NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Saturday you can celebrate Hispanic culture while getting to see meerkats, giraffes, and tigers at the Nashville Zoo's Hispanic Heritage Festival.
There will be cultural dance performances, a Mariachi band and tours of the exhibits in Spanish — a great opportunity for native Spanish speakers to learn about the animals firsthand.
The festival is being put on in partnership with Conexión Américas: an organization that works to bridge the gap between the Latino community and residents of Middle Tennessee.
The event is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and you can enjoy it by getting a general admission ticket on the Zoo's website. People are required to get tickets in advance to get into the zoo and schedule a time slot.
Nashville Zoo Marketing Director Jim Bartoo said the zoo is happy to have this partnership with Conexión to put on this event, and welcome more of the growing Hispanic community in Nashville.
"Particularly in the South Nashville area along Nolensville Pike, we have a very high Hispanic community. They love the zoo, they love coming out to the zoo. But a lot of times they rely on their children to be able to make those translations," said Bartoo. "We are in the process of working through a lot of our bilingual programs to be able to offer that more and more throughout the year and all year long. This is just a day that we know we can focus on that and people who are fluent in Spanish or Spanish is their first language can come out and really enjoy the zoo."
The zoo concession stands will also have Hispanic foods for the day, like empanadas, horchata, paletas and — for the adults coming to enjoy everything — margaritas.
