Beneath clear blue skies and a warm summer sun, visitors wandered through rows of artisan booths at Canyons Village while the sounds of Latin America echoed through the plaza.

Flags representing countries from across Latin America fluttered above the crowd as they walked towards the festival area. Families gathered around food vendors enjoying flavors new to some and nostalgic to others, while artists shared stories behind their work. Children decorated tiles, made custom prints and participated in interactive art installations. 

For many attendees, the return of the Mercadito — featuring artists and artisans from Utah and beyond — was one of the highlights of the weekend. There, people could discover a new art piece for their space, select a piece of jewelry that spoke to them, learn the story behind a colorful garment or simply eat a really good empanada.

Since its inception in 2016, the Latino Arts Festival has been a space for artists, vendors, performers and community members to celebrate the richness of Latin American culture that continues to shape Park City along with the broader state and United States as a whole.

The 10 year milestone of the event, participants said, arrives at a time when many Latino communities across the country face uncertainty and division. Throughout the weekend, however, artists and performers returned to a common message: Culture matters, representation matters and sharing traditions creates understanding rather than separation.

“It’s very important right now to bring awareness to what’s happening with Latinos,” Chilean artist Elissa Sabbö said. “Latinos are a big part of this community and this country.”

A returning artist whose work explores her Chilean roots, womanhood and personal experiences, Sabbö said events like the Latino Arts Festival create opportunities for people to learn from one another.

“It’s important not to forget mutual appreciation, community, respecting one another and loving one another,” she said. “We’re all brothers and sisters.”

She believes cultural events help people experience perspectives different from their own.

“It’s important right now to be part of this and see different cultures,” she said. “To keep an open mind and, more than anything, forget the hate.”

For artists participating at the festival, those conversations often begin one person at a time.

“It’s one of my favorite events of the year,” said artist Leon Araujo, who was participating for the third time. “For Latinos especially, having a space like this is incredible.”

A multidisciplinary artist whose work spans photography, murals, digital illustration and even paintings created with coffee, Araujo said the festival gives him the freedom to openly celebrate his heritage.

“I’m encouraged and supported to really show my culture and be my most authentic self,” he said.

Just as important, he said, is the opportunity to connect with people from different regions and backgrounds.

“I’m such a big fan of diversity and an exchange of cultures,” Araujo said speaking about meeting others from different areas of the same country. “I’m from Mexico, and I get to meet people from Chihuahua or Oaxaca and all over the place. I get to see the differences and the similarities that we all have.”

That spirit of connection could be found throughout the marketplace over the course of the weekend.

Brazilian artist and architect Fabiola Noschang described the festival’s energy as her favorite part. The event, she said, is a place where different cultures come together through shared experiences.

“It’s the music and the dance and the culture that brings everyone together in the arts,” Noschang said. “But it’s about the energy of the Latin community that sparks this beautiful unity and friendship.”

Participating in the festival carries special meaning for Noschang, who said Brazilians can sometimes feel disconnected from the broader Latin American community because of language differences.

She believes events like the Latino Arts Festival strengthen community while also helping visitors better understand their neighbors and become more integrated as human beings.

“They see that they feel good about it and they enjoy learning about Latin culture,” she said. “I think that awareness is important.”

For multimedia artist Pablo Ayala, the festival provides another important opportunity: storytelling.

“My experience here at the Latino Art Fest has really been about networking and connecting to the community at large and making sure people understand that our culture is a much richer experience than they might think,” Ayala said.

His artwork largely explores identity and immigration. In recent work, he’s have explored transformation through materials that react differently depending on light and surface conditions. Ayala sees a connection between that artistic process and the immigrant experience.

“These paintings are different paintings in different lights,” he explained, holding one of their pieces up to the sun. “I think that reflects a lot of immigrant values — how we change ourselves in different lights. We’re different people in different circumstances.”

As an immigrant himself, Ayala said the festival is a reminder that no one has to navigate those experiences alone. 

While visual artists filled the Mercadito, dancers and musicians brought the main stage to life throughout the weekend.

