Locals had the chance to eat traditional Hispanic food, sing along to mariachi crowd pleasers and dance the merengue Sunday as the Hispanic Apostolate celebrated its 25th Annual Festival Latino at the Catholic Deaf Center.
The first Baton Rouge Hispanic Festival, called Feria Hispana, was held in 1986 as a Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge Youth Ministry project to bring together the different Hispanic cultures of the area, according to festivallatinobr.com. Because of the festival’s success, it continued with a new purpose — raising funds for various ministries of the Apostolate.
Festival Director José Toral has worked with the festival for the past four years. He said the proceeds are used to fund programs that introduce Hispanic people to English culture through medical and educational services.
The event crew is made entirely of volunteers, and everything at the festival was provided by volunteers or donated, Toral said.
He said the average attendance at the festival is 3,000 people, but this year the crew aimed for 5,000 — a goal they reached within six hours.
A large attraction at the festival was the variety of traditional food offered from various countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, Peru and Cuba.
There was also a “Latin flavor” booth as well as a Dulcelandia, a specialty booth for pastries. Patricia Charcap, a worker in the Peruvian food booth, said she and her husband have been helping prepare food for the festival for about five or six years. She said they got involved through a friend who is a part of the Hispanic Apostolate.
Charcap helped prepare anticuchos de pollo, a popular street food from Peru made of chicken marinated in spices and grilled on a skewer. She also made arroz chaufa, which she compared to chicken fried rice. The booth also served chicha morada, a drink Charcap said is made of purple corn.
Charcap said many of the spices used to prepare the food were brought back from Peru.
The most popular treat among festival-goers seemed to be the El Salvadorian pupusas. Patrons waited in line for nearly two hours for the stuffed pancake-like morsels.
Visitors enjoyed a day of karaoke, performances by the Latin Ballet of Virginia, live music from Mariachi Jalisco and songs by Milly Quezada, known as “the Queen of