Celebrating community: Día De Familia: Día Del Niño at NHCC features family-friendly activities
Apr. 25—The National Hispanic Cultural Center continues to bring together communities.
From 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 27, the NHCC will host its annual Día De Familia: Día Del Niño.
Elena Baca, NHCC Education Program manager, told NHCC Board of Directors, that the event will celebrate youth in the community with lots of programming for children.
"The idea for the event is not only to support and celebrate kids, but to also see how they can be part of our program areas," Baca says.
The event will have Nanny's Petting Zoo, performances from Voces de Coronado and the National Institute of Flamenco as well as student films, and an inaugural Youth Art Market.
"Nanny's Petting Zoo is run by a 15-year-old young person and her family, but it's her 4-H project to run the zoo," Baca says. "She's really amazing. The first time I met them was at the governor's house for an event. She's so dedicated and will drive the animals up to Santa Fe as well."
NHCC officials say there will be opportunities to learn about birds and bugs with the United States Forest Service.
Baca says participants will be able to make art, play, go on a StoryWalk and discover a variety of community resources from UNM Early Childhood Services Center, Explora, The Harwood Art Center and many more.
Baca says the NHCC is having its inaugural Youth Art Market during the event.
"This is an important one for me because in Santa Fe there are four opportunities for kids to sell art," Baca says. "Our first year is going to be very small. We do have a couple of artists from Spanish Market coming down. We will have two sisters who are retablo painters. Then we have lots of little kids who will be selling paintings and we have a young person selling bracelets. I really do think it creates a wonderful opportunity for them to have the mindset that they can grow up and be artists and live as artists."
