On Saturday, the sounds of Peruvian music, sights of Panamanian traditional folk dance and tastes of Mexican ice cream filled Ting Pavilion during the 14th annual Cville Sabroso Festival.
Inside the Ting Pavilion, a sea of Latin American artisans, food vendors and performers greeted festivalgoers. From 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., there were displays of Latin American dance and song, tamales and enchiladas filling picnic tables and conversation in every corner.
The Cville Sabroso Festival, as described by its Director Andrea Jacobs, is a fiesta in celebration of both Latin American culture and all of Sin Barreras’ accomplishments. Sin Barreras is a local nonprofit that works to advocate and provide support for immigrant families in central Virginia. The festival also serves as a fundraiser for Sin Barreras’ educational programming and services.
“The festival has become such a staple because it kind of is also an educational program for Sin Barreras,” Jacobs said. “It's bringing music and dance and art and food to the community, and by bringing those things, we're inadvertently educating people about Latin America and all of the traditions and cuisine and art that we all partake in as being members of the community.”
Estela Diaz Knott, co-founder of Cville Sabroso and lead singer of The Lua Project — a Mexican-bluegrass fusion band — said that the inspiration for the festival first began with her mother, who immigrated from Mexico and created a community fiesta in her hometown to educate the locals on Latin American culture after facing judgment for her heritage.
“[My mother] said, ‘... People are afraid of what they don't understand, so we have to teach them about our culture so that they understand the richness that we bring with us when we come here,’” Diaz Knott said.
After Diaz Knott met her co-founder, Fanny Smedile, at church 14 years ago, the two joined forces to follow in Diaz Knott’s mother’s footsteps. Soon after, the Cville Sabroso festival was born.
Diaz Knott explained that oftentimes, expressions of culture are done in private. She said she wanted the Cville Sabroso Festival to be an open expression of heritage and tradition for the community.
“I really wanted to try to instigate Latin American cultural stuff to happen in public, not just in churches or in small communities tucked away,” Diaz Knott said. “I wanted children like me growing up Latina and in a rural place, like in Virginia, to be able to see their cultures represented out in public for the whole community to see.”
In 2023, Cville Sabroso teamed up with Sin Barreras, which was also founded by Smedile, to expand the festival and its reach. The partnership was spearheaded by Jacobs, who has been a volunteer for Cville Sabroso for 10 years, but stepped into the role of director three years ago.
In 2025, the festival grew attendance by 20 percent, attracting roughly 4,700 attendees. According to Jacobs, this year’s event welcomed similar metrics.
In addition to being a celebration and display of culture, the festival now serves as an annual fundraiser for Sin Barreras and their programming. Jacobs explained that the festival has come to serve as an educational program about both Sin Barreras and the work they do, as well as Latin American culture as a whole.
“It's bringing music and dance and art and food to the community, and by bringing those things, we're kind of inadvertently educating people about Latin America and all of the traditions and cuisine and art that we all partake in as being members of the community,” Jacobs said. “Of course we want to share that with everybody here in Charlottesville.”
For Williams Aguilar Flamenco, Cville Sabroso volunteer, member of the University’s Fuego dance team and third-year Engineering student, the festival served as an important reminder of the importance of community during a time that he said for many, is charged with hardship.
“This event is a celebration of our Hispanic heritage which is especially important in today’s climate,” Aguilar Flamenco said in a written statement to The Cavalier Daily. “With so much division and uncertainty surrounding immigrant and Latino communities, events like Cville Sabroso give us an opportunity to come together and remind each other of the strength that comes from unity.”
Similarly, for Yazmin Vega, volunteer at Cville Sabroso, member of the Latinx Student Association and second-year Commerce and College student, the festival has given her a feeling she described as “home away from home.”
“I find myself missing my family, and even just my Mexican culture while I'm at U.Va.,” Vega said. “Hearing the music, seeing all the different types of food that we're so used to growing up with is really nice to see in Charlottesville.”
For Diaz Knott, that sense of connection is central to what she hopes Cville Sabroso can foster. Aside from celebrating Latin American traditions, she said she hopes the festival can broaden how these traditions are understood and recognized by individuals outside of the Latin American community.
“I want so much for Latin culture to not just be viewed as these are people coming from someplace else, but these are people who live here and that are part of the fabric of Virginia,” Diaz Knott said. “That Latin Appalachian, Latin Virginian culture is a part of Virginia culture.”
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