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Jalisco Week celebrates Hispanic heritage in Evanston
The Mariachi: Mexico Vive performs at Jalisco Week at Levy Senior Center in Evanston. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: October 7, 2012 6:27AM
EVANSTON — Jalisco Week in Evanston made an impressive debut at the Levy Senior Center last week and Sergio Suarez had only one small complaint: “There were not enough chairs for everybody.”
Residents from far-flung suburbs joined those more locally based in the celebration of Jalisco Week, making Evanston a stop for the first time.
The week, in line with Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrates Hispanic culture.
Direct from the state of Jalisco in some cases, artisans and craftspeople showed off their work at tables set up in the Levy Center lobby.
Meanwhile, Mariachi group Mexico Vive along with folkloric and contemporary dance troupes performed in the Levy Center gymnasium.
Roughly 5.4 million people from Jalisco, Mexico, now live in the United States, observed Suarez, president of the Federation of Hometown Associations, which sponsors the week-long celebration.
Suarez said the event seeks to link Jalisco residents with their culture.
“I’m an immigrant,” he said. “I came here when I was 17, 34 years ago. But our kids, our grandchildren, they don’t know and they sometimes get lost with their identity, their culture, their tradition.”
An event like that held Aug. 30 seeks to help them embrace it, he said.
Certainly, Evanston residents Hector and Ariadna Garcia seemed to be doing that, soaking in the hometown feel.
“I feel like I’m in Mexico,” Hector said.
Jalisco Week is meant to be celebrated by everybody.
“Every different culture should come and see it and enjoy it,” he said.
