Thai flavors, Latinx art and a Mexican fiesta celebrate heritage across the Twin Cities

The MinnesoThai Street Food Festival returns this weekend, bringing authentic Thai cuisine, lively parades and cultural performances to St. Louis Park. Meanwhile, St. Paul’s West Side celebrates Mexican Independence Day with a parade. A visual arts show at St. Catherine University honors the contributions of local Latinx artists.

Get a Taste of MinnesoThai

The Wat Promwachirayan Theravada Buddhist Temple in St. Louis Park is hosting the MinnesoThai Street Food Festival this weekend, celebrating the rich flavors and traditions of Thailand. The two-day event features more than 25 food vendors, morning parades, live music, dance performances, and a Disney-themed drag queen show.

Lydia ThaiThai, program director of the Thai Cultural Council of Minnesota, said the festival aims to strengthen the connection between Thai Minnesotans and their cultural heritage.

“Whenever I think of Thailand, I think about our food,” said ThaiThai, who moved to Minnesota from Thailand in 2008. “Papaya salad is a unique Thai dish that you find when you go to Thailand and if you’re a true Thai, we would have papaya salad in almost every one of our meals.”

The festival will feature a papaya salad eating contest with cash prizes, alongside other traditional Thai foods like Khao Soi, a Northern Thai curry noodle soup, wontons, egg rolls, and pad Thai cooking demonstrations.

The Thai Cultural Council of Minnesota, founded in 2019, promotes Thai culture through various programs, including language classes, dance programs and the annual Songkran festival, which celebrates Thai New Year.

“Nowadays, and I think other minorities experience this too, our younger generations have become more Americanized,” ThaiThai said. “When they lose connection to their communities, that’s how our culture gets lost slowly as well, so hosting these festivals actually help maintain our culture for our younger generation.”

The event will also showcase performances from other Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, with performances ranging from Thai folk dances to K-pop covers from artists such as K-Move, Locomotive Dance Crew and X-ertion.

ThaiThai said the festival’s organizing team is made up of mostly volunteers under 30, reflecting a new generation’s commitment to preserving Thai culture in Minnesota.

“Hosting this event is more than a full-time job,” she said. “It’s hard to find younger kids to dedicate their time to something like this, but we’ve been able to build a great team.”

Date: Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15

Time: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Location: West End Festival Site, 1693 Duke Drive, St. Louis Park

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit watthaimn.us.

42 artists celebrate their Latin American heritage

The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery is hosting “Latina and Latinx MN: Re/claiming Space in Times of Change,” a mixed media art show featuring the work of 42 Latina women and nonbinary Latinx artists. Curated by Guatemalan American painter Zamara Cuyún and William Gustavo Franklin Torres, this showcase highlights the integral role these artists play in Minnesota’s art scene.

The exhibit includes the “Red Wing Community Quilt,” a collaborative piece between documentary filmmaker and artist Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo and more than 50 Red Wing residents, each reflecting on the prompt: “I know I’m home when …” Interdisciplinary artist Ivonne Yáñez’s “Machetes to stop the rain” combines traditional Mexican items with marbled fabric, embroidery, and salt.

Brazilian artist Lys Akerman-Frank’s mixed media work, “Hineni” displays a collection of masks to represent her various facades while living as a first-generation immigrant in the United States. Photographer Martha Gabriela Driessen captures candid moments of women at a St. Paul Cinco de Mayo festival through street photography. Queer, nonbinary Venezuelan artist Mikha Dominguez’s mixed media piece, “Santa María” explores the effects of conversion therapy on the LGBTQ+ community and mental health taboos in Latin culture.

Date: Thursday, September 12 to December 8.

Time: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Location: 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit gallery.stkate.edu.

Cesar Chavez Street comes alive for Mexican Independence Day

The West Side Boosters youth sports organization, in collaboration with the West Side Fiesta Committee, will transform St. Paul’s Cesar Chavez Street on Saturday into a vibrant celebration for Mexican Independence Day, which is traditionally observed on September 16 to mark Mexico’s declaration of independence from Spanish rule in 1810. The event will feature a parade, dancing horses, a lowrider car show, Mexican cuisine, live music, and more.

Festivities begin with a parade at 10 a.m., led by Aztec dancers and the organization’s football team. Local food vendors, including El Burrito Mercado, Capital View Cafe, and Baking Sweet Memories with MiMi’s Treasures, will line the street, along with an arts and crafts Kids Zone.

Live performances will take place at the main stage, located at the intersection of Cesar Chavez Street and State Street, with acts such as Los Alegres Bailadores, Banda Tierra Nueva de MN, Linea Norteña and DJ Conde.

Date: Saturday, September 14

Time: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Location: 176 Cesar Chavez St., St. Paul

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit stpaulwestsidefiestas.com.