This year, indeed it’s 30th Latin American Festival.
It was the 29.5 festival in 2021, and the one that would have been the 30th in 2020 did not take place at all.
“After three years we are so excited,” said Valeria Ramos Rodriguez, outreach and referral coordinator for CENTRO and coordinator of the Festival Committee. CENTRO, a multi-service nonprofit organization in Worcester, has organized the festival since 1991.
The 30th Latin American Festival will take place from 11am to 9pm on August 20 at what has become its traditional venue on Worcester Common behind City Hall. Entry is free. This will be the first time the festival has been held outdoors since 2019.
Music, arts and crafts, and food are some of the main attractions of the festival, which has been recognized as one of the largest events of its kind in New England, drawing thousands of people throughout the day.
This year’s music will feature a stellar lineup, including salsa star Willie Gonzalez from Puerto Rico as well as Dominican Republic merengue artist El Rey Tulile.
For the first time the festival will also feature a rap performer, Ada Betsabé, who is originally from the Dominican Republic but considers herself “a Worcesterite”.
Other musical acts include Banda Duro Swing, Alex Hernandez and Son de mi Tierra.
“We have a lot of people this year. We want to go big this year,” Ramos said.
Artisans and food vendors will also be on hand. “Everything is almost ready,” she said during a recent interview.
“The Latino community has been waiting for this for years. Everybody wants this to happen again. We want the Latino community to feel proud,” Ramos said.
According to the United States Census Bureau, people of Hispanic or Latino descent make up 23.1% of Worcester’s population.
But the festival has always been known for its cross-over appeal, with people of all backgrounds invited.
“It’s for everyone who wants to come. We want to share our culture,” Ramos said.
From relatively humble beginnings when the first festival was held in 1991, a move to Worcester Common in 1992 attracted a larger turnout and audiences grew each year. For several years the festival was to be held in front of the town hall while work progressed on what was to become Worcester’s regular Oval. For many years the festival was successfully overseen by Carmen “Dolly” Vazquez, who retired in 2015.
The festival had continued to go well and was traditionally held on the third Saturday of August, as it is this year. Juan A. Gomez, president and CEO of CENTRO, said that in 2019 the Latin American Festival attracted between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals.
“It’s been amazing,” Gomez said. The only comparable event in the region is the Puerto Rican Festival in Boston, but that’s a three-day event, Gomez noted.
However, in 2020, what would have been the 30th festival was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
Subsequently, initial plans to hold the 2021 event outside after City Hall, as usual, had to be changed due to the continued stubbornness of the Omicron COVID variant.
Instead, the festival was presented as a broadcast with local acts and live performances from Puerto Rico on WCCA TV 194.
It was a pretty close call last year, Gomez said. “It wasn’t until April or May (2021) that we decided to pull the plug. We had everything ready, but we did it virtually. It wasn’t a total loss, but it wasn’t the same, obviously.” Gomez said.
Ramos said the festival was called “29.5” last year.
![A dance troupe performs during the 29th Latin American Festival on Worcester Common in 2019. to/Matthew Healey]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2022/08/08/NWOR/db782ee5-6e8c-40c3-bd3b-34311cf200c2-0812_LOC_Latin_Festival_0818.JPG?width=660&height=441&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
The decision to have the 30th out after City Hall for 2022 was made “early on,” Gomez said.
“We had already planned until December. We had made the decision.”
Gomez can feel the excitement building and is anticipating a big turnout.
“Well, if the excitement is any indication, we expect the same number as in 2019,” he said.
The festival will be rain or shine, although the weather has traditionally been very good during the day.
“We play until it thunders,” Gomez said. “In the absence of that, we continue to play.”
The festival will represent a homecoming for Betsabé, who has pursued her music career in California out of necessity, “because of the music world.” She last performed in Worcester at a block party event in 2020.
She has memories of going to the Latin American Festival in Worcester every year. “I grew up going to that,” she said.
But this will be Betsabé’s first time performing at the festival and she is aware that she will be making her first rap appearance at the festival.
“I’m the first urban artist. I’m very excited,” she said.
Her band members for the Latin American Festival are Uziel Olivas, bass guitar, and David Vladimir Garcia, drums.
Betsabé was born in the Dominican Republic and came to Worcester when she was 3 years old. She grew up here and attended Worcester State College. She also lived in Boston for a time to pursue music before moving to California, and her musical output includes two albums and 15 singles.
“I’m a bit of a nomad,” she said on the phone during a visit to the Dominican Republic. She had also recently been to South America. When she’s in Worcester, as she will be very soon, she stays in “mommy space.”
