CELEBRATION OF CULTURES

Saturday, September 29, 2007

 

For the past few years Tupelo has featured an annual Celebration of Cultures fair at the end of September to recognize and toast Tupelo's growing cultural diversity. The event is an afternoon get-together in the park with various booths representing different countries and offering food, crafts and information.

 

The location was Ballard Park, a large, scenic and popular park on Tupelo's west side.

 

Rob and Carley with Francisco and Leticia, a Mexican couple who attended Rob's ESL classes and whose daughter attends Carley's after-school program. Carley was manning her own booth representing El Centro, the non-profit Hispanic resource organization that she directs, and Rob was just helping out and checking out the scene.

 

Carley even got interviewed for the local evening news.

 

Some of the booths were really interesting (the Honduras booth had the best food), and some were downright cheesy, like these "Daughters of the American Revolution" that were set up next to us.

 

Also cheesy was the "Macarena" music and dancers on the big stage! The little girl in the yellow dress (representing the native American Choctaw booth) was cute though.

 

Rob and Rowan sported their Guatemalan shirts for the day, despite the complete lack of any Guatemalans at the event. As a result, Rob got ribbed by some of the Mexicans we know ("you don't like Mexican shirts?") and also by the lady at the Honduras booth. It was all in good fun, though, and it was a beautiful day in the park.

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