Culture, Community, and Connection: The Return of the International Festival of Minnesota

Thirteen years ago, when I first moved to Minnesota to work at the Consulate of Mexico, one of the first events I became involved with was the Festival of Nations. 

At the time, I was serving as Cultural Attaché, and I had the joy of participating as a cultural vendor. For a few years, I helped plan educational activities, curated a photo exhibit, and worked with local folkloric dance groups so they could share their traditions on stage. It was part of my job, yes, but it also became something much more personal. For me, it was an entry point into a community that was alive with culture, identity, and pride. 

I remember walking through the festival back then and feeling something shift. Hearing so many languages at once. Seeing families dressed in traditional clothing. At the time, I felt like such a foreigner and, to be honest, sometimes I still do. But that festival filled something in me that is hard to describe and easy to recognize for so many of us who have searched for belonging far from home. 

And then, like so many things, it stopped. 

Its absence left a real void. A silence where there had once been celebration. A gap in a space that had brought people together across generations and across difference. 

Years later, my friend Mark Ritchie introduced me to Steve Heckler and told me about the effort to bring the festival back. He invited me to be part of it, and I did not hesitate. I said yes immediately because I felt that same excitement I had all those years ago. 

Now, after this year’s International Festival of Minnesota, I can honestly say it was even more meaningful than I imagined. This was never just an event. It was a gathering of stories, histories, and identities that make our state what it is. 

Walking again into the Saint Paul RiverCentre and seeing kids try foods they had never tasted before, only to run off excitedly to tell their friends about it. Hearing music echo through the halls. Seeing movement, color, language, and tradition everywhere you turned. There was a kind of energy that lifted our spirits in ways that have been deeply needed in our community, especially after the last few months. There is something powerful about watching a child see themselves reflected in a performance, taste a dish that reminds them of their grandmother, or learn something new about someone standing just a few feet away.  

What moved me most was not only that the festival returned, but how it returned. The people who built it, who danced in it as children, who saw their parents work as volunteers, who carried it for decades, came back to help rebuild it once again. 

This year, the festival brought together more than 70 nations and ethnic communities to share food, music, dance, art, and traditions with thousands of attendees, including so many young people. The name may be new, but the heart of the festival remains the same. 

We are living through a moment where difference is too often treated as division. Where culture can be flattened, misunderstood, or politicized. We need spaces like this to push against that. To remind us that culture is lived. It is something we carry with us, and something that, when shared, makes us stronger as a community. 

For me, being part of this return felt like coming full circle. It felt like stepping back into something that helped shape my own sense of belonging in the place I now call home, in the same venue where, just a few years ago, I became a United States citizen myself. 

The International Festival of Minnesota is not just about celebrating where we come from. It is about recognizing what we can build together. 

Across languages. Across histories. Across difference. 

I am grateful to everyone who helped bring this festival back to life and to every person who showed up with curiosity, openness, and joy. Because this is what community can look like when we choose connection. 

And it is absolutely worth showing up for. 

Now, on to next year!