CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Thousands will flock to the heart of Charlotte for the Hola Charlotte festival on Oct. 7.
Event organizers say it’s one of the area’s largest celebrations for Hispanic Heritage Month, with crowds of around 60,000 people taking over the center of the Queen City.
But WCNC Charlotte is taking the conversation deeper than the dancing.
Denise Coleman, an event organizer, spoke on not just the work putting the event together, but the efforts to keep the conversation going on issues unique to the Hispanic community after the month-long celebrations end.
One of those issues is identity.
"I think it depends on who you are," says Coleman. "There are other people that say ‘you’re Hispanic’ and then they say ‘no, that’s a term that the government gave me, I refuse to be called Hispanic, call me Latino.' And then there are other people that say, ‘no, I want to be inclusive, call me Latin X.’ So, like I said, it’s changing."
Data from the Pew Research Center show that the issue of identity has been controversial for years.
The 2020 census brought attention to how the term "Hispanic" is defined and measured in the country.
A survey from 2019 found that 47% of Hispanic people described their identities based on the country to which they can trace their family.
The survey also found that 39% of those surveyed used the terms either Latino or Hispanic and 14% most often described themselves as American.
Coleman’s advice is to give everyone the respect to confirm who they are for themselves.
As for Coleman, she's getting back to that to-do list ahead of the two-week countdown to Hola Charlotte.
But more importantly, she’s getting back the work that will continue after Uptown clears out.
"Those community leaders, those community organizations, those dancers, those local businesses, that throughout the year they’re supporting nonprofits and just families and nobody really pays attention to them," she said. "But this a month that we can really highlight the work that they’re doing."
Contact Kia Murray at kmurray@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.