Many attendees also arrived wearing national team jerseys as the festival coincided with the opening days of the FIFA World Cup, creating a colorful display of pride, identity and connection that stretched beyond the stage. On Saturday evening, a sea of yellow and green filled the lawn for a watch party of the Brazil versus Morocco match, one of the ways organizers acknowledged the importance of the sport in Latin American culture.

The festival’s performances included the participation of Chilean folk ensemble Bafodach, which presented dances from multiple regions of Chile, including the Rapa Nui culture of Easter Island.

Bolivian group Somos Bolivia shook the stage with their captivating traditional dances including Caporales and Diablada.

Flowing, colorful skirts swept across the stage as members of Ballet Folklórico Quetzalcóatl performed dances representing Mexico. The large ensemble filled the stage with energy and pride, closing their performance to “México en la Piel,” whose chorus proclaims, “Así se siente México” — “This is how Mexico feels.”

“I love dancing and representing my country,” said dancer Milene Montalvo of Veracruz, Mexico. “It’s a way to share my culture and encourage others to learn about different cultures as well.”

One of her favorite parts of the festival, she said, was seeing families gathered together in the audience. For her, that sense of togetherness reflects an important aspect of Latino culture itself, where family remains at the center of community life.

That same spirit of community was on display Sunday morning when Julieta Gesualdo-Gallup took the stage to lead a high-energy Zumba session.

Gesualdo-Gallup is a compliance inspector with Park City’s Building Department and volunteer member of the festival’s advisory committee, so she joked that the Latino Arts Festival is the only opportunity each year for people to come dance with her.

A former tango dancer in Argentina, she discovered Zumba after moving to the United States and later earned her instructor certification with encouragement from a mentor who joined her on stage during the festival.

“Music and dance unite us,” Gesualdo-Gallup said. “Language doesn’t matter. Sometimes when we’re struggling, we dance for a while and forget our problems.”

Music’s ability to bring people together was evident when she was on stage, the scene unfolding around her seeming to prove her point. People emerged from every corner of Canyons Village Plaza to join the Zumba session. Children danced beside parents. Festivalgoers invited friends to join in. Even members of the resort’s medical staff paused to follow along. Visitors who had simply been passing through stopped and became part of the crowd, too.

In that moment, age, language and background mattered little as strangers moved to the same rhythm.

“When we hear a song, whether you’re from Argentina, Colombia or anywhere else, we feel more united, like Latino brothers and sisters,” she said.

Gesualdo-Gallup also spoke about the often unseen contributions Latino community members make throughout Park City. Whether visitors are skiing, dining at local restaurants, staying in hotels or enjoying a vacation in the mountains, she noted that Latino workers help make many of those experiences possible.

The festival, she said, offers an opportunity to recognize those contributions and celebrate the people behind them.

“Being Latino in the United States is remembering where you come from,” she said. “It’s your grandparents, your ancestors, the culture, the food, the language.”

For her that remembrance is important.

“Being Latino means creativity and reinvention,” she said. “It means starting over. It is nostalgia for what was left behind and uncertainty and hope for the path you’ve chosen. It is resistance. It is learning. It is brotherhood with our fellow Latinos. It is pride.”

Her reflections ultimately captured the spirit of the festival itself.

“It’s a moment to celebrate ourselves because we are part of this culture,” she said. “Some of us may be more visible than others, but we’re here. It’s a moment to say, ‘Today I celebrate you. I see you. And I thank you.'”

As the Latino Arts Festival came to a close, it served as both a celebration of culture and a reminder that the stories, traditions and contributions of Latino communities remain an essential part of Park City’s identity.

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The Arts Council of Park City & Summit County wrapped up the annual Latino Arts Festival on Sunday after a vibrant weekend of celebrating Latin American culture and its contributions, featuring local vendors, food trucks, artists and performers who each added their own unique flavor.

The opening day of the festival was dedicated entirely to the country of Brazil, providing an in depth exploration of the traditional dances and music, like samba and capoeira, from its diverse regions.

