He's working to celebrate Charlotte's many Hispanic cultures
Plus the top news of the week: Tepper interested in stadium renovations? — New CMS interim superintendent already making changes — Huge site in South End up for sale — Davidson names new president
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Q&A: Rafael Prieto aims to help immigrants and their children learn the history of their homelands through patriotic celebrations
Since 2016, groups ranging in size from dozens to hundreds have gathered for "Fiestas Patrias" celebrations to mark their home country's independence day or national day. Here, members of Charlotte's Dominican Republic community gathered in 2019 to honor their country's independence day. (Photo courtesy of Comité de Fiestas Patrias y Tradiciones de Charlotte)
by Cristina Bolling
For almost eight years, longtime Charlotte journalist and Hispanic community leader Rafael Prieto has made it his mission to help newcomers from Latin American countries and Spain feel at home in Charlotte in a particular way — by making sure each country’s national day is celebrated.
Pre-Covid, the non-profit Comité de Fiestas Patrias y Tradiciones de Charlotte (Charlotte’s Patriotic Celebrations and Traditions Committee) held more than 175 patriotic gatherings that often drew hundreds of people from 21 countries.
Many would come in traditional dress from their native countries to enjoy food, music, dance and fellowship with others from their homelands while honoring the reason behind the special date in history. The group also was responsible for the cultural performances at the city’s annual Latin American Festival, and Fiestas Patrias hosted other events like Language Day, which explored the diversity within the Spanish language, as well as celebrations commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month, and Black History Month with the Afro Latino perspective.
Funding came from local companies and individuals who sponsored events, and this year the City of Charlotte Arts and Culture Advisory Board is giving the group $8,333 to fulfill its mission.
Covid halted in-person events, but Prieto and his team of organizers didn’t stop their tradition of holding patriotic celebrations. So instead, they put together elaborate Zoom celebrations, some which drew hundreds of virtual participants.
Now, celebrations are happening in person again, and we caught up with Prieto to talk about the role they fill for immigrant communities, and how the group kept up momentum when in-person events were on hold.
Q: What was your motivation behind starting Charlotte’s Patriotic Celebrations and Traditions Committee? Why is it important to celebrate individual countries’ independence days?
I realized as I went to celebrations put on by groups from different countries that people didn’t know their own history, and what happened on their country’s day of independence or what was behind their national days.
So, in 2015, along with co-founders Manolo Betancur, Fredy Romero from Colombo American Foundation, Juan Rodulfo from Guaripete Solutions, Lucila Ruvalcaba from the Mexican Academy of Arts and Literature (ACAL), and Selene Staford and Alma Campuzano from Alma de la Luna Dances Academy, we began holding patriotic celebrations for individual countries at Mama’s Coffee House in Pineville. (Mama’s was a business operated by community leader Manolo Betancur, who owns Manolo’s Bakery.)
The reaction was incredibly positive. We’d draw crowds of 50, then 80, and 100 at each event. The space inside Mama’s Coffeehouse was limited, so as crowds grew, we'd do them outside. After Mama’s Coffeehouse closed in January 2017, we began hosting events in different spaces, including the Latin American Coalition and Camino Community Center.
These celebrations give people a chance to enjoy their traditions and to get to know their story — to demonstrate their dances, their music, to present their food: tamales from Guatemala; fricasé and empanadas salteñas from Bolivia. Some organizers spend a month deciding the menu.
Q: Cultural festivals are pretty common in Charlotte. How is what you’re doing different?
We have a format that goes like this: A leader of the venue that’s hosting us says a few words, and then we play the national anthem of the United States, because we think it’s important to show our love for our new homeland.
Then, we play the national song of the country we are celebrating. Sometimes groups of children sing their parent’s national anthem. There are people who get very emotional during this part of the program.
Next, we read a proclamation by the mayor of Charlotte declaring it the heritage cultural week of that country. Then a teacher, historian or academic from the country being celebrated talks about what happened on that day in history.
Then, I give a perspective of the community here in Charlotte — how many people live here from that country and how it has grown over time. Finally, I talk about community leaders from that nation who have come to our city.
Next, someone will talk about the important cultural advances the country has brought, and we name its most famous authors, poets, artists and musicians. We’ll have a dance or music performance and show a touristic video. Then, we close the formal part of the program and enjoy the food.
