Photo by Nestor Sanchez via PoP
Today is the 39th annual Fiesta DC Festival (former Latino Festival) held at its historical location in Mount Pleasant Street NW, between Park Road NW and Argonne Place NW. Fiesta DC is perhaps the most vibrant and popular street festival in Washington, DC, its organizers say that more than 80,000 people attend every year.
The festival kicks off around 11:00 am. until 7:00 pm. and includes 3 stages with live music and dance performances, a Children Fair, food stands, and booths of sponsors and other private businesses along the street. One of the best features of Fiesta DC is its Parade of Nations which starts at 1:00 pm. including more than 900 dancers representing the different races and heritages of the Americas.
The festival has overgrown its location, but attempts to move it to 14th street NW have failed. Fiesta DC is rooted in the history of Mount Pleasant but still it has a foreign flavor to many, including NBC that calls it an “international party” while The 42 Bus blog calls it “the de facto Mount Pleasant Day”. The bad part is that reinforces the wrong concept that all the peoples and cultures of Latin America share one Hispanic heritage, which is false.
See Fiesta DC website, my photos from the 2009 Fiesta DC. Map of the festival:
Fiesta DC New Directors
This year a new group of directors took over the non-profit Fiesta DC. The previous administration went under fire when the Ted Loza-Jim Graham scandal came to light. Alfonso Aguilar was the previous Fiesta DC executive director but he did not support Ted Loza during the FBI investigation, actually he revealed that Loza had asked him to give a job at Fiesta DC to his ex wife Lidia Munoz. Months later, a new directory was appointed after allegations that Aguilar and his board of directors were misusing its funds.
Fiesta DC receives most of its funding from the D.C. government, and it depends greatly from Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who has to do with the fact that Ted Loza was one of the persons behind the creation of Fiesta DC as a non-profit.
Who are the new Fiesta DC directors?
Most of the new Fiesta DC directors are close allies of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham and also well connected to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, they are business owners. There are not not grass-roots activists or cultural educational professionals in this directory.
Ivonne Rivera, Chair, is a consultant, president of the Rivera Group Inc, she hold a Master degree of Public Health from the George Washington University, with experience in pharmaceutical research, Rivera has worked for at the Children’s National Medical Center where she built a Language Services Program to provide medical interpretation to parents and children from various groups. Long time D.C. resident, Rivera was born in El Salvador and her family migrated to the U.S. when she was 13 years old. She is married to Enrique Rivera, who is the Director of Language Access Programs at the DC. Metropolitan Police Department.
A reader's comment: "Ivonne Rivera is and has been very supportive of the community. She is originally from El Salvador and works with our communities all over the country. She founded the first Salvadoran folklore group in Washington DC, "El Cipitio", in 1981 to celebrate our indigenous roots and share our culture. She has and is very supportive of community activities. Her husband helped found the Latin American Youth Center and was the Director for years and is a community activist himself."
Ivan Gaviria, Vice-Chair, list himself in Linkedin as “Partner at LCHIP Development Group, and Executive Vice President and COO at Gaviria Group Consulting, LLC, Business Development Manager at Keystone Plus Construction Corporation (KPCC)”. KPCC is a company that has obtained contracts under the Mayor Fenty administration. Not surprisingly, Carlos Perdomo, CEO of Keystone Plus Construction, was a member of the Host Committee for Mayor Adrian Fenty's Birthday Reception this year. Both Gaviria and Perdomo are Colombian and they are co-founders of Todos Por Colombia, a non-profit for Colombians living in the Washington DC area, involved in political activities in support of the right-wing government of former president Alvaro Uribe, accused of human rights atrocities.
Gunther Sanabria, Director, is an attorney specialized in international trade, born in Peru he currently is a Case Manager at the U.S. International Trade Commission, and is an Attorney at International Legal Group. Sanabria worked before as an International Trade Consultant at the NAFTA Secretariat, in Washington, DC. The destructive free trade agreements are one of the reasons that caused undocumented immigration of poor workers and farmers from Latin America to the U.S. For instance, NAFTA has increased ten times undocumented immigration of Mexicans to the U.S. while the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has caused the massacre of Bagua in 2009. The Central American FTA has caused also violence, unemployment and destruction of the environment in that region. A pending FTA with Colombia is now under negotiations.
A reader's comment: "Gunther Sanabria, from Peru, he has been extremely helpful."
