Fresno’s Oaxacan Guelaguetza festival returns amid ICE activity concerns
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fresno's Guelaguetza proceeds despite ICE concerns after Madera cancellation.
- The 25th annual event showcases Oaxacan culture through dance, music, and food.
- Measure P funding, local sponsors, and Radio Bilingüe expand the event's reach.
The traditional Oaxacan festival, the Guelaguetza, will be held this Sunday at 10 a.m. outside in the main quad at Fresno City College, as scheduled, despite recent concerns about ICE activity in Fresno.
The free event is moving forward after Madera’s Guelaguetza was canceled in June due to growing fears over increased immigration raids across California.
Sarait Martinez, one of the Oaxacan festival’s chief organizers, said the organizations and community members who plan the Guelaguetza unanimously decided against canceling the Fresno event.
“This year has been a really difficult one for many communities. We’ve witnessed assaults that have happened — and continue to happen — terrorizing our communities. But we made the decision to celebrate our diversity and our communities in Fresno and the rich diversity that exists here,” said Martinez, executive director of the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño.
“We voted to move forward with hosting the event so we could create a space to heal each other, to celebrate one another, and to continue resisting. We don’t want external forces to take away our identity, our language, or our cultural traditions.”
Fresno’s Guelaguetza is the product of Centro Binacional and Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales, as well an independent committee of volunteers from Oaxaca.
The word Guelaguetza, derived from the indigenous Mexican language Zapotec, means “offering” or “sharing.” The event celebrates this spirit of generosity through traditional dances, regional cuisine, music that showcase the rich cultural heritage of Oaxaca.
California is home to approximately 350,000 Indigenous Oaxacans who mostly residing in the Central Valley and southern regions of the state, according to a 2016 study by USC and the Mexican research institute El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. This population includes Indigenous groups such as the Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Purépechas.
“It really is a symbolic celebration of sharing the rich culture of the state of Oaxaca. It reminds us of home and brings a little piece of Oaxaca to Fresno,” said Martinez. “This is our 25th year celebrating the Guelaguetza in Fresno. It is now a tradition that keeps being passed on through generations. The new committee that was planning the Guelaguetza this year are daughters of migrants and people from Oaxaca.”
This year, Martinez said the festival will feature a mix of Central Valley performers and artists. It will include traditional Banda music and dances such as the Danza de los Diablos, as well as Zapotec dance groups from Los Angeles.
In total, there will be five dance groups — two of which will represent Mixteco indigenous communities specifically — along with three bands.
Miguel Villegas Ventura also known as Una Isu, a popular Mixtec rapper, will also be performing.
There will also be traditional Oaxacan foods and drinks, including mole, tejate, tlayudas, and memelas. In addition, many vendors will be selling traditional Oaxacan crafts. The event is expected to wrap up around 4 p.m. Sunday.
“The sense of community and culture that people get to witness is exciting,” Martinez said. “We usually have a lot of kids that come and also people who are not from Oaxaca.”
Last year was the first time the event was free, and according to Martinez, more than 8,000 people attended. The 2024 Guelaguetza was also funded by Measure P, a local sales tax in the city of Fresno that helps fund parks, trails and the arts, and since they are once again finalists for that funding, Martinez said she expects it will help finance this year’s event as well.
That said, she noted that the Centro Binacional also does fundraising and secures sponsors for the event in case city funding doesn’t come through.
“As Oaxacan communities migrated to the U.S., there’s a lot of culture that could of been lost, but with festivals like the Guelaguetza, it’s really bringing a little piece of our culture and our identity to Fresno for people to witness and to see,” Martinez said. “We are committed as an organization to continue to host the festival every year, it just depends on the financial stability of our organization whether it’s free or not. But our commitment is to make sure this celebration is as open and accessible for our community to come and witness our culture.”
Martinez added that Radio Bilingüe will be livestreaming Fresno’s Geulaguetza in Tijuana as well as in Oaxaca.
“It’s going to be a binational celebration. People are going to be able to listen to what is happening here all the way from Oaxaca, Mexico,” she said.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 11:56 AM.
