Maryland Fiesta Latina brings culture back to Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds

ANNE ARUNDEL Co. --- The Maryland Fiesta Latina returned to Anne Arundel County for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the rainy weather, people of all ages went to the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon to celebrate Latino culture and heritage for Cinco de Mayo.

Sergio Polanco, who has lived in Maryland for nearly 20 years, said Cinco de Mayo has a much bigger meaning.

"It is a tradition," Polanco said. "It is how we can approach this community and make sure that the leaders around the area will stop by and share our culture with us." 

Though widely celebrated in the United States, Cinco de Mayo is not a national holiday in Mexico and many Latino countries. 

"Cinco de Mayo really celebrates the Mexican Army beating the French in like 1862," said Jeremiah Batucan, a partner at ABC Events Inc., the organizer of Maryland Fiesta Latina. "We're more focused on the Latin community as a whole and so that's why we went to the heritage component." 

Organizers' hope was to bring people of all cultures and ethnicities together to learn and celebrate Latin culture at the Maryland Fiesta Latina festival.

"It is a celebration of culture, music, food," Polanco said.

The fiesta also had cultural demonstrations, vibrant dances and lessons on the diverse community around us. 

"I remember going to Asia for the first time, I'm really seeing that lifestyle," Batucan said. "My first time going to Mexico, and also exploring, hey this is more than tacos and tequila, and this is the vibrant family heritage that they focus on."

The Latino community is made up of Central and South America and parts of the Caribbean, Batucan emphasized.

"It's more of a geographical area and we're excited to show it all because the population in Maryland and in Anne Arundel is around 10%," Batucan said. "But if you actually look at Annapolis, it is almost 18%, double the average of our bigger state."

Batucan told WJZ meeting people from different cultures in spaces like the Fiesta Latina can show people more about where they come from.

"I love to travel, and I think that really is what broadens your horizons of how people live and their backgrounds and what they kind of bring," said Batucan. "In a world where we kind of focus on our differences, those cultural differences, when we focus on the beauty of their heritage, it's actually a whole different way to approach talking to people, learning about them and just loving one another."