Though the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are still two weeks away, there are those in the Latino community who are confident that the position is hers.
Take Humberto Cintron, for example. He's already arranging for 25 busloads of people - a coalition of various groups from East Harlem - to travel from New York City, where he lives, to Washington for her swearing-in. He shrugs it off as a sure thing, puffing lightly with pride for his fellow Puerto Rican.
He says this casually, a drink in one hand, under gray skies Sunday in Patterson Park, at the 29th annual LatinoFest, where he's a regular. For many of the region's Hispanics, the event is the one chance every year to publicly celebrate their heritage. And Sotomayor's nomination has swelled that celebration this year. If confirmed, she would be the first person of Latino descent on the country's high court.
"She's a smart woman," says Luz Rodriguez, surrounded by mariachi music and the savory smells of empanadas and papusas. The aromas swirled throughout the grounds, surfing on smoke from the grills and fryers.
She and Cintron have been coming to the festival for years, though they feel a special responsibility to be there now, since its founder Jose Ruiz died of pancreatic cancer complications in late 2006. They want to ensure it has the support for a 30th year.
"It's an oasis for Latinos once a year, where they find some community and some peace," says Rodriguez of New Jersey.
Ruiz's widow, Claire Hollister, helped him organize the event years ago. It started out as a tiny affair, she said, with some food and a few bands, at the base of Broadway in Fells Point. It bounced around before finding a home several years ago in the southeast corner of Patterson Park.
Hollister estimates that about 20,000 people now pass through the gates each year, though only the adults pay an entrance fee ($5), which funds programs at the nonprofit Education Based Latino Outreach, known as EBLO. Her husband directed the organization's development in 1980. Today, it offers free tutoring for Hispanic children, access to a computer lab, and language help for adults at its community center headquarters on S. Ann Street.
The festival is the organization's biggest fundraiser, but Hollister wonders if the event will survive another year. New constraints made getting a Patterson Park permit difficult, she said, and next year could be even harder.
But she forgets that for now as she surveys the crowd. The overcast skies have dampened the turnout, but it's still pretty good. She credits Saturday's sunshine to her husband.
"He's here," she says. "His spirit is what drives it."