What we are doing in Charlotte is unique — there are no other cities in the United States where they are doing celebrations for each country. I’ve lived in Los Angeles, New York, Washington and Miami, and while they may have festivals and performances, they aren’t cultural events.
Local journalist and Hispanic community leader Rafael Prieto (center) came up with the concept of the “Fiestas Patrias” celebrations years ago when he realized that many immigrants don’t know the history behind their native country’s national days. (Photo courtesy of Comité de Fiestas Patrias y Tradiciones de Charlotte)
Q: Were you able to keep going in some capacity during Covid?
We had 35 programs planned for 2020, and we moved them to Zoom during the pandemic. Some were well attended, as the celebrations for Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela, but others didn’t draw much of an online crowd. We faced technical issues.
We reduced the number of programs, hosting one for all of Central America instead of one for each individual country. While the online events weren’t free to put on, we didn’t do any fundraising during 2021 because we felt that donors didn’t receive any benefit. It was very different when we had events in person.
Q: What has 2022 been like so far? What are your hopes for the future?
So far, we’ve had three virtual events in 2022 — Dominican Republic’s Independence Day in February, Three Kings Day in January, and a Black History Month celebration in February. We had a very successful in-person Language Day at Queens University earlier this month.
Our next events are Paraguay Independence Day and Cuba National Day in May at GoldenSet Café & Gelato, Blakeney Racquet & Swim Club.
We have some challenges ahead of us. We’d like to get a good website up and get our social media organized.
And I’d like to build a strong budget that can cover the costs of doing these events. At each event, we like to hire a photographer, a person to run the audio-visual and performers. Each event costs about $1,200, and we’ve never had quite enough funding.
We’ve got a few new sponsors, including a landscaping company and an auto repair business. We’re getting grassroots money from the community — it’s a beautiful thing.
Today’s supporting sponsor is Soni Brendle:
Crosswords will return: The Charlotte Ledger crossword will return next Saturday. Check out our 11 Charlotte-themed crosswords that we have published so far on our dedicated crosswords page.
This week in Charlotte: Huge South End site up for sale; Panthers draft a quarterback; former Charlotte Latin parents file lawsuit; Davidson gets a new president
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Education
New president at Davidson: (Davidson) Religion scholar Douglas A. Hicks will be the new president of Davidson College starting Aug. 1, college officials announced Friday. Hicks is a Davidson alum who is dean of Oxford College, an undergraduate division of Emory University.
New superintendent dives in: (Ledger🔒) In his first week on the job, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh announced he’s already reorganizing the district’s leadership “with high expectations for results to close the achievement gap.”
CMS delays high school boundary decisions: (Ledger🔒) Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders say they’ll wait until early 2023 to decide where new high school boundary lines will be drawn in south Charlotte as the district prepares to open a new high school in 2024. The new school is designed to relieve overcrowding at Ardrey Kell, Myers Park and South Mecklenburg high schools.
Politics
Time to vote: Early voting started Thursday. Full details on times and locations. The primary election is May 17.
Mitchell, construction firm disagree on ownership stake: (Biz Journal) At-large City Council candidate James Mitchell and his former company, R.J. Leeper Construction, disagree whether Mitchell has an ownership stake in the construction firm. Mitchell says he does, but Leeper’s interim chief operating officer says he does not, and Hugh McColl Jr. — the co-owner of Leeper’s parent company — also says he does not. It is an important issue because if Mitchell is elected and holds a significant ownership stake, Leeper is forbidden by state law from doing work for the city.
Local news
Short-term rentals: (Observer) The city of Charlotte is abandoning its effort to pass new regulations on short-term rentals, following a court decision involving Wilmington that calls into question the legality of new rules.
Packing heat: (WSOC) U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn was cited Tuesday for having a gun at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Cawthorn was stopped after agents found him with a loaded 9 mm handgun at Checkpoint D. Cawthorn also tried to bring a gun through an airport checkpoint in Asheville in February 2021.
Business
Huge South End site for sale: (Ledger 🔒) The South End Business Park, a 46-acre site on Clanton Road near South End and the “LoSo” area is up for sale — a huge tract near a popular area for new apartments, offices and retail. It could be one of the priciest land deals in the area.
