztec clubs and gourds in their hands and painted their faces in bright colors meant to represent mythical beings.

The Aztec performers were among several groups representing various cultural traditions that paraded across the park stage. Among them, the Encanto Folklorico group from Twin Falls; Quita Generacion, a local father-son musical duo, and Grupo Kanu band from Twin Falls.

Children danced around trying to catch bubbles twice the size of beach balls that wafted through the air off Paul Blair’s bubble making hoops, while others tested their skills on a mechanical bull and ran up and down the slides of a bouncy house.

Adults sampled a smoky Mezcal cocktail made with Chamoy, a savory liquid made with fruit and spicy chilies and spiked with beer.

Dances honor celestial events and other aspects of nature.

The festival, which had been in Hailey the week before, was taking place in Bellevue’s park for the first time.

Organizer Herbert Romero, director of ProjecT.O.O.L.Success, proudly pointed to food and other vendors from as far away as Twin Falls, Jerome and Bellevue as he told how he would be staging a similar celebration in Jerome on Oct. 11.

No one seems to know just how many of those who identify as Hispanic or Latino make up Bellevue’s population. But nearly half of the students at Bellevue Elementary School are Hispanic.

Bellevue Mayor Christina Giordani posed for pictures with two of the more fearsome looking Aztec dancers.

Quinta Generacion, a father-son duo, was among those performing music.

“I look around and see community,” she said. “Not just a celebration of Spanish heritage but a celebration of OUR heritage.”

Dancers beat carved wooden drums.