Oxford arts center to host Cinco de Mayo festival, fundraise for El Centro

A Cinco de Mayo festival at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center will raise money for El Centro, the Oxford-based nonprofit that has helped Hispanic and Northeast Mississippi residents since 2006 with tutoring, English classes and other programs. If turnout is strong, the fundraiser will support services that include after-school tutoring, a kids’ chess club, adult English classes, Spanish-language workshops and other educational offerings for families across the region.

The festival is scheduled for 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at 413 South 14th Street in Oxford. Sponsored by Loco Taco, the event is being billed as a community celebration with festive decorations, music, tacos, specialty foods, Loteria bingo and a mechanical bull. Visitors are also being encouraged to bring a decorated sombrero or make one at a craft station, adding a hands-on element to what organizers are shaping as a family-friendly gathering.

Fidel Cubillo, listed as the contact for Loco Taco in Oxford business directory information, is credited with helping get the event off the ground after noticing the lack of a regional Cinco de Mayo celebration. He worked with the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council to bring the festival to Oxford, and the event also connects to University of Mississippi Spanish and linguistics professor Stephen Fafulas.

The setting adds another layer to the fundraiser’s local significance. Visit Oxford says the Powerhouse was built in 1928 as Oxford’s power plant before becoming an arts center in 2008. The building is now managed by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, which was founded in 1972 and received the Governor’s Award for Arts in the Community in 2018.

El Centro’s mission gives the festival a practical purpose beyond music and food. The organization says it exists to help Hispanics and Northeast Mississippi residents integrate into the local community, and volunteer listings show that its work extends to adult education and technical training, including ESL, financial literacy and computer classes. That makes the fundraiser a direct investment in services that touch school-age children, working adults and families trying to build steadier footing in Oxford and beyond.