Latin American Carnival in London

The different Hispanic minorities hubbed in the English-speaking world tend to look for their own roots, their ethnic pride and the own profile in a number of cultural events. These events also serve to give free rein to those groups’ political and social motivations.

The largest event of the increasingly bigger Latin community on the British islands is the People’s Carnival, Europe’s biggest Latin American festival.

According to official stats, the carnival gathered some 80,000 people last year. This time around, estimates have it the 2003 celebration could assemble a whole lot more visitors.

The festival’s importance is paramount for the entire Spanish-speaking community. The Spanish language is rapidly becoming the fastest-growing Western mother tongue and the British capital is coping with a speedy expansion of inhabitants, news organizations and businesses where either Spanish or Portuguese are spoken. Some put the number of Spanish speakers in London in around one million people. Moreover, the Spanish language has become the subject matter British junior high school students lean to the most, while Latin beats are growingly catching on.

The first traces of this party hark back to 1993, but the coming of the new millennium gave the celebration a mighty leg up. The new venue was one of the biggest parks of southern London (Burguess Park) right in the heart of the city’s largest cluster of Hispanic population and businesses. The neighborhood is called Elephants and Castle, a curious alteration of the noble title The Infant of Castile, who once lived there.

The carnival has counted on the sponsorship of the Southwark municipality (the district where London is located in) and presented such great performers of South American music as the Niche Group, Oscar De Leon and Willie Colon, who has sold over a million copies of his records. The show has been emceed by top acts like Alfono Lizarazo and Jorge Varon.

Carnival planners usually set up joints and outlets for selling handicrafts and food from every nook and cranny of mainland America. Dozens of bands from Mexico to Chile play and dance to the beat of Latin music.

In August 2002, carnival celebrations stretched out for fifteen hours and grabbed major headlines on Sky News, Great Britain’s top cable news network. The show teed off with the parade of carriages that struck everybody’s attention. The carnival also included a contest of British salsa bands and a Latin beauty pageant, coupled with a jam-packed children’s party teeming with carousels and electronic games.

Organizers are expecting the attendance of world-class Colombian singer Lisandro Meza as they also gun for the best Brazilian band of the moment. There’ll be bands and groups playing samba, salsa, huayno, Andean folkloric music, merengue, mariachis and other Iberian-American rhythms.

The carnival not only underscores the different Latin American cultures, but also the desire of dozens of thousands of immigrants who come to these islands and demand full respect and equal treatment for them.