Johnny Dominguez and his wife, Celinda, couldn’t believe they were tasting a tamarindo-infused coffee slushie from the Salvadoran Cipota Coffee booth. “You can taste your identity here,” said the husband, who celebrated his Salvadoran heritage with his family on a recent Sunday. “I just feel seen.
” Dominguez is from Los Angeles but recently relocated his family to Las Vegas. Yet when they saw the social media post for Púchica Fest, he was willing to make the three-hour drive. Dominguez and about 400 others gathered at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes near downtown Los Angeles to celebrate Central American culture at the inaugural Púchica Fest.
The event was hosted by Salvies Who Lunch , a nonprofit that creates safe spaces for Salvadoran Americans. The organization was founded by longtime Los Angeles resident Cynthia Gonzalez, who has lived in Southern California most of her life. Her parents fled El Salvador about a year after her birth in the 1980s to escape the civil war.
Growing up, she felt a lack of Salvadoran representation. Her Central American peers felt the same way, which inspired her to create her charity. Live music, food booths and vendors selling artisan crafts filled the outdoor festival.
Events like this, with more planned in the upcoming months, attract the growing Central American communities, which cluster in cities such as Los Angeles. There are more than 2.5 million Hispanics of Salvadoran origin in the U.
S. , according to the most recent Pew Re.