“We are proud to be here to represent not only our country, but our deep love for its culture, music, dance and tradition,” said a spokesperson for dance group Aquarela do Brasil. “Today we invite you on a cultural journey through the colors, rhythms and stories of Brazil.”

Earlier this year, event organizers questioned whether or not to move forward with the event given the tense political climate and rising fears within the Latino community. After receiving encouraging feedback from the artists, who expressed that now, more than ever, cultural visibility and unity matters, organizers chose to hold the events as usual.

From start to finish, the three-day festival showcased dozens of performances representing a variety of cultures and countries including Chile, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina and Puerto Rico — inviting those familiar with the traditions, and those experiencing them for the first time, to sway their hips or at least nod along to a new beat.

The crowd returned refreshed and ready for action each day, despite the weekend heat, as a new lineup of performers brought fresh energy to the Canyons Village Forum stage.

Attendees explored the event by sampling food and refreshments, and by visiting the dozens of artist and vendor booths in the grassy plaza by the stage and El Mercadito, a market experience introduced to the festival this year.

Pamela Echegaray, owner of jewelry business La Cuna, which was part of El Mercadito, said that her experience at the festival was overwhelmingly positive. Many attendees complimented her work and expressed how meaningful they found it. 

Echegaray said she feels grateful that people can see themselves reflected in the product, noting that, for her, this sense of identity is a reward in itself.

The diversity of the festival audience seemed to reflect a sense of unity despite differences, Echegaray noted. She emphasized the importance of community support, especially for Latino-owned small businesses, many of which rely on events like the festival as their primary source of income. 

“By supporting small businesses, you’re supporting a family behind it,” Echegaray said.

Over 20 artists and artisans filled the mercadito tent where several free art workshops, portrait drawings and face painting were also being held. 

Spanish artist Jairo Dealba, who has participated in the arts festival for the past three years, said his favorite part of the event is the sense of community. 

“It’s been really good, very smooth,” he said, speaking about this year’s festival. “It’s been really peaceful, really amicable, everybody’s super friendly, very accepting.”

Adding to his thoughts about the festival and what keeps him coming back, Dealba added that he’s grown closer and closer with the people every year.

“That gives us a sense of like, ‘We have to do this every year.’ It’s like our duty, and then we come, and it gets better and better every time,” he said.

Now in its ninth year, the Latino Arts Festival continues to serve as a cultural bridge. Its welcoming atmosphere reaches beyond the artist community and into the broader public.

“It’s really cool to have the opportunity to see so many different things in one place and experience things that are out of your normal worldview,” said attendee Chantal Menlove. “And get to see these people that have created lives here.”

The festival coincided with nationwide “No Kings” protests on Saturday, which were held in Park City, Heber City and Kamas as well as in Salt Lake City. Though the timing was unplanned, the overlap underscored the urgency and relevance of the weekend’s celebration.

“More than anything, I love to see how much love is shown to everybody,” said Park City resident Carla Good. “To see everybody feel welcome and people wanting to know where you’re from, what you’re doing here, why your art is a certain way. It makes you forget everything that is going on around this country right now, and makes you feel love and accepted and welcome, and that’s amazing.”

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When Elisa Sabbö arrived in Park City, she never imagined it would become home. What began as a routine summer visit with family turned into a pandemic-era pause as travel was disrupted, and later a creative rebirth in which she would find community and an opportunity to grow as an artist. 

Now, five years later, the Chilean painter and sculptor is a returning artist at the Latino Arts Festival, showcasing vibrant works that merge the wild beauty of the desert with the quiet strength and resilience of womanhood.

Sabbö grew up in Quintero, Chile, the country’s very first port town. A quick online search reveals the beauty of the peninsular town surrounded by seaside cliffs and ocean. But what has inspired Sabbö in many of her works is the American West and desert culture. 

“When I moved here and started going to places like Moab and Zion, I experienced the desert for the first time and it made such an impression on me,” Sabbö said. “I wanted to capture that feeling in my art — the innocence of discovering a new landscape, that feeling of, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’” 

She said she remembers camping and hearing absolutely nothing at night for the first time, complete silence.