Ana Reyes, treasurer, is a financial specialist, there is not information available online about her whereabouts, but some sources say that she works for the D.C. government. Reyes migrated from El Salvador to Washington, DC.
A reader's comment: "Ana Reyes is originally from El Salvador, Chirilagua, and has helped the community in many ways, she is a success story that you may like to hear one day and is "grassroots" as they come."
Maria Patricia Corrales, Vice-Treasurer, works in the construction industry; she is a member of the National Hispanic Construction Association and with ties to Keystone Plus Construction Corporation as well. Corrales is a political activist in the Democratic Party and the DC Latino Democratic Caucus, which endorsed Vince Gray these elections, she has worked in the Obama campaign in 2004 and attended the Democratic convention, and she co-organized the 2009 DC Latino Presidential Inauguration Celebration in Washington, DC.
Rosibel Arbaiza, Secretary, is a business owner including two hair salons in Mount Pleasant Street NW and in Hyattsville, Maryland, she also is from El Salvador.
A reader's comment: "Rosibel Arbaiza, a Salvadoran who came in the early 1980s from Intipuca, has done so much for the community and her people, you have no idea."
Alicia Higgins, Director, says in the Fiesta DC website: “Through my career in banking and now as a financial consultant, I have always helped the Latino community. I want the non-Latinos to have respect for the Latino community. I want them to know that we count and that we will be part of the change in the future.” This sounds good to me.
A reader's comment: "Alicia Higgins from Ecuador is a financial consultant and works with many community groups as a volunteer. Alicia knows the DC community well and again, has worked quietly, helping others."
Jim Graham and KPCC
Is not a secret that D.C. politics have a strong influence from private corporations, look at the current gentrification process. But how ethical is to involved them in political proselytism?
Here is a photo of Councilmember Jim Graham giving school supplies with political propaganda to poor Black children at Park Morton apartments, in March 2009 with the help of Jackie Reyes, director of Latino Affairs and Community Outreach for Graham, Dottie Love Wade the D.C. State Board of Education member (Graham helped her to get elected), and the folks of Keystone Plus Construction Corporation:
See more photos here. Keystone Plus Construction Company is listed as a heating and house repair company and it has been awarded the project of a community park at the former Gage-Eckington school, a bridge at Navy Yard waterfront, and the beautification of Park Street NW, among others.
Here is a video of Carlos Perdomo of KPCC helping Jim Graham with his annual Christmas gifts giveaway -don't forget to vote for me- party... que pena!
Why are
.
Carlos,
ReplyDeleteIf you want information about Fiesta DC, please contact us. Ivonne Rivera is and has been very supportive of the community. She is originally from El Salvador and works with our communities all over the country. She founded the first Salvadoran folklore group in Washington DC, "El Cipitio", in 1981 to celebrate our indigenous roots and share our culture. She has and is very supportive of community activities. Her husband helped found the Latin American Youth Center and was the Director for years and is a community activist himself. If being "part of the community" is advertising what you do, calling yourself a "leader" and scream in the streets, I don't buy it. Like her there are many others that work quietly and are never recognized because "they dont' need it." Ana Reyes is originally from El Salvador, Chirilagua, and has helped the community in many ways, she is a success story that you may like to hear one day and is "grassroots" as they come. Alicia Higgins from Ecuador is a financial consultant and works with many community groups as a volunteer. Alicia knows the DC community well and again, has worked quietly, helping others. Rosibel Arbaiza, a Salvadoran who came in the early 1980s from Intipuca, has done so much for the community and her people, you have no idea.
In regard to Gunther Sanabria, from Peru, he has been extremely helpful, and is part of our community as much as you are. The Festival originated in 1971 and is an event that has changed hands and styles through the years. It is a "glue" that keeps us together at least for a day, it gives us the opportunity to show that we are still in DC. Your information about the city's contribution has to be updated, as well as that of the sponsors. This board worked miracles to make Fiesta DC 2010 a reality. If you want to help next year, you are welcome. This was not a business run event, as you claim. What we would love to hear is constructive criticism and read accurate information.
Beatriz Perez-Gomez
Hola Beatriz,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. It seems that you took offense on my post. I am not attacking anyone in Fiesta DC, I love that festival but I wanted to write about its new directors, so I did my own research. However, I think is important to know that Fiesta DC is not what used to be: a community celebration. I saw the U.S. Army booth and I was pretty disgusted. I will post some videos to explain. Best wishes in organizing next year's festival.
