I’m an American

There were altars built in homage to the dead—one to legendary Latin entertainer Roberto Miranda, one to Pope John Paul II, one dedicado con respeto a todos los muertos de la torres gemelas, to all the victims from the twin towers—each enlivened by flowers and incense. There was a lineup of local Mexican ballad singers, and there were numerous folkloric dancers, some less than 10 years of age and others over 80, moving about the stage with an inherited probity and historical grace, and they all wore the floral skirts, white blouses, red lipstick, heavy eye shadow and flared eyeliner of their ancestors, and tied up their look neatly with red ribbons in their hair. There was frybread for sale, a roach coach for those who were hungrier, workshops for the children, including one on sugar skulls and another on paper flowers (two items rampant about the festival), and an art gallery dedicated to the holiday's skeletal imagery inside the Winchester Cultural Center, on McLeod Drive, just north of Desert Inn Road. The event started at 4 p.m. on each day, and by 7 o'clock the parking lot reached full capacity. There were several families there: little kids running around the park grounds, women dragging their men by the arm through each tent, exclaiming "Me gusta, me gusta!" and the men, resigned, sighing to the vendors: "Ayyyyyy—¿cuantos?"

There was a tent with accessories from Peru, a tent with doll figures of dancing ballerinas, rustic Mexican laborers, mythical creatures and even a tent with literature, the Aztlan Books Y Mas.

La mujer que vende los libros—una Rodriguez, como mi madre—me dijo ella, un maestra aquí en Las Vegas, no podría encontrar buenos libros en español en el pueblo. Me dijo ella penso eran una verguenza acerca de la gran población hispana del Valle. Y así que ella abrió una libreria con libros en español hace cuatro meses. "¿Por que aquí?" dije yo.

"Asistí a la fiesta los últimos dos años y yo pense, una cosa se extrana aqui y son los libros," dijo ella, Marilu. Dentro de su tienda ella tuvo a todos los maestros de Iberoamerica, de Fuentes a Garcia Márquez a Vargas Llosa, completamente hacia abajo a los chilenos, Allende y Neruda. Yo compré un libro de sonetos de Neruda, en español, porque no es facíl de encontrar eso en Las Vegas.

(Translated, in essence: The woman selling books, a teacher in Las Vegas who opened a much-needed Spanish bookstore four months ago, said she set up a tent at the festival because literature was the one thing missing in her previous experiences with the event. She offered works from all the masters of Latin America, and I bought a book of sonnets from Pablo Neruda, in Spanish, because I hadn't been able to find it anywhere else in Las Vegas.) Winchester's cultural specialist, Irma Wynants, coordinated the two-day festival. She hails from Zacatecas, Mexico, has lived in Las Vegas for the past 18 years and on Wednesday wore a traditional Mexican dress and scurried around with a basket of pan.

"We have more things going on this year, and every year we get more people showing up," she said of the event, now in its sixth year. It's only natural. As Wynants said, the event was not just for the growing Latin community in Las Vegas: It was also because of them. The most recent U.S. Census statistics show that people of Latin descent in the Las Vegas Valley, some 450,000, now comprise more than one-quarter of the total population, and one in three teens in Las Vegas is Hispanic. And evidence shows they are further integrating into Clark County life.

While the overall number of registered voters has declined in the past two years, registered Hispanic voters have increased from 79,000 to 87,000, according to the Clark County election department. Now, the Culinary Union says, at least half its membership is Latino. And Hispanic businesses are booming, says Chris Roman, general manager of Entravision Communication Corporation.

"There are Hispanic attorneys, doctors, financial advisors, mechanics—and they're not doing business only with other Hispanics," says Roman, whose company oversees KINC Univision 15, the television station with the highest early evening news ratings among 18-to-49-year-olds in Las Vegas, regardless of language. "In my job I have the privilege of meeting with hundreds of them every month, and they all tell me they're getting more and more non-Hispanic clients. Integrating their businesses: That's been the success of any immigrant group in this country," At Winchester, several non-Hispanic couples shopped around, and at the north end of the festival there was a Starbucks vendor serving everyone on the cold November night.

"Las Vegas is so rich with diversity," said Wynants, who also orchestrates the World Vibrations series at Winchester, in which locals from various countries demonstrate the dances of their native regions.

"That's why it'll be worth it when I wake up tomorrow completely exhausted."

Había sido mi buena suerte eso, como esperé para hablar con Irma, yo acabé por atras del telón, donde los bailarines se reúnen antes de realizar. Porque me encontré rodeado por mujeres jóvenes con el vestido tradicional del baile y con rosas en el pelo. De esta manera, estaba como si estuviera bajo la luna incompleta en una largo noche de otoño, sino, en un jardín de primavera, las mariposas y sus flores en plena flor. Recuerdo el pensamiento que verdadero, la bella es bella, todo a través del espectro de la raza humana, pero no cabe duda que las mujeres Mexicanas poseen una belleza distinta de todas las mujeres en el mundo, y para suerte buena del sur de Nevada ahora abunda aquí.

Entonces un muchacho pequeño con piel indígena, ojos de color de jarabe y un estera de pelo negro grueso vinieron del hacia mi, un fugitivo se solto de madre, cantando "We Are the Champions," por Queen, en Inglés impecable. Quise preguntar al muchacho pequeño hispano a que páis crees que pertenecias, pero como su madre lo persigue, yo no podría alcanzar. Soy positivo, no obstante, que su respuesta habría sido igual que las otras 20 personas más o menos que pregunte:

"I'm an American."

(Translated, in essence: To my good fortune, I found myself surrounded by a group of young women, dancers with roses in their hair, and it was then revealed to me that Mexican women possess a charm that is distinct from the rest of the world's women. In this way, it is Southern Nevada's good fortune that they now abound here.

Then a little Hispanic boy ran by me, singing a popular American rock song in perfect English, and while I could not catch up with him to ask what country he believed he belonged to, I'm sure of his answer: I'm an American.)