Culture & Community | Fair Haven | Junta for Progressive Action | Arts & Culture | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative | Yale Peabody Museum
Members of Ballet Folklórico Alma de México and Mariachi Academy of Connecticut. Lucy Gellman Photos.
Just off Whitney Avenue, the Mariachi Academy of Connecticut was bringing New Haven all the way to Jalisco, one note at a time. On one end of the group, Darwin Armenta leaned into his violin, the lyrics swirling around him. On the other, Saul Olivas had figured out how to bridge the miles between Connecticut and Mexico, playing his way through man-made borders. From the high ceiling above, a huge, fossilized Archelon kept careful watch, and for a moment, it looked as if it might begin dancing.
That sound, accompanied by hundreds of families singing along, came to the Yale Peabody Museum Sunday afternoon, as the 23rd annual ¡Fiesta Latina! fêted the strength and beauty of New Haven’s vibrant Latino community with a days-long celebration across neighborhoods. Held as a celebration between the Peabody and Junta for Progressive Action, the event brought in artists, activists, scientists, and educators, in a joyful display of shared knowledge, shared safety, and cultural exchange.
The timing falls during Hispanic Heritage Month, which since 1988 has taken place from September 15 and October 15 (when President Lyndon Johnson first signed it into law in 1968, it was just a week-long celebration). For the first time this year, the Peabody offered expanded Spanish-language programming, from crafting activities for kids to lectures from professional scientists, curators and academics in the field.
“Especially in this time, with the stress of the community we serve, this is a safe place,” said Cheila Serrano, a daughter of New Haven’s Hill neighborhood who is now the director of operations at Junta. She noted the importance of making space to celebrate Latino culture, particularly at a time when there are forces working to violently erase it at the national level. “We are sending the message that we’re still united and we’re still here.”
“We’re working on creating spaces where young people can feel pride in who they are,” added Andrea Motto, assistant director of public education and outreach at the museum. While Motto has worked at the Peabody for 13 years, she has taken the lead on Fiesta Latina for the last two, since the museum reopened to the public in April of last year.
Sustaining A Community
Jarelis Calderon Photo.
Saturday, those festivities began around the corner from 169 Grand Ave. on Bright Street, as Junta kicked off the festival with live music, street vendors, spirited speakers and dishes made in Fair Haven’s vibrant immigrant community. Outside the Grand Avenue hub, the bright sound of trumpets and strings from a mariachi band filled the air, setting the tone. Around them, volunteers and vendors showed how much the celebration had evolved from a simple pop-up to an hours-long affair.
Organizer Sheridan Robles, director of marketing and development for Junta, described the festival as a chance for Hispanic and Latino people to feel proud of and confident in their heritage, instead of afraid to show it. Since January, New Haven’s diverse, polyphonic immigrant community has been on high alert, with residents who fear arrest, detention and deportation from federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who are now a frequent presence in the city.
Sheridan Robles and Cheila Serrano. Jarelis Calderon Photo.
Like cities across the country, New Haven has seen an increase in the number of people arrested and detained by ICE, from moms dropping their kids off at school to contractors on the way to work to kids still in high school. Not even a full year into the Trump Administration, it has upended lives and families across the city (as well, of course, as the country), with a kind of fear that has become woven into the fabric of daily life. In organizing this year’s Fiesta, both Junta and the Peabody pushed back against that.
“There’s such a cloud around being Hispanic and so Fiesta Latina is like, ‘Hey, no, we’re loud, we’re proud we make an impact,’” Robles said. “We’re not making waves in a negative way but in a positive way. And look at all of these businesses that are able to be here right now and actually are adding to the economy. You can be successful and still be Hispanic you don’t have to hide it.”
“Our biggest mission right now is making sure that we’re not only sustaining the community but that we’re also helping the kids rise,” Robles added. “Because we also wanna have them not forget their heritage, and not forget their culture and where they came from.”
“We’re here in New Haven, and we love helping people see themselves as part of Yale too," said Guerrero. Jarelis Calderon Photo.
Giovanna Guerrero, who works with the Wu Tsai Institute, greeted attendees excitedly, inviting them to to take part in research studies and participate in an interactive game that lets players use brain signals to levitate a small ball. As a proud Boricua and a member of the Yale Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACANAS), she jumped at the chance to celebrate Latino culture and educate members of New Haven’s diverse community.
“I'm very proud of my heritage, and I love sharing the things that I love about my community,” she said. “The people here are happy and I'm loving connecting with them.”
She added that events like Fiesta Latina help show how Yale connects with the city. “We want people to know that Yale isn’t just a place for a select few,” she said. “We’re here in New Haven, and we love helping people see themselves as part of Yale too.”
