Mexican Independence Day isn’t Cinco de Mayo. Celebrate at this Lexington festival.
Come celebrate Mexican Independence Day with a community-wide event that promises music, dance, kids’ activities and food.
While many Americans may think of Cinco de Mayo as the Mexican counterpart to the United States’ celebration of Independence Day, that’s not the case, said Monica Calleja, director of the Casa de la Cultura Kentucky.
Sept. 16 is Mexican Independence Day, and for the second year in a row, Calleja’s organization and the Greater Gardenside Association are partnering to host a celebration.
Viva Mexico: A Celebration of Mexico’s Independence, is 5 to 11 p.m. Sept. 16 at Gardenside Plaza, 1729 Alexandria Drive.
The festival will feature traditional dancers and musicians, food vendors, artisans and craft vendors, kids’ activities, inflatables and performances by ranchera bands.
Calleja said the event will offer representations of Mexico that go beyond tacos and mariachi music.
“It’s a huge multicultural palette of different, different things we want people to taste,” Calleja said. “We are telling our vendors to be more broad about what they bring to the festival.”
But the centerpiece of the evening may be a ceremony beginning at 8:30 p.m. that will include the national anthems of both Mexico and the United States.
Calleja said the event will mark the day in 1810 that Miguel Hidalgo, a Mexican priest concerned about slavery, the exploitation of indigenous people and a race-based caste system, called for the people of Mexico to rise up against the rule of Spain.
It would be more than 10 years before the country gained its independence.
Calleja said it’s important for younger generations to learn more about that history.
“They need to recognize these dates and celebrate them for what they are,” she said.
This is the second year for the Viva Mexico festival, a collaboration between the Casa de la Cultura Kentucky, which promotes Latino culture and the use of the Spanish language, and the Greater Gardenside Association, a nonprofit made up of businesses, residents and others working to “energize” the area bounded by Versailles, Harrodsburg, New Circle and Mason Headley roads.
“Ours is a very diverse community. Residents are white, Black, Latino, and come from African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries. A major goal of the Greater Gardenside Association is to bring all of these groups together as well as to support and promote our area businesses,” Susan Spalding, secretary of the Greater Gardenside Association, said in an email. “We are partnering with Casa de la Cultura on Viva Mexico in hopes of bringing together all of our neighbors for this exciting celebration and to let people from other parts of town know about all that our area has to offer.”
Calleja said last year’s celebration was impacted by rain, but organizers were still pleased with a turnout of about 300 people.
“We never expected to have that many people last year,” she said.
This year, Calleja said more than 1,000 are expected.
The rain date for the event is Sept. 17.
The city’s Festival Latino de Lexington, which celebrates Latin American culture as a whole, is scheduled for the evenings of Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in downtown Lexington.
Cinco de Mayo, which is Spanish for May 5, honors the date in 1862 when the Mexican army celebrated a victory over France during the Franco-Mexican War.
Viva Mexico: A Celebration of Mexico’s Independence
What: Celebration of Mexican Independence Day
When: Sept. 16, 5 to 11 p.m. (Rain date Sept. 17)
Where: Gardenside Plaza, 1729 Alexandria Drive.
Cost: Free, food for sale
