The Latinx Fiesta has been a longstanding celebration of Latin American culture held at Central Oregon Community College for over a decade. It was slated for April 19 with face painting, a musical celebration, a bilingual storytime event and a variety of other activities, yet was cancelled less than a week prior to the event.
The planning for the event stretched back to January, involving students of the Latinx club, COCC staff and members of the greater community as well–organizations and community partners including the City of Bend.
This loss was felt not just by COCC but Central Oregon as well. Sources interviewed shared that the fiesta was cancelled over general concerns for the well being of those attending the event and possible outside threats. No threats were received prior to the cancellation.
In a press release on April 15, COCC stated:
“This difficult decision was made out of an abundance of caution and in alignment with similar decisions by community partners, as well as COCC’s core values of safety, inclusion and community well-being…Rest assured, COCC remains committed to celebrating Latinx cultures in meaningful ways and looks forward to bringing this and other community events to life in the future…”
Larissa Sandoval, vice-president of the Latinx Club. Sandoval has held her title since the fall term of 2024. President Ana Laura Jacuinde Caballero of the Latinx Club has been engaged in the dual partnership program with Oregon State University Cascades and as such was rarely on campus.
She explained how the news broke during a club meeting and people were hurt. More than one person cried. She said she was ultimately unsurprised due to the current political climate but it was still difficult to bear witness.
“It just hurt me to see how much it impacted others,” she said.
Sandoval had been in charge of decorations for the event. She said people were disappointed and frustrated because the event was supposed to be a party. It should have been a time for people to celebrate and not feel less than because of their ethnicity.
“I don’t understand the idea of why somebody would want to come to the party to ruin it or to make others feel unwelcomed,” Sandoval said.
Claudia Bisso-Fetzer, the Latinx college student program coordinator at COCC and head organizer of the event, said the cancellation occurred during a dialogue with the Senior Leadership Team of the college; the vice presidents of academic affairs, student affairs, and finance/operations are some of the members on the Team.
The team observed similar events being cancelled like the Latino Community Association’s Latino Fest in Madras and didn’t feel as though COCC could guarantee the safety of guests.
Christy Walker, dean of equity and well-being at COCC, explained that “currently there are risks associated with people’s perceptions of who belongs and who doesn’t (in this country.)”
“It was the right call at the right time. We have the capacity to adjust to these new (political and racial) tensions, and we did it as a team,” Besso-Fetzer stated. Their meeting culminated with the move being a necessary pivot for the community.
Both Walker and Bisso-Fetzer expressed the loss for both COCC and Central Oregon but emphasized the motivation to innovate. Walker elaborated that she was taken aback by the willingness of others to adapt and move past the loss–to make strides to still celebrate and uplift the Latinx community.
“That is what this is about. It’s about…recognizing that people can succeed and be amazing because of their culture and not in spite of it,” she said.
Katherina Barguil works for the City of Bend as a community relations manager. She explained how she worked with Bisso-Fetzer by workshopping ideas with her and reaching out to Latin local businesses for collaboration for the Fiesta. She also referred Bisso-Fetzer to the City of Bend Sponsorship Program for a donation to the event, money that hasn’t been requisitioned following the cancellation.
She detailed how the Latin community is not a monolith and is a much more complicated ecosystem. That complication reflected in her feelings on her presence as an immigrant from Latin America:
“I was really looking forward to (the Fiesta) as a community member and as… my own person to celebrate alongside folks. I have privilege of being a US citizen as well…I have to temper that, that understanding of…even with my immigrant status, I have a level of protection.”
Barguil finished by expressing sympathy for Latin Central Oregonians that have felt rejected by the very community it has given and serviced so much for; they too deserve the rights and protections afforded to any member of the community, she said.
Bisso-Fetzer discussed how the event shall be broken up into smaller events held over the next two months.
On May 7 a panel of COCC students are visiting Madras High School to speak on the college experience. The director of the COCC Madras campus, James Rodriguez will direct the meeting.
On a to-be-determined day in May a group of students will go to a local elementary school to emphasize early literacy and biliteracy, reading to children both in English and Spanish. Accompanying the students will be 50 teddy bears and 50 books; the bears were bought by the Latinx Club and the books a donation from the Deschutes Public Library.
Bisso-Fetzer attributed the idea to the students of the Latinx club and proposed it could be the beginning to a larger campaign of visiting different elementary schools and reading to them.
On June 7, in partnership with the Deschutes Public Library and the Barber Library on the Bend campus, a reading event will occur. Open to all members of the community and occurring in the Multicultural Center, within the Coats Campus Center, this event will include children’s stories along with face painting.
“When we do something, everybody at COCC, it’s a whole unity to help to work,” Bisso-Fetzer concluded.
