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Council Hears Councilwoman Gonzalez Explain Her ($70,000 City Taxpayer-Funded) Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Event, Assisted By Two Event Supporters


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(October 24, 2018, 9:00 p.m.) -- During a presentation at the opening of the Oct. 23 Council meeting, 1st dist. Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez discussed her upcoming Nov. 2 Dia de los Muertos event, assisted by two supporters of the event (owner of the Pine Ave. Pie Bar and a representatives of the LB Arts Council [the latter, a recipient of in Council-approved funding.].

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, on Oct. 9 the Council voted 7-0 (Gonzalez and Austin absent) to approve a request agendized by Gonzalez to shift $70,000 in 1st dist. one-time infrastructure funds to support the event along the 400 through 600 blocks of downtown Pine Ave.

To hear the presentation in full (mini-podcast), click here. (MP3, 7:45)

Councilwoman Gonzalez said she began the event to replace the "Latin American Parade and Festival" [an event created by then-1st dist. Councilman Garcia, dropped after he became Mayor.] Councilwoman Gonzalez said on taking office [mid-2014] she "had to figure out a way to ensure that we had a cultural event that continued, and so we decided to do the Dia de los Muertos."

The Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican celebration, remembering and preparing special foods to honor the dead (and some believe their spirits visit families on Oct. 31 and leave on Nov. 2.)

[Scroll down for further.]





Councilwoman Gonzalez introduced Laurie Gray, owner of the Pie Bar on Pine Ave., and Griselda Suarez, Executive Director of the LB Arts Council [the latter is a non-profit, budgeted to receive $479,000 in City taxpayer funds in FY19.]

Ms. Gray said last year's event was the first time Dia de los Muertos was done in front of her shop and "it was a huge success. It brought a huge success to North Pine that had never been to that area before...And as a business owner, I've been there for two years, and we're always trying to get people to come past Third [St.], so we're always trying to push 'em north, past 4th, past 5th...Our sales that Saturday in the store were 300% above a normal Saturday. It was our third highest sales day our of the year following Thanksgiving and following International Pie Day."

Sponsor

Sponsor

Ms. Suarez said the event is a "tradition and ritual and celebration [that] dates back all the way to 2,000 BC. The Long Beach festival allows us to honor a lot of our cultural heritage here in Long Beach from our communities from Mexico and Central America. It also fosters the creativity of many of our professional artists here in Long Beach that do cultural and traditional dance and music, and we also provide opportunities for our young artists..."

Ms. Suarez continued: "All of this money that we put forth to our artists and to our professional and cultural workers can bring in a large amount of money to the City of Long Beach. So if I were to combine the money from the professional artists, the student artists and the community arts workshops that we do beforehand and that we show our work that evening, in the creative economy the Day of the Dead festival brings in $1.5 million to the City of Long Beach just through creativity, so we're really proud of that."

Sponsor


2nd district Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce then spoke in support, stating: "On a corridor like Pine, that it's not up to one organization or one business to try and make that area thrive and this is one of those examples where art really does add to our community and so the more that we can have these conversations around those numbers like you mentioned Griselda, that entertainment really does bring to our city, the more I think that we will continue embrace arts and entertainment which is something I know that we're all trying to do together, so congratulations."

Sponsor

Sponsor

Councilwoman Gonzalez closed by saying "We had about 8,000 people on the streets of Pine last year, hoping to increase that. This year we will have the event on Friday November 2...We have about three cool artists that will be there, music, entertainment for the children and we have about 300 jobs that were directly and indirectly created in 60 local business and community organizations that are included in this just in a two block radius along Pine..."



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