North Charleston hosts inaugural Hispanic Heritage Month celebration

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The first Hispanic Heritage Month celebration in North Charleston kicked off with food vendors, an art market, and live music.

Heritage month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The city’s cultural arts department hosted the celebration in its new facility, making the event’s admission and parking free.

There were salsa demonstrations held by the Holy City Salsa Dance Studio as well performances from Gino Castillo and the Cuban Cowboys.

“Mayor Reggie Burgess asked us to try to come up with something to celebrate our strong Latin community in North Charleston,” Kyle Lahm, director of North Charleston’s cultural arts department, said. “So, with the closeness of the month coming up, we sort of came up with this event to do.”

The department brought in local artist Steph Frx to build an art installation. The ofrenda, or altar, is an offering to loved ones for the traditional Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos. It will remain at the Park Circle Community Building until Nov. 2.

“Honestly, I’m super honored because I’ve lived in South Carolina for ten years and the first three were a little bit hard,” Frx said. “I was moving around a lot and it really wasn’t until I moved here to North Charleston, that I really felt there was a sense of community.”

With the department’s new space, officials said they hope to continue hosting events for the community.

“The city is proud be to home of lots of folks from around the world, but we know we have a large population of folks from the Latin community from many different countries,” Lahm said. “We felt it was time to do something in this beautiful space, that we now manage, that would be special to them and special to the surrounding neighborhoods.”