Organizers Moving Ahead with Cincy-Cinco Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ORGANIZERS MOVING AHEAD WITH CINCY-CINCO FESTIVAL

Latinos looking to share their culture and traditions with the Tristate community

CINCINNATI, April 9, 2004 – Organizers today announced plans for the Cincy-Cinco Festival. The highly anticipated event will take place at Coney Island on May 1st from 11am to 10pm and May 2nd from 11am to 8pm.  

With the Latino population growing rapidly in the Tristate (+150% in the ‘90s), organizers believe the timing is right for the general community to get the opportunity to experience more of the tremendous richness and variety of the Latino culture. At the same time, there is an opportunity for the community to share some of the many resources that are available to all who live in the community.

Alfonso Cornejo, Chairman of the event said: “We in the Latino community are putting this together because we are so proud of our culture and traditions that we wanted to share some of our music, food and fun with the whole community”. To carry that out, there will be nine Pavilions, each of which will showcase one aspect of the Latino world.  

The Dance Pavilion will have performances of traditional dances from many Latin American countries like Peru, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Mexico. There will also be lessons and competitions in Salsa and Merengue, for both the experienced and those taking up the dances for the first time. 

The Food Pavilion will offer authentic Latino food by some of the best local restaurants, like Taqueria Mercado, Rancho Grande and Casa Tequila. Volunteers from the community will also be cooking up samples of tasty appetizers like tamales and empanadas. Coney Island will provide authentic Latin beverages like Jamaica and Orchata juice, while Folgers will sample unique Latin coffee like Dulce de Leche.  

The event will kick off with a celebration of Latin American Childrens’ Day (Dia del Niño) in the Kids’ Pavilion with a poster drawing contest, academic challenges like spelling contests in Spanish and English, Latin American arts and crafts, and a game of Loteria (Mexican bingo).

The Music Pavilion will be headlined on Saturday by Ozomatli, a hot new band from Los Angeles that has performed with such legendary artists as Santana and Los Lobos. On Sunday, the stage will be graced with Grammy nominated and multi-platinum artist - Victor Manuelle, salsa’s leading young vocalist who has been co-writing and producing recently with Emilio Estefan – the top Latino talent producer. Throughout the two days, there will be a wide variety of local, regional and nationally acclaimed live entertainment covering the gamut from Salsa to Latin Jazz to Mariachi. 

The Health Pavilion will provide an opportunity for local health service providers to share information about resources available to Latinos and the community in general. “Many Latinos arrive here and don’t know that this community has tremendous resources available” said Neil Comber Valdespino, Co-Chair of Cincy-Cinco. Other resources will be shared in the Education Pavilion, being organized by the Cincinnati chapter of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs. They will have information and representatives from local colleges and universities, as well as be available to give advice on the college application and financing processes. 

Cincy-Cinco is being supported by the tristate’s leading corporations like Procter & Gamble in the Business pavilion. “P&G is proud to be the Presenting Sponsor for this event” said Maria Molina, P&G’s Manager of Hispanic Corporate Relations. She went on: “At P&G we have had a long commitment to both the Hispanic market and the Cincinnati community; so it was only natural for us to support a Hispanic event in Cincinnati as we recognize the growing importance of this market in our global headquarters’ city.” Other major sponsors include Kroger, PNC Bank, Budweiser, Local Channel 12, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. These companies and others will share information about their companies, as well as distribute samples of their latest products and services.

All proceeds of this event will be directed to Latino based philanthropies, primarily Su Casa.

Mike Flynn, Director of Su Casa Center said: “We primarily serve recently arrived Latinos to the tristate. With the tremendous increase in migration to this area in recent years, our needs have grown very substantially. We are grateful to the organizers for their efforts to support us through Cincy-Cinco”. 

For more information, please visit www.cincy-cinco.com

Cincy-Cinco contact: Jenny Cauhorn (513) 721-3555

P&G contact: Maria Molina (513) 983-2232

Su Casa contact: Mike Flynn (513) 761-1588, ext. 21