Courtesy of Kristine Clark

The lilting opening notes of the mariachi classic “México Lindo y Querido” welcomed community members to ¡Fiesta Latina!, a two-day celebration of Latino cultures this weekend.

The events — co-hosted by Latino advocacy nonprofit Junta for Progressive Action and the Yale Peabody Museum — featured Latino music, dance and food and highlighted the museum’s Latin American artifacts, which include dinosaur bones discovered in South America. Guests enjoyed tours of the museum held in Spanish and meet-and-greets with Latino Yale faculty from the sciences. The event fell midway through Latino Heritage Month. 

“What we want to let people know at this event is that the museum is open, it’s free — and it will always be free — and that we are developing programs that serve Spanish-speaking audiences in new ways,” Andrea Motto, the Peabody’s director of education, told the News.

The organizations have held the celebration for the past two decades, initially hosting it at the Peabody and moving it to Junta’s home base during the museum’s four-year renovation. After the Peabody reopened in March, the organizations elected to expand ¡Fiesta Latina! to a two-day event, with one day of programming at Junta’s 169 Grand Ave. location and the next day’s activities held at the museum. 

¡Fiesta Latina! was organized by a planning committee with representatives from Junta, the Peabody, New Haven Pride Center, Arte Inc., the New Haven Free Public Library and Music Haven.

Junta kicked off ¡Fiesta Latina! with the tunes of local musicians and food trucks, as well over 20 information stations spotlighting community resources on Saturday afternoon. The stations included a voter registration table and information on legal aid, educational opportunities, medical assistance and other resources. 

Kayla Natal, administrative assistant for community care provider Project Access New Haven, said her main goal was to spread the word about the organization’s resources, such as upcoming mobile pharmacy and dental clinics. She estimated that 35 attendees stopped by the table.

Maritza Gant, who represents New Haven’s Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans, encouraged community members to sign up to vote early. Midway through Saturday’s event, she had registered four people to vote and checked two people’s registration status.

“Some people… don’t want to be involved in politics — they’re not interested,” Gant said when asked about unregistered voters in the New Haven Latino community. “But I got a lot of comments like, ‘This year, it’s important to vote.’”

Fred DePourcq, Junta’s managing director, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the high turnout on Saturday. 200 people attended last year’s event, Serrano said, and he estimated that across both days, they had well surpassed that number.

María Pérez, one of the attendees, told the News that while she was drawn to the event because of the mariachi performance, she took the opportunity to explore some of the community resources as well. 

“[¡Fiesta Latina!] is for the community to reunite and converse with each other… and to learn about the services that are available to them,” Pérez said in Spanish. 

Julio Mendoza and Margarito Mello — two members of Mariachi Voces de Mi Tierra Connecticut, the group that performed at the event — emphasized the importance of bringing together the Latino community, especially with the upcoming general election in November.

At the Peabody on Sunday, the Afro-Latino group Proyecto Cimarron opened the event with bomba music inspired by their Puerto Rican roots. They were followed by the Spanish Community of Wallingford Youth Mariachi Band and Dancer Troupe, who captivated museum-goers and staff alike with lively dance routines and dresses of bright reds, purples and blues.  

Meanwhile, on the third floor, members of Yale’s Muñoz lab participated in the meet-a-scientist event. Aided by their own specimens and tools, they shared with attendees their work on the evolution of reptiles and amphibians, as well as how their cultural heritage is at the heart of what they do.

“[¡Fiesta Latina!] had personal high significance; we are a majority Latino lab,” Professor Martha Muñoz told the News. “The ability to bring trilingual engagement with the public — we speak Spanish, one of us speaks Portuguese, and we all speak English — show who we are as individuals in addition to the science we do, and celebrating this lab’s scientific excellence was really exciting.” 

Occupying all floors of the Peabody, various artifacts from Latin America were on display throughout the museum. Be it the clay crafts of the Aztecs or the Inca or the bones of ancient dinosaur species that greeted visitors, the museum highlighted the treasures found south of the U.S. border.

Rounding out Sunday’s festivities were final performances by Tere Luna, a singer of Mexican descent who specializes in the musical style Bolero, and the Orquesta Afinke, a Latine salsa group based in Stratford, Conn. 

“I think it is very important to show the bright side of every culture,” Veronica Gonzalez, a dancer in the Spanish Community of Wallingford Youth Mariachi Band and Dancer Troupe said. “We get to show a very beautiful part of our culture and share it with everyone.”

Latino Heritage Month is observed from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.