The postponement of the annual Perry Latino Festival, which was to be held all day Saturday, could have brought a sense of despair to the City. However, through the actions of the community, there was instead a sense of solidarity and hopefulness in downtown Perry Saturday afternoon, as the citizens held a Unity Rally to show support for the City’s large Hispanic population.
The event was organized in part by Perry High School teacher T.J. Maylum, who created a Facebook event that spread rapidly through the community. Maylum started things off by addressing the crowd and thanking them for coming. He then gave the microphone to Hispanics United for Perry (HUP) President Rosa Gonzalez, who talked about how difficult a decision it was to postpone the Festival, though they felt it best in light of the tension felt around the state and nation as a result of the death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. Perry Mayor John Andorf then spoke, and talked about how proud he is to represent a city like Perry, which is so welcoming to people of all nationalities and walks of life.
The crowd was then invited to Caboose Park, where they were able to experience the talents of Perry’s folkloric dance troupe, Los Laureles, which was originally scheduled to perform during the festival. Maylum was pleased with how the event turned out, but was quick to redirect praise for bringing it together. “You could feel the energy being here, everyone had a smile on their face. And many people said ‘Thanks,’ (though) I feel like the thanks doesn’t go to me, just to everyone else that turned out. So thanks everyone for coming! I think everybody wanted something to happen, everybody wanted to do something about it. I just happened to have the idea to put it on Facebook. Everyone else did the rest of it for me. They were ready to come together.”
Maylum estimated there was around 200 people at the event, which was a pleasant surprise given there was only around 24-hours notice. He said the one thing he may have done differently, in retrospect, was post the event in Spanish as well. As for the Latino Festival, a HUP representative told Raccoon Valley Radio that they are hoping to reschedule it to late September, though it will likely be a pared-down version.
