Last Updated on October 1, 2022, 9:40 PM | Published: October 1, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) – Once again, thousands of people gathered in the Hispanic district in South OKC to celebrate Latin-American heritage Saturday, October 1st.
Calle Dos Cinco in the Historic Capitol Hill District celebrated the 17th Fiestas de las Américas featuring a kid zone, two stages, 13 food trucks, live music, a taco eating contest, multiple local pop-up shops, 13 countries, an artist alley and a parade show.
The event started at 10 a.m. with a record-breaking parade show departing from the newly-opened Lower Scissortail Park entering Capitol Hill around noon.
Lee Hernan and her band took over the main stage at around 2 p.m. kicking off an afternoon of music. The Latin-Grammy-Award-Wining orchestra La Sonora Santanera closed the evening performing tropical Mexican music at 8 p.m.
Isis Palomino, Parade Chair, has volunteered at this event for five years. “As an Oklahoma City resident, one gets used to having the Fiestas de las Américas every October,” she told Free Press.
Fiestas de las Americas is celebrated in early October in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Many of us have been doing this event for years and I feel proud every time I come back and see everyone else. It is actually a sentimental thing, a huge feeling, especially with a growing event like this one” she said.
2022 parade entries and sponsorships almost doubled from last year according to the event coordinator Ericka Herrera. Over 90 parade entries were submitted for 2022 breaking the norm of around 50 entries in the previous years.
“This year we had a lot of organizations that have never joined us before and some that even rejoined, so clearly people are very excited to celebrate the community,” Herrera told the Free Press
Celia Serrano de Regalado is an artist from Copan, Honduras. She came to Oklahoma to tour around the state showcasing Honduran culture and music throughout the Hispanic Heritage Month.
“For me, performing on stage means a lot because many of my friends and coevals passed away during the hardest parts of the pandemic and I actually wrote a song about it called Cuando todo esto pase – When this is all over – featuring multiple Honduran artists,” she told Free Press.
Emma Krummrich, originally from Ecuador, resides in OKC and owns a small arts and crafts business. Krummrich has been working hard to recover from the pandemic’s economic impact while showcasing Ecuadorian culture and heritage through her crafts.
“For many small businesses, this is still a time to revive,” she said while opening up her Artes Andinas pop-up shop.
The Ecuadorian artist described the Fiestas de las Americas as a single day event where all Latin-American cultures merge into one celebration of heritage and presence in Oklahoma.
Celda 151 is a boxing gym nested in the heart of Capitol Hill. Co-owner Pablo Aguirre was born and raised in OKC. He told us he was proud to see the district’s development through the decades.
“We’re people that come from other countries, you know, starting from the bottom and working our way up, so to see all this growth shows the hard work that we’ve put into our communities,” said Aguirre.
Pablo Angulo is a Colombian OKC-based freelance journalist and photojournalist with a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
