Cultural event brings music, food to Columbia
The southern border was raised to the 1300 and 1400 blocks of downtown Columbia Saturday for the 10th annual Main Street Latin Festival. GG productionscq transformed the Vista into a miniature, family-friendly Cinco De Mayo/Mardi Gras exploding with Latin flavored food, music and dancing. I grabbed a fistful of Tums, threw on my best dancing Sperry top-siders and ventured into the cultural epicenter.
BROTHERHOOD THROUGH MUSIC
The streets were filled with the warm sounds of Latin music: passionate, dramatic vocals backed by the swell of heavy brass and peppered with bongo, bass and flute. Artists including Tonny Tun Tun, Ricky Luis and headliner Tito Rojas performed a wide range of Latin genres including Salsa, the Mexican folk music known as Grupera, the rap-meets-reggae style of Reggaeton and the fast-paced Merengue, which was accompanied by beautiful Latina women dancing in lime green pants.
For Puerto Rican American artist Ricky Luis, who has a tropical, urban-influenced style and a slew of fans already referring to him as the next Marc Anthony, the festival had a deep societal importance.
“Anyone that has culture should be proud of it and share it with others. It’s one of the ways we become one as a people,” Luis said backstage in between twirling female fans and signing CDs. “We have differences, but at the end of the day we’re all brothers.”
BAILA! BAILA!
The only ones spinning as fast as those on the Tilt-a-Whirl were the couples of all ages grooving by the stage. At 2 p.m., a flash mob broke out to the tune of Victor Manuelle’s “Mi Salsa le Gusto,” engulfing the entire festival in dancing and clapping.
A video posted on the festival website a month in advance demonstrated how to do the dance. Unaware of this demonstration and not wanting to be disrespectful by a lack of participation, I was forced to rotate my hips and throw my elbows as best I could with the rhythm. A young girl watching nearby cried.
A TASTE OF CULTURE
People waited in lines that stretched the entire length of the street for a chance to sink their teeth into authentic Latin dishes like arepas (sweet corn and cheese), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and habichuelas guisadas (Puerto Rican beans).
An assortment of Latin souvenirs were available for sale as well. Girls looked through beaded bracelets for a pattern with their name on it. Boys wrestled with their parents over the lucha libre masks up for grabs. As a child once deprived of the Red Power Ranger mask at the state fair, I know that feeling.
SPREADING THE LOVE
Amid a citywide culture dominated largely by mustard-based barbecue and Gamecock football, it can be difficult for the Latin community to have a voice.
“I didn’t experience a lot of a Latin presence growing up,” said Genny Padilla, a Puerto Rican-American raised in Columbia. “It wasn’t until [recently] that I think Columbia started to see that there was this new community coming in and embracing it.”
It’s a community that Padilla and her family had a large part in promoting. Padilla, who is in charge of coordinating the musical acts for the event, and her father, Genaro Padilla, a correspondent of GG Productions, have made the festival into the sea of salsa — and salsa dancing — it is today.
“My father took over the event to spread the Latin culture and educate people on the different cuisines and styles of music,” Padilla said. “It’s a love that we like to share and spread to everyone.”
But it’s about more than just good food and good times. A portion of the event’s proceeds benefit Latino Communications, an organization that assists the growing number of Latin Americans in Columbia with getting jobs, insurance and cell phone services .
“A lot of Latinos coming here and learning English maybe don’t dominate the language as easily and need to know where their resources are,” Padilla said. “It’s about bridging the gap between Latin immigrants and the companies that cater to their needs.”
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