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Title: Angel Saltos
Description: Saltos tells the story of how, as a recent young student immigrant from Ecuador, he landed his first professional job with ABL Associates, a D.C. public relations marketing firm. Saltos who studied PR and marketing at American University was interested in the Hispanic Marketing arena. In the late 1980’s Hispanic marketing was a brand new field. Tensia Alvirez, President of AB L Associates, was known in the D.C. community for her public relations work with private and public entities. Saltos tells how he was successful in hiring Willie Colon to perform at the Gala dance and on stage at the first Latino Festival held on the National Mall. He talks about other Latino musical groups: Medardo y sus Players, Tito Puente, Shakira, Los Hermanos Flores. He was successful in bringing Rumba Tres from Spain to perform at the Festival Gala Dance in 1989. Saltos describes his relationship with the Festival committee leadership, his experiences hiring various musical groups, and the struggles to secure National Park Service permission to hold the Festival. He also talks about the struggles between D.C. city officials and the National Park Service staff as part of the process in 1989 to secure the Mall for the Latino Festival. Saltos talks about Washington’s large cultural diversity and stresses that this feature makes Washington D.C. unique. This diversity is reflected in the large group of different Latin American countries that are represented in its Festival. Saltos reflects on his professional career after the 1989 Festival. Saltos has continued to work in Hispanic public relations, and in 2003 he was hired to be President of the Ricky Martin Foundation where he travelled the world with Ricky Martin and met many of the international Latino musical artists., Born in Quito, Ecuador, Saltos moved to Washington D.C. in 1980. He enrolled in American University where he obtained a BA in marketing and and MBA in Business Administration. He began to study the state of Hispanic marketing in the United States. Saltos met Hortensia “Tensia” Alvirez who owned a Latino PR marketing firm. They clicked, and Saltos got hired to work on several of ABL Associates projects. He first got involved with D.C. Latino Festivals by organizing a raffle for the 1988 Festival. Then, when the Festival Committee decided to take the Festival to the Mall in 1989, Saltos describes how Tensia Alvirez met with Secretary Manuel Lujan to get his support for moving the Festival to the Mall. Saltos describes how he lured Willie Colon into being the main musical group performing at both the Festival Gala Dance and at the Sylvan Theater. Saltos talks about why the Festival wanted three stages on the Mall where 14 musical groups performed during the 1989 Festival. Saltos describes how the great diversity in Washington D.C. of the many Latin American and Caribbean populations made the Festival unique. Saltos talks about his passion for Latin music, and his professional success representing Latino groups. In 2003 he accepted a job as President of the Ricky Martin Foundation.

Title: Arturo Griffiths
Description: Arturo Griffiths tells the story of how he got involved as a Latino immigrant teenager in the very first D.C. Latino Festivals held in Adams Morgan. He tells the story of various presidents, many of whom were elected before he was elected President in 1987. Griffiths, together with his committee, organized the last D.C. Latino Festival to b e held in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. In 1989 Griffiths took the Festival “downtown” – to the grounds of the Washington Monument. He tells the story of how hard it was to secure permits, convince authorities to allow the Festival to serve and sell homemade ethnic food on the Monument grounds. Negotiating with D.C. government officials, the National Park Service and community leaders took many months. Griffiths stresses the important role that the Parade groups had supporting the move to Constitution Avenue NW and their energy and commitment in organizing their floats and dance groups. Griffiths reflects on the importance of ethnic Festivals, and in particular the importance of the Latino community and its contributions to mainstream culture. Griffiths stressed the importance of educating the public about the different Latino cultures, racial backgrounds, and histories., Born in 1949 Panama City, Panama, Arturo Griffiths immigrated with his family to Washington D.C. in 1964. He graduated from Mackin High School. As a teenager, he was one of the founders of the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC). The LAYC youth founded the first Youth day- Saturday- at the early D.C. Latino Festivals when they were in Kalorama Park. Griffiths was involved in many of the Festivals from 1970 to 1987. In 1987 he was elected President of the Latino Festival and organized three Festivals: 1988, 1989, 1990. In 1989 he took the D.C. Latino Festival – Fiesta D.C. – to the Mall. Griffiths has worked for several labor unions. With his sister, Yasmin Garabito, he founded the Afro-Latino Institute. He ran twice for D.C. City Council and was D.C. Coordinator for the Safe Our Cities! Save Our Children! March. In 1992 he planned and coordinated the Citywide Multicultural Leadership Summit. In 2014 he founded Trabajadores Unidos de Washington D.C., a community-based nonprofit that advocates for and educates D.C. immigrant day laborers and low-wage workers.

Title: Lois Athey
Description: Lois Athey tells the story of the Latin American Festival in the years 1988 - 1990. As a volunteer during those years, Athey organized the food booths and helped the volunteer Festival Committee secure their 501c3 status after the 1988 Festival. When the Festival President Arturo Griffiths moved the Festival to the Washington Monument grounds in 1989, Athey helped the team negotiate permits for the use of the Mall. She describes the problems and issues that the Festival faced during those years. The 1989 Festival was the first time Mom and Pop Latino immigrant families had permits to sell home - cooked food on the Mall grounds. Athey describes how volunteers — all immigrants -- from 23+ countries from Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, worked to produce a Parade of Nations along Constitution Avenue. She also describes the Festival’s success in bringing Ruben Blades, an internationally known cross - over salsa singer, to perform at the Sylvan Theater during the 1990 Latino Festival., Born in 1943 Washington D.C., Lois Athey grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from Smith College and received her PhD from Columbia University. She lived in Chile for many years and moved back to the Washington, D.C. area in 1974. In 1981 she moved to the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in Washington, D.C. From 1988 through 1990 she was a volunteer with the Latin American Festival. She organized the food booths for all three Festivals, and was a member of the Festival team that negotiated permits with the National Park Service for the Washington Monument grounds when the Latino Festival – Fiesta D.C. – went downtown to the Mall in 1989. She has worked with several national nonprofits advocating for low-income housing programs. She has also organized and led Latino tenant groups in Arlington, Virginia. She has written a high school textbook on Latin America and researched access to low-income housing for Latino residents in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia.

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