By Jose D. Beteta Executive Director The Latino Chamber of Commerce, Photos By Joe Contreras, Latin Life America
The Boulder County Latino Chamber of Commerce held its most ambitious endeavor yet focused on Latin American & Caribbean cultures as the vehicle to educate and empower a vital and important sector of the U.S. population, Latinos. The 1st ever Colorado Latino Festival took placeon Main Street in downtown Longmont, Sunday, June 26 to celebrate the contributions of Latinos in Colorado, and educate the public about those contributions.
The event focused on entertainment, hands‐on activities, information resources and Latin cuisine. In addition to the great live music, the eventfeatured a parade of flags where participants from each Latin American country were invited to march behind their perspective country’s flag from one end of the festival to the other.
The business community was also encouraged to participate as vendors, sponsors or collaborators for this event were exposed to thousands of attendees from all over Colorado. and sponsors will . Media coverage and sponsors included Latin Life America, Boulder Weekly, Denver Post, , Telemundo Denver, 9News, WestWord, Longmont Times‐Call and more.
The festival comes at a crucial moment in U.S. history where census data shows the significant contributions of Latinos to the economy, various economic development sectors, and the social fabric of most cities and states. These contributions, coupled with the current volatile political climate and views of Latinos in general, can create division and resentment. Data shows disparity between Latinos and Anglos related to education, income, health and civic participation, where Latino numbers lag behind their Anglo counterparts.
The goal of this event was to address the aforementioned problems. The festival itself will served as an empowering event that will jolt the Latino community into more active roles in those areas. To sponsor, be a vendor/exhibitor or for general information:
Jose D. Beteta Executive Director The Latino Chamber of Commerce 332 Main Street Longmont, CO (202) 423‐7060 jose@thelatinochamber.com www.TheLatinoFestival.com
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