Sports
Tepper interested in renovations?: (Observer) Panthers owner David Tepper might be interested in renovating Bank of America Stadium instead of pushing for a new stadium. A source “with direct knowledge of Tepper’s thinking” told The Observer’s Scott Fowler that the owner believes it might be desirable to extend the life of the stadium with a “public-private” renovation that costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That could make the stadium usable for another 10-20 years.
Panthers draft a QB: (ESPN) The Carolina Panthers drafted Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral in the third round of this week’s NFL draft. They took Ikem “Ickey” Ekwonu, a left tackle from N.C. State, with their first-round pick.
Good reads
Where are they now? (Ledger 🔒) Longtime Charlotte food writer Kathleen Purvis tracked down the former owners of four of Charlotte’s most iconic restaurants that closed in the last couple years — Price’s Chicken Coop, Zack’s, Bill Spoon’s Barbecue and Mr. K’s — to see what life is like after the restaurant closes. She found that they’re living vastly different lives than they did when they were serving up fried chicken, burgers, barbecue and soft-serve.
North Wilksboro’s return to racin’ (N.C. Rabbit Hole) The North Wilksboro Speedway, 80 miles north of Charlotte, last hosted a major race 26 years ago. It’s now on the brink of getting races back again. Jeremy Markovich has the inside story of how that happened. One of the backers of reopening the speedway says: “A whole generation doesn’t know what it is. We’re gonna teach ’em.”
From the Ledger family of newsletters
Charlotte Latin sued: (Friday 🔒) A lawsuit was filed this week by two parents whose children were expelled from Charlotte Latin in September 2021 during a tense back-and-forth over concerns about inappropriate injections of racial and sexual themes and politics into the classroom.
Transport tech: (Transit Time) Plaza-Midwood has robots delivering coffee. Davidson wants self-driving shuttles. Kannapolis is on the verge of having drones deliver medicine. While the number of headline-grabbing tech experiments is increasing in the Charlotte area, Ely Portillo of UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute writes that transport tech still faces limitations and obstacles.
New home for the Blackhawk slide: (Friday 🔒) A red twisty slide that Blackhawk Hardware installed in its store last summer and then had to almost immediately uninstall due to insurance company concerns has finally found a permanent home. The slide was taken to John Crosland School on Tuesday, where workers will create a rock wall leading to the top of it.
Talking about suicide: (Ways of Life 🔒) In our weekly obituaries newsletter, frequent contributor Ken Garfield shares his admiration for families who have chosen to share the painful stories of their children’s suicides so others can learn and understand. He writes about three families who have launched suicide awareness foundations following the deaths of their sons, and he introduces us to a high schooler who publishes weekly updates about his mental health journey in a Substack newsletter.
Robot reporter: (Wednesday 🔒) The Charlotte Observer and its parent company, McClatchy, have started experimenting with using artificial intelligence to write news stories, like one this week with the results of Mecklenburg County restaurant health inspections. The company says using the “Charlotte Observer Bot” frees up time for human reporters to focus on interviewing and investigations.
Another charge for Tim Newman: (Friday 🔒) Former uptown leader Tim Newman was charged with yet another criminal infraction: assault and battery on a corrections officer. Newman has been held in a jail north of Charleston for the last two years without bond on charges of threatening to blow up a dam. He’s the former head of Charlotte Center City Partners and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
Putting the brand in ‘Brandt’: (Fútbol Friday) Charlotte FC midfielder Brandt Bronico, a former UNC Charlotte soccer star, is launching his own clothing line, called the “BB13 Collection” (he is No. 13). It has eight “athleisure” pieces including a hoodie, T-shirts, a backpack and baseball hat. “You can’t spell Brandt without Brand!” he says. Bronico has endured some ribbing from teammates about the clothing line.
Time to honor Orr? (Wednesday 🔒) Several former airline officials and a local congressman say it would be a good idea for Charlotte to honor Jerry Orr, the airport director from 1989 to 2013 who oversaw the airport’s growth. “There should definitely be some public recognition for his contributions, and it would be great if it’s while he is still around to see it,” said Nigel Adams, a former US Airways’ Charlotte hub director.
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