{"id":29431,"date":"2025-09-22T15:01:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=29431"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:01:25","slug":"hispanic-festival-a-big-hit-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/hispanic-festival-a-big-hit-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Hispanic festival a big hit \u2013 again!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2025 festival season on the Madison St. Plaza in Decatur came to a close Saturday with what is destined to be an annual staple, the Festival de Hispanos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held for the first time last year, the festival attracted a much larger turnout of people than was expected. This year’s crowd was even larger, organizers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food was plentiful, as was music and dancing \u2013 all of the Hispanic culture \u2013 during the six hours of festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All manner of items were available for sale from numerous \u201cbooths\u201d set up on Second St. downtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Canales family of Decatur organizes and operates the event, with Carson Canales heading up the venture. The family is already looking ahead to next year’s festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the event was first held last year, 300 or so people were expected. Instead, an estimated 1,500 showed up. This year’s numbers were greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were very pleased with (this year’s) turnout,\u201d said Victor Canales, Carson’s father and one of the founders of the festival. \u201cWe felt it was about 20% more than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Victor, CEO and founder of Canales Legacy Unlimited LLC who now resides in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, the festival has a greater meaning than just food and fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want people to understand this is a celebration of some things that make us different, but we are proud American Latinos,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have multiple American military veterans and current military personnel who serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe appreciate all races, creeds and colors. It’s just a great way to learn some new languages, some new dance steps and eat some great food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carson is a sergeant in the National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarson and his vision is growing and we’re proud to stand behind him as he makes things better for this festival,\u201d Victor said. \u201cRemember, he’s a sergeant in the National Guard. He doesn’t want to drive a wedge, just honor where he’s from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were really happy to see so many people of all backgrounds having a great time together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The 2025 festival season on the Madison St. Plaza in Decatur came to a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-29431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Canales-eat.jpg?fit=907%2C322&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29436,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431\/revisions\/29436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}