Hispanic Festival

[redsmetz]

I just got back about an hour ago from working the annual Hispanic festival here in Cincinnati. It's grown so much from the small grounds of the archdiocese's Su Casa Center to the Hamilton County fairgrounds. We've helped our neighbor for several years work a game booth for kids for her ministry to Latin American refugees.

I had a chance to take a break during our shift to get some of the food. I had the food from the El Salvador booth called Papoosa (or Papusa) which is a tortilla with cheese, beans and meat cooked inside it. It's served with a spicy slaw and a liquidy salsa. Oh they were delicious. The food from Peru looked excellent and smelled great too; skewered beef in some sort of sauce (maybe BBQ), potatoes and corn on the cob. I didn't get a chance to see the other booths, but they even had one for Spain itself. Most of the food goes for about $3.00 (6 - 50 cent tickets).

Great music, great dancing and it was fun running the booth for the little kids to win cups of candy. I called my younger daughter before I left so she could hear the music. She's in her final year of college with a double major in Spanish and International Business and Cultural Affairs. She was happy to hear it.

If you've never had a chance to go, I encourage you to take it in next year. It's usually on the Saturday and Sunday this time each year. You can take in the ballgame and then stop out at the Fairgrounds ($5.00 parking). Actually for several years the Reds had a booth and sometimes some of their Latin players. I'll have to ask why they didn't this year (after the game).