OAXACA FESTIVAL 2023!

Did you know that most of Lambertville’s Hispanic population hails from Oaxaca, Mexico?

Join us for our second annual festival that celebrates Oaxaca, Mexico’s rich cultural heritage as seen through the eyes of our oaxaqueño neighbors and friends. Food, music, dancers, art installments, an Oaxaca exhibit, and arts-and-crafts activities for all ages make up this free event that welcomes all.

The event will take place on Sunday, August 20th from 3-7pm at the Lambertville Library.

Click here if you would like to donate or reach out to Fran Bardusco if you would like to volunteer at  609-273-5974.

Last year’s first-ever Oaxaca Festival brought in 500+ people. The library created a space for Hispanics and the Lambertville community at large to get together like never before, and the town is clamoring for more.

This year we partnered with the Acme Screening Room to host an event the evening before on Saturday, August 19th. Click here to learn more about James Dupree’s Valley of the Gods and Oaxacan artists’ short films.

The library’s group, Latinas en Lambertville hosts the festival. The women will prepare the food, decorate, and in full native garb, perform the pineapple dance you don’t want to miss.

Fisherman’s Mark is donating the raw ingredients and their kitchen for the Latinas to make 1000+ tamales, aguas frescas drinks, and tres leches dessert.

Our performing artists include:

Piri y las Latinas de Lambertville Dancers (locals)

Danza de Jamiltepec (has locals)

Mariachi Flores from Philadelphia

Banda Clave de Oro from New Brunswick

Our partners include Acme Screening Room, Soupçon Salon, Fisherman’s Mark, Elks Club, Kalmia Club, Lambertville Life and Bucks on Bridge.

Latinas en Lambertville

Latinas en Lambertville is attended steadily by a core group of 25-30 women, and their children also engaged in educational activities. The Oaxaca Festival is an extension of the program, so the group can apply the skills learned and grow together as a community.

The group began through a women’s empowerment workshop celebrated by The Institute of Museum and Libraries from DC, which visited us in April 2023 to learn more about our Hispanic programming. They had given us a modest grant and wanted to learn about how we accomplished so much with the Hispanic community, which is a challenge for libraries nationwide. Out of all the libraries in NJ, they chose three to visit; one was ours, a tremendous honor!

We were also presenters at the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) Summer 2023 convention for “Latinas en Lambertville: How a small-town library created a space of belonging for its Hispanic Community.” Another huge honor and we packed the house.

Donations surpassing the event’s cost will roll over into future Hispanic programming.
Here are photos from Oaxaca 2023 and those we captured during the Latinas in Lambertville program.