Annual Oaxacan festival canceled over ICE raid concerns in Madera
The federal government’s increase of immigration raids in California has led the community group that organizes Madera’s Oaxacan Guelaguetza festival to cancel this year’s event.
The Guelaguetza, a celebration of Oaxacan culture, has featured traditional dances, food and music in Madera since 2023. The event, equipped to host more than 1,000 people in Madera, has traditionally been held in October in the city known for its Oaxacan community.
Comité Guelaguetza Madera, the group that organizes the event, said in a Saturday statement that its decision to cancel this year’s festival was “not taken lightly.”
“In the face of an increasingly hostile political climate and a rise in ICE raids affecting undocumented members of our community, we must prioritize safety and solidarity over celebration,” the group said.
The cancellation of one of Madera’s most significant cultural events comes amid the federal government’s increasingly aggressive immigration operations in California. In the past week, immigration raids have had a stronger focus on the southern part of the state, where groups of masked federal agents have made arrests in workplaces and on public streets.
But as reports of the presence of federal agents increased this week in the Central Valley, immigrant communities have sounded the alarm and are bracing for further escalation of arrests by the Trump administration.
Madera, specifically, has not been spared this year. In recent months, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed courthouse immigration arrests in town. And in February, the city’s police chief reported ICE was operating in Madera “almost daily.”
Worry over large-scale raids has been present in Madera and other Central Valley farmworking communities since January, when U.S. Customs and Border Protections arrested at least 78 during an operation in Kern County.
That January operation sparked conversations about the potential cancellation of Madera’s Oaxacan festival, said Patsy Mejia, treasurer for the Comité Guelaguetza Madera.
“We didn’t want to make the decision just yet at that point,” she told The Fresno Bee. “It was a heavy decision, but with the threats of continued raids, we’re not going to ask the community to come out and live with that fear of possibly not making it back home.”
Cancellation ‘devastating’ to Oaxacan community
In its statement, Comité Guelaguetza Madera said it hopes to return in 2026.
But for now, the group will focus on directly supporting Madera’s immigrant community — including with legal accompaniment — and “continue to monitor the raids.”
“Our undocumented brothers and sisters are the foundation of our community,” the group said. “Many of them are also the ones who make Guelaguetza possible — the dancers, cooks, organizers and volunteers.”
Mejia called the cancellation “devastating” for the city’s Oaxacan community, which is large in Madera but until recent years struggled to obtain political representation.
The group that organizes the Guelaguetza is made up of community volunteers, Mejia said, and has also drawn the help of Oaxacan communities from across the state.
“Last year, we had people come in from Washington, Oregon and Arizona,” she said. “(The cancellation) is devastating because of the beautiful nature of the celebration.”
The Valley Watch Network, which responds to community reports of immigration agent sightings and heads out to verify their presence, now has a team in Madera, Mejia said. The Valley Watch Network can be reached at 559-206-0151.
This story was originally published June 15, 2025 at 12:20 PM.