“I’d never heard that kind of silence before,” she said. “I want my art to give people that same feeling, like they’ve never seen that kind of landscape before and they want to go experience it.”

Attracted to the arts from a young age, Sabbö began drawing and painting as early as 4 years old. Sculpting held a special fascination for Sabbö, she recalled. As a child, she often shaped small figures out of dirt or clay — little tomatoes, corn, and other vegetables — and on a larger scale, created faces and mermaids, which she found fascinating, she said. 

“My parents had a factory that made these Chilean cookies called palmeras, or palmiers. I’d help out, and often we had to work the butter to soften it. So I’d grab the butter and make sculptures — super weird,” she said with a laugh. 

These instances would shape her path that from the age of 5 led toward being an artist: “I learned what the word meant, and I said, ‘That. I want to be that,’” she said.

Despite encouragement from family to pursue more “practical careers,” like design or architecture, Sabbö went on to earn a degree in fine arts and discovered a new appreciation for oil painting. 

“I enrolled because I wanted to be a sculptor, honestly. But the program we had only included one year of sculpture, and the rest was painting,” Sabbö said. “Out of nowhere, I started falling in love with painting. I began to enjoy it more and more, and I ended up becoming a painter.”

The move to Park City seemed destined for Sabbö, or maybe just one of those happy accidents. It was in Park City she would have her first artworks displayed in a public place, where her first artworks would be sold, and where she would participate in her first festival. 

She continues to work closely with Park City organizations such as the Arts Council and the Kimball Art Center, and she has had her works displayed around town. 

“I realized I had more opportunities to grow my art career here than in Chile,” Sabbö said.

Sabbö’s work blends natural landscapes — particularly the desert — with depictions of strong, solitary women.

“I noticed that when people paint the American West, they often show men on horses, alone in vast landscapes,” she said. “I wanted to show women in those spaces too — not to rewrite history, but to show how strong we women are and how much we have to go through, and that at the same time we too can be in the middle of nowhere, in arid places, in deserts or in storms, and that we have the strength to survive and also to admire that beauty.”

Visitors to this year’s festival can expect to see a large assortment of works from Sabbö related to these themes, with prints and original pieces available for purchase. Last year was her first time at the festival, and she said it was an impactful experience.

“I didn’t just feel appreciated as a Latina — I felt seen,” Sabbö said. “It’s a moment of community unity, and I’m so excited to be back.”

Sabbö said being part of the festival is both an honor and a responsibility — one that feels meaningful in a community where Latino workers are often visible but not fully seen.

“Many Latinos work in restaurants, in bars — but it’s like, ‘my server, or my bartender, or the person who cleans my house.’ But this creates an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, we’re not just the people who serve you — we’re a beautiful community, with an incredible culture that creates, that dreams.’ It creates equality and it creates appreciation. It’s vital in Park City and vital in these times as well.”

A full schedule of this year’s Latino Arts Festival can be found at pcscarts.org/latino-arts-festival.

For more on Sabbö, follow her Instagram @sabbotaje.

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Walking into Pablo Ayala’s third-floor studio at the University of Utah’s fine arts building, the space feels still. There’s a sense of reverence like stepping into a museum. Concrete slabs, fiber textures, paintings and tools are spread throughout the space.

For Ayala, an MFA student and multidisciplinary artist, this space is where stories are honored — not only their own, but those of their parents, their community and immigrant families across the country.

Their work, which will be featured in this year’s Latino Arts Festival on June 13-15 at Canyons Village, embodies the labor and sacrifices that immigrant communities make to support their families.

“Growing up here in Salt Lake as an undocumented immigrant, I saw my parents work two to three jobs every day, and most of those jobs were hard labor, construction, and I wanted to utilize my voice as an artist to recognize that work that they’re doing,” Ayala said. 

Ayala’s paintings often incorporate construction materials like concrete and drywall, drawing directly from techniques they learned from their father and stepfather while growing up.

