Hispanic Heritage Festival

The bilingual celebration for all ages will include food, music, dancing, piñata breaking and children's crafts. Presentations in the cultural center east of Willard's will feature topics such as Mexican cooking, Latino youth in the community and Villachuato, Mexico - the city where many immigrants to Marshalltown used to live.

Presenters include a panel of Marshalltown High School students, a university professor and the administrator of the Iowa Division of Latino Affairs in the Department of Human Rights.

Also in the cultural center will be displays on Latin American history, art and culture.

The idea for the festival started at a January meeting of Latinos en Acción de CCI, a nonprofit organization working to identify and address the concerns of the Latino community. Clyde Eisenbeis was there sharing information about Boy Scouts, and while at the meeting, he and Hernandez discussed organizing a festival. Hernandez later called Sam Carbajal.

The planning committee has grown since then, and members said they are intentionally a mixture of the city's Anglo and Latino residents.

"It's an example of what we want the community to become," Carbajal said.

Committee member Judy Kading said she hopes the festival creates an attitude of inclusiveness.

"Hispanic people are very generous about sharing their culture," she said.

The event should make the different cultures more comfortable in each other's places, according to organizer Valerie Busse. If Anglo community members attend the Mexican cooking class, for example, Busse said they will be more sure of themselves shopping for Mexican spices at a Latino grocery store.

"It's their celebration, and we're going to learn from it," she said.

Latino community members will come to the festival because they feel honored their heritage is being celebrated in this way, said event organizer Wendy Soltero.

"We feel welcome," she said.

The event is intended to promote unity and partnership, and it has already done that at the planning level, according to Eisenbeis.

"To me, it's going to create a lot of friendships," he said.

The Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation has provided more than half of the funding needed for the festival. Those interesting in selling food at the event may contact Jamie Brown at 754-2461.