STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Get ready for everything from traditional mariachi music to unique stylings of rock and roll when the fifth annual Hispanic Heritage Festival takes place in Hailey this weekend.
The free event kicks off Friday night with free food and an art talk focused on Frida Kahlo, and will continue Saturday with music, games and food.
“We started this to recognize Hispanic achievement and contributions to the valley,” said organizer Herbert Romero. “It’s growing, attracting people from other communities, including a Spanish radio and magazine from Burley and Jerome, which are coming to cover it. And I’m excited that we have a real diversity of music this year.”
- The celebration will kick off from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, with traditional and contemporary music, free taquitos and an art talk in Hailey Town Square in back of the Hailey Public Library.
From 5:30 to 7 p.m. the father-son duo Quinta Generacion will serve up traditional and contemporary music while Chapalitas Grill serves up taquitos, chips, salsa and beverages.
There’ll be games, face painting, pinata whacking and a chance to make papier mache flowers for the kids. And everyone will get a chance to play rounds of the Mexican game loteria, which is similar to bingo. In addition, there will be raffles for prizes and book giveaways.
At 7 the action shifts to Town Center West when art educator Kathryn Zupsic offers a free talk about “The Life and Art of Frida Kahlo,” considered the most recognizable female artist in the world. The lecture will be simultaneously translated into Spanish by Leonardo Padilla Sacha.
While there, check out the library, which is featuring national flags from Mexico and Central and South America on display, as well as an art exhibit of drawings by Wood River artist Michael Olenick of Basque arborglyphs carved on aspen trees.
The library will also feature “I Love Saturdays y domingos,” a multicultural StoryWalk for all ages written by Peruvian-American writer Alma Flor Ada. The story will be exhibited on the library’s windows starting outside the Children’s Library and remain up through mid-October.
- The festival shifts into full gear from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. Sept. 17. at Roberta McKercher Park in Hailey.
On Saturday a handful of notable bands and dancers will perform, including a lead singer from Colombia and Lalo Alfaro, an iconic musician from Peru who made his name in the 1960s and ‘70s. Alfaro recorded a number of hits, including “No Se Quien Soy.”
He is being sponsored by KB’s owner Rodolfo Serva, whose family came here from Peru.
Bands include Mariachi America; Special Reserve, which performs rock ‘n’ roll and more rock, and Banda Tremendos SVMF.
There also will be games and food.
Hispanic Heritage Month has its origins in a proclamation President Lyndon Johnson issued in 1968 recognizing the histories, cultures and contributions of Central and South American individuals and cultures to the Untied States. It runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 each year.
The weekend’s celebration was organized by Herbert Romero of PROJECT.O.O.L.s & Partners, the Crisis Hotline and the Hailey Public Library.