DARLINGTON - More people turned out Saturday to celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo at Darlington's sixth annual Fiesta Latina than live in the town.
The turnout of 2,500 to 3,000 was the largest since organizer Tony Ruesga started the festival in 2007 to help close the culture gap in the community between longtime residents and new immigrants.
A decade ago, he said, only a handful of immigrant families lived in Darlington. Now the city's immigrant population has swelled to about 300 people, mostly from Mexico and Honduras.
"As the sergeant of the police department, I was trying to find a creative way to mesh that culture into the mainstream Darlington culture," said Ruesga, who has been with the Darlington Police since 1999 and serves as the department's liaison to the local Latino population.
"Every year it gets a little better, a little bigger," he said. He helps oversee the event every year in his capacity as president of Darlington's Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Program with director Suzi Osterday. The event's mission statement at fiestalatinadarlington.org calls it "an excellent opportunity for the Hispanic and Anglo communities to come together in a positive way."
Held on the Darlington Festival Grounds, the party this year featured 50-cent games for kids, pinatas, a salsa competition, dancing, music performances and food vendors selling dress-your-own tacos and salted mango. Nearby soccer and basketball tournaments organized in conjunction with Fiesta Latina drew teams from as far away as Milwaukee, Baraboo, Fennimore, Madison, Whitewater and Galena, Ill., according to Ruesga.
Students from Darlington High School's Spanish Club were selling (and smashing) eggs they'd blown out, filled with flour and decorated with paint. The colorful eggs pulled more than a $1,000 in sales, Ruesga said.
The 50-cent children's games were also popular this year, netting a record-breaking $2,300 and for the first time covering the cost of game-equipment rentals.
In past years, money raised at Fiesta Latina was donated to the installation of pedestrian signs and benches on Main Street and to the Darlington Area Veteran's Memorial fund.
"Now we're establishing scholarships for graduating seniors," Ruesga said. The first two Fiesta Latina scholarships ($250 each) will be awarded at a ceremony May 17 at the high school. The scholarship application asked students to write an essay on how culture and diversity has affected them and their thought patterns.
The scholarships are open to students continuing their education in any way after high school - not just to four-year colleges and for those interested in majoring in an ethnic studies program - because, Ruesga said, cultural diversity is a fact of life no matter what career path a student chooses.
The turnout of 2,500 to 3,000 was the largest since organizer Tony Ruesga started the festival in 2007 to help close the culture gap in the community between longtime residents and new immigrants.
A decade ago, he said, only a handful of immigrant families lived in Darlington. Now the city's immigrant population has swelled to about 300 people, mostly from Mexico and Honduras.
"As the sergeant of the police department, I was trying to find a creative way to mesh that culture into the mainstream Darlington culture," said Ruesga, who has been with the Darlington Police since 1999 and serves as the department's liaison to the local Latino population.
"Every year it gets a little better, a little bigger," he said. He helps oversee the event every year in his capacity as president of Darlington's Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Program with director Suzi Osterday. The event's mission statement at fiestalatinadarlington.org calls it "an excellent opportunity for the Hispanic and Anglo communities to come together in a positive way."
Held on the Darlington Festival Grounds, the party this year featured 50-cent games for kids, pinatas, a salsa competition, dancing, music performances and food vendors selling dress-your-own tacos and salted mango. Nearby soccer and basketball tournaments organized in conjunction with Fiesta Latina drew teams from as far away as Milwaukee, Baraboo, Fennimore, Madison, Whitewater and Galena, Ill., according to Ruesga.
Students from Darlington High School's Spanish Club were selling (and smashing) eggs they'd blown out, filled with flour and decorated with paint. The colorful eggs pulled more than a $1,000 in sales, Ruesga said.
The 50-cent children's games were also popular this year, netting a record-breaking $2,300 and for the first time covering the cost of game-equipment rentals.
In past years, money raised at Fiesta Latina was donated to the installation of pedestrian signs and benches on Main Street and to the Darlington Area Veteran's Memorial fund.
"Now we're establishing scholarships for graduating seniors," Ruesga said. The first two Fiesta Latina scholarships ($250 each) will be awarded at a ceremony May 17 at the high school. The scholarship application asked students to write an essay on how culture and diversity has affected them and their thought patterns.
The scholarships are open to students continuing their education in any way after high school - not just to four-year colleges and for those interested in majoring in an ethnic studies program - because, Ruesga said, cultural diversity is a fact of life no matter what career path a student chooses.