‘For us, the planet is really important:’ Hispanic Festival returns with focus on the environment

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Angel Manriquez is well on his way to becoming an entrepreneur or businessman. He sold Mexican candy next to his family’s food stand at the Hispanic Festival on Saturday.

“It’s very nice to come out here and sell stuff to earn some money and have a good job life,” said Manriquez who’s 10 years old. “It’s very nice outside. Get some more fresh air.”

It was also 90 degrees outside. However, Angel didn’t mind it. He said he and his family look forward to coming to the festival every year.

“You can go get a bunch of different foods that you’ve probably never tasted,” Manriquez said. “There’s a bunch of stands you can try out and get free stuff from it like little frisbees or sometimes cards.”

The Hispanic Festival, hosted by the Hispanic Center of West Michigan, kicked off the annual event on Friday at Calder Plaza. So far, they’ve had various performances, Bachata lessons, and a few soccer games.

They also have dozens of different vendors and restaurants, like Taqueria Manriquez, cooking foods from various Latino countries like Mexico and Puerto Rico.

“Everyone loves tacos,” said Hickel, who’s the communications and development coordinator with the center. “So, we do have tacos. We have Pina Colada. We have other kinds of like different fruity drinks. We have ceviche. Someone selling seafood. And, we have corn. The corn guys are awesome. So, yeah, it’s a little bit of everything. We have Caribbean food.”

Some foods are being served gluten free, Hickel said.

She added that their new goal for this year is to achieve zero waste in an effort to be more environmentally-friendly.

“We want to be pioneers. We want to show people that it’s possible, even in an event this big,” Hickel said. “Like, this is our first time and yeah we’re going to have our hiccups but we’ll try to make it the best that we can because for us the planet is really important.”

Hickel said they’re expecting over 30,000 people to attend the event, which ends Sunday evening. It’s their biggest fundraiser of the year and all proceeds go toward their programs and initiatives like preschool services to translation and language services.

Nevertheless, they hope whoever attends the event will join them in their effort to become zero waste.

“It’s been hard let me tell you because it’s so hot," Hickel said with laughter. "But, we’re working really, really hard for this event to be zero-waste."