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Hispanic Heritage Month celebrated in Orangeville

October 19, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Hispanic Heritage Month is being celebrated in Orangeville and began with a gathering and proclamation at Town Hall on Friday, Oct. 13.

Instead of a flag raising, participants brought flags from different countries, all with the same common bond of being Spanish-speaking countries. In total, there were 20 different countries represented from South America and Europe.

Organizers Cindy Aristizabal and Jasmine Meza want to encourage people to celebrate their Hispanic heritage.

“This is the proclamation ceremony and celebration of Hispanic Latin American Heritage Month,” Cindy explained. “This is our fifth year the Town of Orangeville has proclaimed this. We started in 2019. It’s fairly new, and we lost a couple of years with COVID. We still had a proclamation but not a ceremony. We are parents and mothers, and we are hoping to organize a non-profit group, but we are learning as we go.”

Spanish is the official language in 20 countries and is spoken in several other countries as well. The number of Spanish-speaking people in the world is around 442 million.

“The Spanish language is what brought us together,” Cindy explained. “This celebration is about the Hispanic and Latin American heritage. Everything ties back to the Spanish language.”

The group is planning to invite more people to join.

After the proclamation, the group moved indoors to sample some food from various Hispanic countries. There were also artifacts and displays from several different Spanish-speaking nations.

“We are calling it Hispanic Canadians of the Dufferin Area,” Jasmine said. “We have some traditional food from our countries. It’s all homemade. It’s a gathering and a celebration of 20 countries that are Spanish-speaking.”

“One of the major reasons, us as mothers came together for this group, is because we want our children, most of who were born in Canada, to carry on our culture, our heritage, our traditions, and know the language,” Cindy said.

The group is hosting a Spanish film night at the Orangeville Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

They will be screening a film titled Gol de plata (A Humble Hero).

This is a family-friendly movie inspired by the life of Guatemalan soccer player Juan Carlos Plata.

The movie will start at 7:00 p.m. and will have English subtitles.

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