Carolina Machado: “There are hundreds and thousands of women that have made an amazing impact in science and we want students to know that." Jarelis Calderon Photo.
Carolina Machado, another volunteer at the event, represented Seeds Of Success, a Yale School of Medicine program that introduces middle school students in New Haven to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. The program pairs sixth through eighth graders with Yale students and local scientists, giving them hands-on lab experiences, experiments, and mentorship opportunities.
As an engineer for 25 years, Machado expressed how passionate she is about showing students that STEM is for them. That’s especially true for young women and girls, who are often discouraged from going into the field starting from a young age.
“My father was an engineer and always called my brother to watch him work,” she said. “I wanted to learn too, and that’s what inspired me.”
For her, the program is about more than science. “We want kids to know Yale and New Haven aren’t separate,” she said. “These opportunities are right here for them, and they can use them.”
“There are hundreds and thousands of women that have made an amazing impact in science and we want students to know that. If you don’t see any women in science you may think that it might not be for you, and we want to destroy that barrier because girls have so much potential.”
Jarelis Calderon Photo.
For Daniela Doncel, a Connecticut Public Radio reporter, being at Fiesta Latina felt both personal and professional. As a Latina journalist, she said that “it means everything to celebrate our people, to be proud, and to remind each other that we’re not alone.”
Growing up in a town where she rarely saw people like herself, Doncel said it took her until college to truly connect with her identity and feel pride in being Latina. That experience now drives her reporting and her commitment to making sure Latino voices are heard.
Being at her first Fiesta Latina was “a dream, an honor, and a privilege,” she said, encouraging others to embrace their roots without shame.
“Don't feel shame if you're just learning how to embrace your Latina. Give yourself time, give yourself grace. But do it because if you are Latina that’s a beautiful thing don’t ruin it.” she said.
Left: Holly Havens and Ashlee Eliseof Books & Blankets. Right: Omar Polo and Nyrmin Vidro. Jarelis Calderon Photos.
Nearby, Books & Blankets members Holly Havens and Ashlee Elise collected books and comfort items for children separated from their families by ICE, some of whom are now expected to represent themselves in immigration proceedings. After supporting over ten community events, they’re now preparing for a cross-country trip in their renovated camper, set to deliver donations to shelters in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and San Diego in November.
“I think that we’re all here for the same common cause and I think it’s really important to celebrate culture and to be together especially in hard times.” Havens said.
From Fair Haven To Jalisco
Top: Addys Castillo. Bottom: Attendees watch Proyecto Cimarrón. Sandi Gutierrez is in the purple t-shirt. All images in this section are Lucy Gellman Photos.
That momentum carried through to Sunday, as bomba, mariachi, folkloric dance and propulsive, heart-thumpingly good salsa filled the Peabody’s first floor, and educators fanned out across the museum. Beneath the high ceiling of the main hall, where slices of sunlight cut through the roof, Proyecto Cimarrón warmed up a growing crowd, with dozens dancing along by the time 1 p.m. rolled around.
The group, which has become a frequent sight at rallies and protests across New Haven, teaches Puerto Rican bomba as both a music and a movement of resistance, rooted in the history of the Transatlantic slave trade and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Sunday, they brought that history right back to the present, with references that ranged from Bad Bunny to the poetry of member Carloz Cruz, who has been recognized as the “Prince of the Black Verse” by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture.
Born out of necessity in 16th-century Loíza, a port city on the northeastern coast of the island, bomba uses call-and-response, propulsive drums, percussion and dance as a mode of communication. Musicians sing “Alejandra Martinez,” for instance, and they are invoking the history of a Black Puerto Rican woman who danced bomba as a form of resistance, purportedly with only one leg. Or “La Central,” which reveals plans for a meeting spot where enslaved people were able to gather without blowing their cover.
“We assume that everyone spoke the same language,” said member Addys Castillo, who for years led City-Wide Youth Coalition before stepping away last fall. “We talk about Africa like it’s a country,” rather than a continent with 54 countries, and thousands of languages between those countries.
She urged attendees to consider those thousands of languages, regional dialects, and widely different customs among enslaved people, who were violently snatched from their homes, imprisoned, and forced to migrate. In lieu of shared words, dance became the space in which they could speak to each other. It was just the drum and dance doing the talking, she explained.
Sunday, that came to life as members made their way through their set, inviting attendees to join a makeshift batey, or dance circle (in this case, a strip of floor) by the time they were finished. As Cruz approached the mic for “Mira Maria Antonia” and began to sing, it became impossible not to dance. Even from her seat, attendee Sandi Gutierrez moved along, mouthing the words.
