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Latin Festival shares culture and music through the streets of Downtown State College

Vendors fill the street next to MLK plaza; each Latino owned businesses selling goods to the excited customers.
Miriam Colvin
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Miriam Colvin
Vendors fill the street next to MLK plaza in downtown State College on Saturday, October 9th, each Latino owned businesses selling goods to the excited customers.

A Latin Festival on Saturday in State College featured vendors, music and more.

Among the crowd at the Latin Festival in MLK Plaza was Kenia Rosales. She was selling handmade Mexican items in the strip of vendors. Rosales said there weren’t events like this when she first moved here.

“Now that we do this festival, people who are from our hometown will see that they are not alone,” Rosales said.

While Rosales believes there’s still room for improvement, she said the community has made strides toward inclusivity.

Matilda Braun is a freshman at Penn State who moved here from Mexico.

“Coming to a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania, obviously you’re scared of not having this, so it’s very nice to see families and other people like me,” Braun said.

With the flags of Latin American countries draped above, the people sang, danced and welcomed anyone who wanted to join in the celebration.

Miriam Colvin is a fall 2021 news intern for WPSU.