National Hispanic Heritage Month comes to close with final fiesta

The national month-long celebration of Latino culture will come to an end Saturday as Bloomington holds its own final fiesta, Fiesta del Otono. \nSept. 15 through Oct. 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month, and Bloomington has celebrated throughout the month with various events. The final fiesta will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Bryan Park.\nMelissa Britton, Bloomington Latino Projects coordinator, said that Fiesta del Otono is “more like an expo,” hosting more than 40 nonprofit organizations, businesses, artists and musicians who want to exhibit their traditions and talents. \n“We wanted to invite the whole community to celebrate with us one last time,” Britton said. “This is an opportunity to do outreach to the Latino community.”\nAlmost all the booths have activities for children, Britton said. The whole event is very family-friendly. \nAlthough the event will offer many activities for families and children, Britton said IU students will not feel left out of the festivities.\n“Student will like the energy of this event and lots of diverse entertainment,” she said. “There will be good music, dance lessons and all kinds of food.”\nThe event will include performances from Spanish-language performance group Grupo de Teatro VIDA, which will be in both English and Spanish, Britton said.\nMusical acts Bembe, La Piel Morena and Valeria de Castro will perform, and the Arthur Murray Dance Studio and Arturo Rodriguez will demonstrate salsa and meringue dance.\nAuthentic Latino cuisine will also be available for purchase from El Norteno, KRB Banquet and Catering, Smokin’ Jack’s Rib Shack and Fajitas. \nLatino culture organizations won’t be all that’s available to fiesta visitors.\n “The IU women’s soccer team will be there signing autographs and doing demonstrations,” Britton said. “The Monroe County Public Library Bookmobile will also be there, with their amazing Spanish language collection.” \nThe Bloomington Police Department will be recruiting during Fiesta del Otono, and student translators will be on hand to bypass “the language barrier,” Britton said.\n“We try to use these events to get rid of town-campus separation,” Britton said, “and we try to make our events appealing to everyone in the community.”