A drummer born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Gutierrez came to the Bronx at 11 years old, and then moved to Wallingford several years ago. Despite the time she’s been in Connecticut, she still thinks of the island as home. Sunday, she sang along with several of the numbers, excited to learn how to dance bomba after years of being interested in the art form.
“Because of our culture!” Gutierrez said instantly when asked what had brought her out to the event. “Do you want the culture to die? No! There are younger generations who need this, to carry it, to keep the culture alive.”
And people did need it. By the time musicians reached “Pio Pio Piando,” the drums were a heartbeat, vibrating on the floor and up through the seats, people moving along. In the group, musicians left their drums and places at the mic one by one to dance, their hands and footwork driving the drums as they lifted long skirts, pedaled their feet against the floor, and shook their arms and shoulders in sharp, succinct motions.
Top: Rivas teaching. Bottom: Baez with her youngest daughter, Josie.
As Castillo invited the audience to dance, Hamden mayoral hopeful Dominique Baez stepped forward, learning the steps. When her one-year-old, Josie, toddled over with open arms to protest, Baez scooped her up and continued moving with her on one hip. As a Black woman married to a Puerto Rican man, she later explained, she sees events like Fiesta Latina as all about cultural education in safe, accessible spaces.
“We want to make sure that they understand their heritage,” she said of her daughters, tearing up. “Bomba music is music of the Black diaspora.”
Downstairs, that commitment to culture continued with some of the day’s youngest attendees, as educator Ashley Rivas began a presentation and craft dedicated to the butterflies of Latin America. On the screen, bright cartoon butterflies flew around questions in Spanish, from common butterfly colors to what a butterfly is (delighted whispers of “un insecto!” made the group snap out of its quietude).
Rivas, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, beamed as she welcomed attendees from Chile, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Minutes before the class had started, she’d mentioned how excited she was to be teaching in Spanish, a form of programming that is still relatively new for the museum.
Julie Santiago and her daughters, Emma and Kaylani.
Mom Julie Santiago, who grew up in New Haven, was excited to see it too. As a kid, Santiago came to Fiesta Latina many times, but didn’t always have other chances to celebrate her Puerto Rican culture and heritage. She wants her daughters, who are Puerto Rican and Salvadorian, to have more opportunities to connect with their roots.
For her, that includes chances to speak Spanish in the community. Seated between eight-year-old Emma and three-year-old Kaylani, she tried to direct their attention to the front of the room as Rivas spoke.
“I was raised here, but I don’t know a lot about my roots,” Santiago said, pausing to ask Kaylani if she knew what a butterfly was. “I want my kids to know their roots.”
Back upstairs, that message resonated, as the Mariachi Academy of Connecticut and Ballet Folklórico Alma de México, both programs of the Spanish Community of Wallingford, took the stage beneath the giant, watchful skeletons of an Archelon and a Tylosaurus.
Where dozens of families had filled the hall at the beginning of the day, hundreds now sat shoulder-to-shoulder, with groups of kids cross-legged and all smiles at the front. As musicians began to play, they seemed to scoot in closer, eyes wide with wonder. By the time dancers took their place, skirts colorful and flying, some were chattering along with delight.
María Guadalupe Ávila, who leads SCOW’s Ballet Folklórico program, said that’s part of the hope. Originally from Michoacán, Mexico, Ávila has lived in Wallingford for four decades, raising a family there while sharing culture and heritage through the arts. For her, Fiesta Latina is a joyful reminder of how not alone she and fellow culture-bearers are, at a time when being an immigrant has become a source of immense stress. One of her goals is to teach cultural heritage through the arts.
“I think it’s so important to share because it’s our roots!” she said. “It’s the beauty of our ancestors, of our community.”
It’s on teachers, as well as future generations, to “to love, to value, to respect all of this diversity,” she added.
Vivian Rodriguez, an assistant teacher who started dancing when she was seven, added that it’s an honor and a duty. “Our parents come from Mexico, they leave part of themselves behind” so that their children can have more opportunities, she said. There was never a question in her mind of whether or if she would learn the form: it was a no-brainer.
“I love it!” chimed in Bianca Avila. “I come from a long line of people who came here to give me a better life.” Dancing helps her feel like she is fully home.
A junior at Wilbur Cross High School, Jarelis Calderon is an alumna of the 2025 summer cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). YAJI is a program in which New Haven, Hamden and West Haven Public Schools high school students pitch, write, edit and publish articles through the Arts Paper. This year, YAJI advisors include Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and reporter and YAJI alum Abiba Biao.