They described construction labor techniques, such as the use of stucco and concrete, as a “generational craft” — one perfected and passed down from generation to generation.

“(I’m) recognizing that there is a beauty and a sense of exoneration, that these crafts take time, and they take knowledge, and they take time to pass down,” they said. 

While Ayala noted that many people don’t view these types of materials as worthy vessels for fine art, for them it enhances the piece. 

“There’s so many spaces within art that are held back because of, ‘Oh, that’s not archival,’ or, ‘Oh, that’s not fine art material,’ when in reality, concrete is so durable. It has taken generations to craft the right texture, the right surface texture, the right finish, and it has so much information that goes unappreciated,” they explained. “It feels so much more meaningful to paint — using my background of almost 10 years of oil painting — on top of this material that has been in my family for generations and has been in other immigrant families for generations.”

Much of Ayala’s recent work explores the emotional toll of immigration, from the silent endurance of parents to the psychological weight placed on children. There’s the story of their parents, but also of immigrants across the country who constantly face challenges and rising fear.

Through that storytelling, Ayala said they hope others will feel less alone.

“It’s pushed me just to reimagine those stories of love and sacrifice, from parent to child into the artworks and emphasize that we’re all people and we all share stories and family, intergenerational locks, and so many other things beyond the things that separate us,” they said.

One particularly personal piece depicts Ayala picking up their father from work after his second shift — a quiet ritual they’ve shared for nearly 20 years.

“I think a lot of Hispanic families, like my dad, do not talk a lot, and it’s through art or through making artwork that I’ve learned to communicate with him in his own way,” Ayala said.

Referring to the painting of their father, Ayala reflected that they had never viewed the moment as something precious until capturing it on canvas. The finished painting depicts their father’s shadowed figure leaning against a lightpost in an empty nighttime parking lot.

“To put that into a series, or setting it into concrete, is a proof of love and a proof of that sacrifice he’s been making, and I think a lot of people can resonate with that,” they said.

During their undergraduate studies, Ayala conducted biosensor research that paired immigrant storytelling with heart rate monitoring, showing that viewers — especially immigrants — experienced improved emotional regulation when they saw themselves represented in artwork. With that research, they’ve been working with the Huntsman Institute, and are looking to do more research with other groups, like the Kimball Arts Center, to investigate their findings as it relates to children.

At this year’s Latino Arts Festival, Ayala plans to showcase the evolution of their practice from early fiber works like knitting and crotchet to concrete-based paintings and mixed media pieces. They’ll also host an interactive workshop at their booth where visitors can stop by and make their own piece of concrete art.

As an educator, Ayala has taught K–12 students through the Kimball Art Center and designed bilingual courses that merge art with science, culture and identity. In one meaningful memory from teaching a middle school outreach program, Ayala explained the impact they’re able to have on students.

They recalled being told by teachers that a student was “a little difficult and had a hard time,” but quickly realized the student primarily spoke Spanish and was struggling due to a lack of communication support. It was a humbling experience, they said, to work alongside their co-teacher, and be able to provide instruction in Spanish.

“It almost flipped the switch for that kid. They started making art. They were respectful, they were quiet. They loved making whatever craft we were doing that day, and at the end of that, I could never describe them as someone who was ‘difficult,’” Ayala said. “There was just an issue with communication, and for me to be a step for that, I could have never really hoped for something better.”

While Ayala’s internship with the Kimball Art Center ended last winter, they hope to continue working with the organization, particularly through its outreach programs. 

“As someone who doesn’t really like to sit still, I am excited for the next opportunity, and I’m always looking to find what I can do for the community.”

For more: pabloayalaart.myportfolio.com.

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This year’s Latino Arts Festival will include a day dedicated to Brazilian culture.

“That’s amazing! I love that,” said Brazilian artist and architect Fabiola Noschang when she heard the news. 

Now in her ninth year as a Utah resident, Noschang said her journey here was unexpected. At the time, she and her husband — Joan Scholz, also from Brazil — wanted to explore the world. Canada was on the top of their list, but friends in Utah nudged them to give their state a try even though they didn’t really know anything about it, she said. 

