‘A lot of diversity’ on hand at Dalton Latino Festival

Published 1:18 pm Monday, September 12, 2016

It was Ashley Broadrick’s first time attending the Latino Taste Festival held Saturday in downtown Dalton.

Broadrick, of Dalton, said she heard about the festival last year but couldn’t attend

“We were excited to check it out today,” said Broadrick, who was there with her family. She said she likes exposing her children to other cultures.

“It’s important to integrate our community and cultures,” she said.

Saturday was the third year of the festival which is organized by the Coalition of Latino Leaders.

The festival featured food, music and dancing. America Gruner, president of the coalition, said the goal was to showcase traditional food from several countries.

Jocelyn Montalvo, 14, said she also attended the festival last year.

“I think it’s a good festival,” the Dalton resident said. “I like how all kinds of Latin communities are represented here.”

Montalvo said she also enjoyed the food. Her favorite were the steak tacos stuffed in shells freshly made by Leila Ramirez in her booth.

Samantha Segoviano, 31, enjoyed areapas, a dough stuffed with meat and/or cheeses.

“I think the festival is a great idea for the Hispanic community,” Segoviano said. “It’s a little bit of everyone’s culture,” said the Mexican native.

Gruner said she’s happy with the turnout.

“It’s going really well, we have a lot of groups that are representing different countries and foods. There are so many groups that are dancing or playing, we are so happy with the outcome,” she said.

One of those groups was Patricia Hernandez’s Grupo Folklorico Cimarron.

Representing Uruguay, Hernandez, who lives in Duluth, said she got a call from Gruner asking her group to perform.

Jesus Garcia,18, only got to enjoy the festival for a little while because he had to go to work.

“It’s pretty cool, you get to see everyone’s culture,” he said. “It was packed,” he said of the crowd.

There was also a voter’s registration table at the festival.

“We have a few people that are registering to vote,” Gruner said. “We will be having a campaign continuing until October because we want our voices to be heard.”

Gruner said Latino Taste Festival is very important to the community of Dalton as a whole.

“We want to give a message that we are not the negative people some portray us to be,” she said. “We are already a part of the community.”

She said the festival is an effort to join with other people. “It’s our opportunity to show those that are not Latino there is a lot of diversity and we have a lot to offer.”