Latino festival draws thousands to downtown Raleigh and may add more voters

When El Pueblo held its first cultural festival 30 years ago in Chapel Hill, the state’s Hispanic population had yet to reach six figures.

Now it’s more than 1 million, making up 11% of the state’s population. And on Sunday, as La Fiesta del Pueblo attracted thousands to downtown Raleigh with music, food, dancing and crafts, a new voter-registration campaign sought to help them increase their clout with the government.

“Grita. Canta. Vota.” is a nonpartisan campaign started within the past year by the national nonprofit Includus Fund, which El Pueblo invited to register voters and provide information on voting locations and ballot access. Their goal was to register 300 to 500 voters at the festival.

“We are the middle people, the ones who are integrating what they care about with the resources directly, so we are not taking stands on issues,” said Monica Sibri, a senior adviser for the Includus Fund.

Sibri said the campaign targets areas with rapidly growing Hispanic populations and will make future stops in Charlotte and Las Vegas.

“We’re going to see a higher number of people voting for the first time in North Carolina,” she said.

Dressed in black T-shirts with the campaign’s logo, members fanned out with clipboards into the crowd and ran two booths on Fayetteville Street. “Grita. Canta. Vota.” means “Shout. Sing. Vote,” and the campaign is closely affiliated with Latino musical groups, including the festival’s headlining act, Grupo Control, a regional Mexican group specializing in norteña music.

The voter registration campaign was the festival’s strongest reminder that a major election is ahead in November, from the U.S. presidency on down to local offices. Despite that, there did not appear to be any candidates meeting and greeting people during the six-hour festival, and hardly anyone sported campaign paraphernalia.

El Pueblo, like the Includus Fund, is also a nonpartisan nonprofit that can’t advocate for candidates. When it comes to voter registration, El Pueblo wants to work with someone who can interact with Latinos and align with “our values and our goals,” said Veronica Aguilar, El Pueblo’s communications director.

“Grita. Canta. Vota. has been a great partner in making sure that the Latino community knows that an election is happening this year and that voting is really important and that we have the power as Latinos to make a difference,” Aguilar said.

El Pueblo has also produced a voter guide for statewide, Congressional and presidential races that can be found at votemosnc.com.

Aguilar said El Pueblo’s annual festival attracted 25,000 visitors last year. On Sunday, Fayetteville Street was packed with festival goers despite gray skies and the occasional wind gust. Other new additions to the festival were a second stage and a 50-foot-tall inflatable artwork of a Ceiba tree, a type native to much of Latin America, both at the north end of Fayetteville Street near the State Capitol.