Exploring mountains was a new experience for her, she said, having grown up in a flat region of Brazil. She and her husband had once visited Chile and were so captivated by the mountains there that she considered moving there.

Utah’s mountains and surrounding nature sparked a similar sense of awe. They became a place for exploration, reflection, and self-discovery — an anchor that kept Noschang and her husband in Utah longer than they had ever expected.

“Our idea was to just stay for a little bit and then go somewhere else, but then we kept staying, and we loved it, and we discovered that we love hiking too,” Noschang said. “So we would do a lot of hiking, go to nature, mountains, all those things.”

Influenced by her love for nature and hiking and informed by her background in architecture, Noschang specializes in 3D plaster sculptures and art with crystals, particularly Selenite, emphasizing spiritual and minimalist themes.

While her journey as an artist may have only recently begun in a professional sense, art has always been a guiding force in her life, she said. Her love of creativity led her to study architecture and continues to shape her work today.

“When my son started preschool last year, I found myself in a period of reflection wondering what I wanted to do,” she said. “I realized that what I’ve always loved is art. That’s actually what led me to architecture in the first place. I’ve always been creative — painting, drawing, singing. Those were my favorite things growing up.”

For Noschang, art became a pathway to self-discovery and spiritual exploration. She began creating during a period of personal transformation when she was questioning inherited beliefs and peeling away the expectations placed on her by others, she said.

Through that process, she found clarity and art became a way to express her truest self. While not religious, Noschang said she embraces spiritual practices that help her connect with her higher consciousness and the divine. That connection is central to her life and creative work.

Crystals play a key role in her artistic process. Drawn to their energies, Noschang incorporates stones like selenite — known for its cleansing and purifying properties — into her pieces. She explained that each crystal carries its own frequency capable of influencing the energy of a space.

“We absorb so much energy from the people around us, whether they’re happy, sad, or angry,” she said. 

Her vision is to create artwork that not only offers visual beauty, but also contributes to the emotional and energetic wellbeing of its environment. 

“If I could put this kind of art somewhere, and the art itself cleans the energy of the environment, that would be nice,” she said.

Noschang said that she is honored to represent Brazil in the festival, scheduled for June 13-15 at Canyons Village. It is billed as a family-friendly celebration of Latin American art, music, dance, food, and culture featuring more than 40 visual artists and performers from across the Americas. Including Brazil.

“My art is not much about Brazil, but as a Brazilian person doing something that I love here, showing that it’s possible, because as immigrants we face so many challenges here, right?” said Noschang. “It’s a pleasure to show my friends that it’s possible to do something like that and to follow your dreams and succeed as an immigrant.”

As an art lover and past attendee, she said being in the event had long been on her “dream list.” After years of enjoying the festival as a spectator, she gets to participate as an artist.

“Whatever dream or desire that you have, is not in your mind by accident, it comes to you because it is a glimpse of something that you are destined to be, to do, to have,” she said.

She said she wanted to encourage others to act on their dreams.

“You don’t need to know exactly all the steps to get there, you just need to take the first step and let the rest unfold. Do whatever lights you up, play and create what’s in your heart and let it speak by itself and probably transform your life and the lives of many,” she said. “Our dreams and desires are not impossible, everyone is worthy of their dreams. Once you choose you in your life, you find how capable you are to have everything you desire.”

To learn more follow along @studionoschang on Instagram.

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The 2024 Latino Arts Festival was held Saturday at Canyons Village. The festival is hosted by the Arts Council for Park City and Summit County.

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The Christian Center of Park City and the Park City/Summit County Arts Council put on the Latino Arts Festival at the Park City Library Saturday evening, June 3, 2017. The festival featured an afternoon full of live music, food, and more, as well as a free screening of the Sundance Film Festival’s film “Cesar’s Last Fast.” A variety of traditional dances were performed near the end of the celebration. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-Latino-Arts-Festival/

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