Macon held its fifth annual Hispanic Festival on Cherry Street Plaza Saturday, featuring live performances, community outreach programs and vendors to showcase the Hispanic community of Macon-Bibb.
Since its founding in 2022, Macon-Bibb’s Hispanic Festival has continued to grow, drawing increasingly diverse crowds to celebrate Hispanic culture.
“More and more people are part of it, especially non-Hispanics,” Ana Hernandez, a founding member of the Macon-Bibb Hispanic Festival Committee, said. “We love that because that means we’re making an impact in other cultures, and people are embracing our culture.”
Hernandez noted an increase in non-Hispanic attendees alongside a decline in Hispanic participation.
“For the last few years, we saw a little bit of a decline in the Hispanics and an increase in the Americans, because of the fear of immigration,” she said.
The shift comes amid concerns about immigration enforcement in Georgia. A UnidosUS poll found that 39% of surveyed Latino voters in the state feared arrest by immigration authorities, even with citizenship or legal status. Nationally, an Urban Institute survey found that 9% of immigrant families avoided religious services or community events because of immigration concerns.
Representatives from two local organizations providing insurance and housing-related services described difficulties assisting Hispanic families, citing fear and distrust as barriers to community outreach.
“80% of my customers are Hispanic,” said Saraki Amaya, a representative from the Hispano American Agency. The Hispano American Agency provides tax services, auto and property insurance, immigration forms, citizenship aid, and more for Hispanic families in Middle Georgia. “Some of my customers, they’ve been through immigration, and they’re scared.”
Marcella Martinez, an outreach specialist from Southeast Non-Profit Housing, said immigration enforcement policies have made it difficult to support the people her organization serves.
“Sometimes they don’t want to tell us where they’re working, because they think we’re going to report them,” Martinez explained. “We’re just trying to assist them and their kids so they can go to school and get a better education.”
As Macon-Bibb’s Hispanic Festival continues to attract larger crowds, the organizers observations about declining Hispanic participation raise concerns about the community’s continued involvement.
“But they’re still coming,” Hernandez said. “And this year has been absolutely amazing.”
