A burst of culture hit downtown Johnson City Friday with the area’s 10th annual Corazón Latino Festival, an event of dancing, music, food and unity.
Every year in April, the ETSU Student Language and Culture Resource Center organizes the local festival. This year, it took place downtown at the Founders Park pavilion.
“This is all really educational and well organized,” said ETSU sophomore Savannah Lyons.
The event hosted an array of food trucks, music, dance lessons and Pasaporte A Las Américas, a set up of informational booths each representing a different Latin American country, and an art event from the Tipton Gallery with works from many Latinx artists.
“Corazón Latino is about everybody coming together under ‘one voice, one heart, one beat,’” said Katherine Raines, a senior and Spanish major at ETSU.
This phrase, “One voice, one heart, one beat,” accurately explains the idea and motivation for the event within the community.
“We are here talking about different cultures and different countries,” Raines said. “But what we really want the festival to show is that really we all aren’t even that different.”
The festival is about embracing the cultures of people that often exist in their own separate, daily worlds together. The Tri-Cities, especially, are home to a number of communities that many people are not aware of.
“The festival brings the Appalachian community together with the Latino community so that we can bridge the gaps,” said Rebekah Fine, an ETSU junior and Spanish major.
All local members are made to feel welcome to the various cultural events within the community as a chance to both have a good time and also, to support others.
“ETSU should incorporate even more events like this within the community,” said Lyons, “It’s necessary to get more people informed about the city they live in by sharing the diversity that is all around.”