I have chosen to respond to this blog entry bc amidst its rambling, incoherence and misrepresentation of important MATERIAL facts, it also attempts to make connections involving people and entities that HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH FIESTA DC, and while its perceptions of reality are comical at best, it is also important that the people who read this particularly sophomoric entry be given actual facts from which to draw their conclusions, and not from its author’s own personal perversions of the truth.
ReplyDeleteTo the Author-
Here’s your first mistake:
“Fiesta DC receives most of its funding from the D.C. government, and it depends greatly from Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who has to do with the fact that Ted Loza was one of the persons behind the creation of Fiesta DC as a non-profit. Who are the new Fiesta DC directors? Most of the new Fiesta DC directors are close allies of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham and also well connected to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, they are business owners. There are not not grass-roots activists or cultural educational professionals in this directory.”
You mistakenly use the word “receives,” present tense, to mislead readers. In previous years, Fiesta DC received most of its funding from DC, however if you had checked your facts or made any attempt to do some investigative reporting other than playing around on the internet in your spare time, you would have found that for this year’s event, Fiesta DC had to reapply for all of its grants from various agencies, and didn’t receive even 25% of what it has in the past from the District government. In fact, Fiesta DC’s sponsorship committee raised approximately 75% of the total funds needed from private companies such as Giant Foods, McDonalds, EMD Sales, Goya, Coca-Cola and the US Army. Perhaps if you had googled a bit more, youd have found that most large festivals secure financing this way. And to say that none of us are grass roots activists or cultural educational professionals is flat out WRONG. Do you know what any of us do, or are you just guessing again?
“Ivan Gaviria, Vice-Chair, list himself in Linkedin as “Partner at LCHIP Development Group, and Executive Vice President and COO at Gaviria Group Consulting, LLC, Business Development Manager at Keystone Plus Construction Corporation (KPCC)”. KPCC is a company that has obtained contracts under the Mayor Fenty administration. Not surprisingly, Carlos Perdomo, CEO of Keystone Plus Construction, was a member of the Host Committee for Mayor Adrian Fenty's Birthday Reception this year. Both Gaviria and Perdomo are Colombian and they are co-founders of Todos Por Colombia, a non-profit for Colombians living in the Washington DC area, involved in political activities in support of the right-wing government of former president Alvaro Uribe, accused of human rights atrocities.”
ReplyDeleteIn order to accurately deconstruct your ridiculous slippery slope of hopeless connections, let me start by confirming the following actual FACTS:
LCHIP is a small affordable housing consulting company 2 other partners and I started to provide homeownership solutions for the underserved immigrant communities in DC. We have helped organize Latino tenants to combat illegal building sales, have found government subsidies to pay for their attorney’s, and have procured pre-development financing grants from the government to help them purchase their buildings.
GAVIRIA GROUP CONSULTING is the company I own with my family, that has provided real estate consulting services since 2005, and travel services to the Latino community in Washington DC since 1982. It has never received any grants, financing, favors, contracts or otherwise from the DC Government and I challenge you to prove otherwise.
KEYSTONE PLUS CONSTRUCTION is a 21 year old family owned General Contracting Company in Washington DC that has successfully performed work in all 8 wards, for virtually every DC Agency, and certainly well before Councilmember Graham first took office (as it relates to your having brought it up in the first place). Keystone Plus also represents a strong and lengthy history and tradition of minority community activism in Washington DC going back to its beginnings in 1989.
TODOS POR COLOMBIA is a non-profit, bi-partisan, organization whose mission is to provide educational opportunities for Colombian and Colombian-American students residing in the DC Metro Area. It was NOT founded or co-founded by Carlos Perdomo or Keystone Plus Construction. If you’d like to the Articles of Organization, I can provide them for you easily. It is very possible that members of Todos Por Colombia have their own respective political leanings, but particular political affiliation has never been a condition to participate, nor will it ever be one. Furthermore, as an organization in support of the resident Colombian population in the DC area (4th largest in metro DC), it has been asked by the Embassies and Consulate, year after year, to help organize the Colombian Independence Day celebration, regardless of the administration currently in office.
