Latin Culture

Vive Minnesota celebrates growing Latino influence on state culture

Filed under: Latin Culture

In reviewing Indio for this week's issue, Rachel Hutton makes an interesting observation about the growing influence of Latino culture on the Twin Cities' foodscape:

In the not so recent past, most Twin Citians who didn't grow up eating Mexican food knew it only in the form of Chi-Chi's or Taco Bell, where "cooking" meant squirting guacamole out of something that looked like a caulking gun. But as the local Latino population has swelled in recent decades, authentic Mexican cuisine has flourished. El Burrito Mercado moved to its iconic Concord Street space; Mercado Central brought south Minneapolis a lively Latin American marketplace; and the local Scandinavian stock learned to enjoy Mexican food at places that didn't tone down the spice or drown dishes in dairy.

Rachel is spot on. Those looking to explore more than just the culinary aspects of Latino culture should check out this weekend's Vive Minnesota (full disclosure: City Pages is among the media sponsors). A three-day festival of music, art, and food, the monster event differentiates itself from similarly-themed celebrations by ignoring borders.

"Our idea was really to celebrate the diversity within the Latino community," says Michael Robles, the festival director, who immigrated to the States from Lima, Peru, when he was just a 3-year-old boy. "We're so proud of our heritage and our culture that we have a tendency to celebrate individual countries, so we really wanted to bring it all together."

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Posted by Kevin Hoffman at May 21, 2008 8:05 AM | Comments (0)