Clarke Central High School junior Andres Nava, sophomore Xavier Reyes and senior Alex Emiliano perform at the Hispanic Heritage Festival on Oct. 4, at CCHS. The CCHS Tri-M Music Honors Society hosted the festival in the CCHS bus loop for community members to attend. “I came here to have a good time and learn new things about (the) Hispanic culture,” CCHS junior Jayeed Delane said. Photo by Grady Dunston
The CCHS Tri-M Honors Music Society hosted the Hispanic Heritage Festival, open to community members, on Oct. 4.
The Tri-M Music Honors Society hosted a Hispanic Heritage Festival in the Clarke Central High School bus loop at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 4. The event invited the community to experience a variety of Hispanic culture.
The festival was organized by CCHS seniors Melanie Salinas-Acevedo, Maria Sesame and Luca Gomez, as well as Athens Technical College freshman Alex Garcia, all of whom pioneered the festival in 2023. Eunice Kang, fine arts department co-chair and Tri-M adviser, helped the students organize the event, which included traditional dancing performances, singing, music and food representing different South American countries.
“It’s important (we have the Hispanic Heritage Festival) to not let us forget where we’re from, our roots, our culture (and) our blood,” Gomez said. “This is very beneficial for everybody in the community because (attendees) also meet other people that are from the same country, eat the same foods (and) share the same (culture).”
“(We want to) give people a better understanding of how our culture is, because there’s a lot of stereotypes that everything falls into (the) Mexican culture,”
— Maria Sesame,
CCHS senior and co-organizer of the Hispanic Heritage Festival
Vendors from different businesses came to the event, selling pastries, pupusas, tacos, quesadillas and more. Chico’s Bakery, a Hispanic-owned business, was one of the vendors at the festival.
“It’s an amazing thing that a lot of Hispanics are out here selling their stuff. Everybody (has) a positive face, everybody’s nice (and) nobody’s negative,” Chico’s Bakery owner Francisco Galdamez said. “Having a good time selling what they’re good at like pupusas, churros (and) tacos. They’re expressing their talents.”
Sesame hopes to show a more holistic perspective of Hispanic culture by showcasing several different countries during the festival.
“(We want to) give people a better understanding of how our culture is, because there’s a lot of stereotypes that everything falls into (the) Mexican culture,” Sesame said.
After consecutive years hosting the festival, Kang hopes to have more of the Athens community attend and celebrate all the different Hispanic countries in future years.
“(We want to) expand and publicize more (and) invite the elementary and middle school families and students,” Kang said. “(We want) not to have just high school students and their families, but more of the community to join us, and include other community organizations, as well.”