In this one paragraph alone, you attempt to sully and mar the good names of four different companies/organizations and two people, without so much as a single sustainable fact or firm foundation on which to stand. This sounds more like conspiracy theory than actual lucid argument, and I caution you to qualify your claims with evidence, as you could be found liable for defamation of character and/or malicious intent to harm. Ivan Gaviria is also no longer a board member of Fiesta DC, having resigned for personal reasons before the event ever took place on the 26th of September.
“Jim Graham and KPCC-
ReplyDeleteIs not a secret that D.C. politics have a strong influence from private corporations, look at the current gentrification process. But how ethical is to involved them in political proselytism?”
I can only follow your lead here and also make wild guesses; specifically as to what it is you are actually attempting to conclude.
“Here is a photo of Councilmember Jim Graham giving school supplies with political propaganda to poor Black children at Park Morton apartments, in March 2009 with the help of Jackie Reyes, director of Latino Affairs and Community Outreach for Graham, Dottie Love Wade the D.C. State Board of Education member (Graham helped her to get elected), and the folks of Keystone Plus Construction Corporation: See more photos here.”
You are CORRECT this time (well, partially)! This IS in fact a photo of Jim Graham giving school supplies to poor ‘African-American’ and Latino children at the Park Morton. However your data IS also misleading and inaccurate again: Inaccurate- 1) This event was actually a back-to-school event this past August 2010 (Not in March 2009 as indicated by the camera- Ill make sure to update the camera’s date/time). Didn’t you check the date on Keystone’s facebook page where you got this from? 2) Keystone Plus donated school supplies and backpacks to a local housing community represented almost exclusively by minorities. Well…Keystone Plus Construction is itself a DC Resident owned, minority owned business and employs MANY minority DC residents on its jobs, which is why we choose to give back to our own local minority communities. Are you suggesting we should not give back to the local minority communities?
“Keystone Plus Construction Company is listed as a heating and house repair company and it has been awarded the project of a community park at the former Gage-Eckington school, a bridge at Navy Yard waterfront, and the beautification of Park Street NW, among others.”
Did you bother to check the official DCRA website or the official DC Department of Small and Local Business Development, where it CLEARLY states in the “Description: General Contractor Building Construction Services Complete Renovation Remodeling Demolition Elevators and Escalator?” Since your in-depth investigation seems to be laughably limited to the outdated and incorrect information listed on websites like Manta.com (where you clearly got your information), and that serve your soapbox agenda, Im providing you with the link of the actual DC Gov website that says what Keystone Plus actual does: http://lsdbe.dslbd.dc.gov/public/certification/info.aspx?companyid=5185&lsdbeid=5043&ReturnURL=/public/certification/search.aspx%3fcatgegory%3d%26certExpMonth%3dall%26certExpYear%3dall%26certFilterBusinessName%3dkeystone
“Here is a video of Carlos Perdomo of KPCC helping Jim Graham with his annual Christmas gifts giveaway -don't forget to vote for me- party: So, why are business people running a community festival?”
ReplyDeleteKeystone Plus donated 5 gift baskets last Christmas full of food, enough to last 3 days for a family of 4. Again, Keystone Plus is a DC Resident owned, minority owned business and employs MANY minority DC residents on its jobs, which is why we choose to give back to our own local minority communities. What do have against local companies giving back to the same communities from which they came?
And lastly, you ask a question at the end: “So, why are business people running a community festival?”
I have an answer: Because the Festival’s board members also have jobs. The festival is a non-profit, meaning no board members get paid to put in the tireless nights and weekends it takes to put an event of this size and scope together. HOW you are so surprised that when these people aren’t putting in long volunteer hours into the Festival, that they have actual jobs too? Are you arguing that Festival organizers shouldn’t be allowed to have their own businesses? Try googling members of other Boards of Directors and you will discover the same… My guess is once you have, you’ll be very disappointed to know that most of these board members have other jobs too.
So, why have I wasted my time detailing all of this to yet another “surf and spew” blogger? So that you learn to get your facts straight and take a minute to actually think about things before you write them bc the last thing you want it to come off sounding like so many other self-aggrandizing self-proclaimed “sources” who in reality, hasn’t the slightest clue what they’re talking about. Just some friendly advice.
PS- I have offered you FACTS, albeit peppered with my disdain for the garbage you posted. I didn’t make any of this up, or make representations vaguely representing the truth. I challenge you to do the same going forward.