Her songs are delivered in what she called “Spanglish” with lyrics that can go from Spanish to English and back to Spanish, which Betsabé said is just like how she normally speaks.
“It’s something when I started my career, it’s exactly how I am with my parents,” she said.
With her urban Spanglish hip-hop music, she said, “I would literally sit down and write some of what I’m writing (when) I’m thinking in Spanish and (then) it would happen in English. That’s what I am. This is authentically who I am.”
She can speak to her mother in Spanish one minute and a friend in English the next. “Back and forth” is something that is especially experienced by first generation people. “There is a place that identifies with a Latino background and growing up in America.”
It can emphasize a nomadic sense of being “Too American to Dominicans and too Dominican to Americans,” Betsabé said.
In the song “Way Too Many” with Niko Eme, Betsabé and Eme find many people who say they are friends all the way in Spanish and English but don’t mean it.
In contrast, a song like “Lottery,” also featuring Niko Eme, switches from Spanish to English and back again in a playful manner in keeping with its upbeat and energetic approach. Eme says that she feels “like I just won the lottery” and adds: “There is no ticket.” Betsabé later adds, “I got them all. No ticket.”
“Crazy,” also in Spanish, has an upbeat, romantic feel with Betsabé singing, “I’ll sing of your love forever.” It doesn’t really matter what people think. “They can call me crazy if they want.”
“Way Too Many,” “Lottery” and “Crazy” are secular, but Betsabé said she also performs “evangelical Christian music. I started writing my music through a spiritual awakening I had.”
It was a specific moment she had in 2014 at a music conference in Los Angeles. “I was offered a record deal,” but the producers “would rather make music that was empty and thoughtless in my opinion. I just decided I’m not a product. I’m an artist,” she said.
“It was like one of those moments — I’m either going to be what the status quo is or I’m going to be the opposite. Maybe I’ll struggle more, but I’ll be more fulfilled.”
Bethsabé said, “I share very openly that I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Those who have the opportunity to know me better say, ‘Wow, I never knew that’s what it means to be a Christian.'” Urban Music doesn’t always lead to healthy social practice. I don’t swear, I don’t swear… It’s a wonderful journey I’m on.”
Her travels have also taken her to South America and in Colombia she saw things that added a dimension of social justice awareness to her artistic sensibility. She went to poverty-stricken neighborhoods, Betsabé said.
All the while, “I’m looking in. I’m looking in,” she said.
The journey continues on August 20.
“Now I can perform in my hometown, which is very exciting. Full circle for me,” said Betsabé.
“Really, thank God for the opportunity to do this one more time for our community,” Gomez said of CENTRO’s opportunity to host the festival.
In addition to this being the 30th Latin American Festival, 2022 is also the 45th year for CENTRO, which was founded in 1977.
Formerly Centro Las Americas and located at 11 Sycamore St., CENTRO is the largest minority-led, community-based, multi-service, multicultural, multilingual, nonprofit organization in Central Massachusetts, serving over 24,000 people annually. CENTRO’s stated primary goal is to “assist individuals and families striving to achieve self-sufficiency by promoting social responsibility, fostering cultural identity, and encouraging families to be meaningful contributors to the community.”
Although 60% of its clients are Latino, many families served by CENTRO are from the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and other ethnicities.
CENTRO’s services include food and nutrition pantries, community support, family support, children’s family support, adult and group care, and a children’s behavioral health initiative.
Gomez said CENTRO has been able to navigate the challenges of the pandemic.
“Thankfully we had planned properly. We had invested in infrastructure and IT, and thanks to that, when the government announced there was going to be a shutdown, we had the IT capability, we were able to get ready.”
CENTRO was able to immediately deploy staff to work from home remotely, Gomez said, so that there would be uninterrupted service from the start. He also put some very rigorous protocols in place to ensure that staff were protected and customers were not exposed.
But how the pandemic has affected the Latino community “is another story,” Gomez said.
“From every study, Latinos were hit hardest by the pandemic — the highest number of deaths, the lowest number of vaccinations, the highest level of economic impact. And it’s not over yet,” Gomez said. “But thankfully, the mortality and morbidity rates have come down significantly from where they were, but it’s still difficult circumstances.”
The Latin American Festival gives CENTRO great visibility and the community at large something to celebrate after some difficult times.
“I just feel it’s a privilege that we get to celebrate our heritage,” Betsabé said of the festival and sharing it with all of Worcester. “We are an engaging community that will welcome you.”
“We’re really proud of it,” Gomez said. “We’re proud of what we’re building here.”
For more information, follow @CentroWorcester on Facebook.
