La Fiesta DC: The Ethnic Festival as an Act of Belonging in the City

Abstract

In this paper, I examine how Hispanic immigrants laid claim to public spaces in the city of Washington, DC and affirmed a sense of belonging to the city and the nation through annual celebrations of a Hispanic festival, La Fiesta DC. Over its 41-year history, the festival has been held in the vastly different spaces of the Hispanic barrio and the streets adjoining the National Mall. The paper contrasts the nature, visibility and sense of belonging at celebrations held in the barrio, a space with a historical Latino presence, with those held on the monumental spaces adjoining the National Mall. Paradoxically, festival organisers and the community had greater success in accessing the grand public space of the National Mall to hold Fiesta DC than in keeping the festival in the barrio, with its ethnic markings and signs and more localised sense of belonging for the Hispanic community.