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106 Years of tradition: Fiestas Patrias celebrates hispanic heritage in South Omaha

Located on Omaha’s historic South 24th Street, Casa de la Cultura Omaha, in collaboration with Supermercado Nuestra Familia, hosted the 2026 Fiestas Patrias. This three-day event, from Sept. 11 to Sept. 13, showcased various aspects of the Latino and Hispanic culture in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.  

“It’s honestly really exciting to be able to celebrate your roots while also being in another country that’s accepting of that and celebrates that with you as well. And then just being able to celebrate your culture with other people as well is just, I think, such a unifying thing. I think it always brings people together, especially when it comes to food,” Casa de la Cultura’s Operation and Outreach Manager Aixa Flores said. “We have a lot of our cultural elements here like pottery, art [and] traditional clothing that people would not otherwise have access to if it wasn’t for like an event like this.”  

The non-profit organization has been helping the South Omaha Latino community celebrate Mexican festivals for over 106 years. According to Flores, from Cinco de Mayo to El Grito De Independencia, which marks the start of the Mexican War of Independence from Spanish colonial rule, Fiestas Patrias is part of a larger collective of Mexican and Latin American festivals. This year’s theme was “Year of the Family,” which highlighted four South Omaha families that have lived there for several generations.  

“We picked them based on their unity and the amount of time that they’ve been here. And then, [also] just like their contributions and [that] they’re a good representation of what a family should be and the values that we hold like in our culture,” Flores said. “So, they were all able to be in the parade. They brought their trucks and the little kids would like to pass out candy and they had their banner. They’d wave at people and then afterwards we went to the stage, and we recognized each family and gave them an award. They got a picture and everything. It was really fun.”  

The festival not only highlighted local entertainment groups like the Hispanic Art Center of Omaha, Lucha Libre and Nostalgic, but many local, family-run businesses lined its street as well.  

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Many local businesses, with storefronts on historic S. 24th St. utilize Fiestas Patrias to advertise towards a new customer base. Booths ranged from Hispanic foods to cultural clothing.

“Beyond just celebrating our culture, [our goal] is to be an economic driver for the South Omaha community, which as we know is very Hispanic and a lot of the businesses here, they actually have their storefronts in South Omaha. So [for] a lot of them, this is one of the main opportunities they have where there’s a different audience coming that doesn’t live in South Omaha, doesn’t regularly shop in South Omaha, where they can have the ability to gain new customers or just generate income that is sometimes not as easily accessible. … We also have a lot of out-of-state vendors that come, which also brings in a new customer base [and] different types of items that people don’t have access to in South Omaha,” Flores said.  

In addition to the festival, the South Omaha Community Care Council hosted a Health Fair for festival attendees to gain access to health-based resources, professionals and free health-safety items.  

“Especially during this administration, there is a lot of anger and hate speech against the immigrant and refugee community. A lot of individuals are afraid to go outside of their homes because they’re going to be targeted. They’re going to be profiled. We are seeing a huge increase in ER visits versus preventative health care. That’s why we want to make sure that we bring the resources here to our community,” Latino Economic Development Council’s Head of Health Equity and Economic Opportunity Dr. Arturo Aceves, Ph.D., said.  

Alongside the Latino Economic Development Council and numerous other community health-based organizations was Creighton & Community at the Highlander. With an emphasis on child safety, the organization handed out free tools to help families keep young ones safe from unintentional medication or firearm possession.  

“Some of the items we have are medication lock boxes, which [help] prevent [medication] access to kids in the family, maybe pets … We can lock up a lot of the medication here. We have trigger locks for those weapons in the household to prevent unintentional access to those. This is a great opportunity to be out here amongst family, community members, educating them as well as providing whatever they need,” Creighton North Omaha Community Engagement Director April Dixon said.  

Dixon was also accompanied by Creighton’s Community Health Navigator Jabari Wright and Creighton’s Community Engagement Coordinator Alejandra Rebolledo-Gomez. Throughout the festival, these individuals helped booth-visitors connect with a wide array of community-based health organizations and learn about child-safety measures.  

“We have a community health navigator that’s on-site as well, an actual child safety educator, and then we have a community engagement manager. Not everybody’s here today, but we’re here to kind of support [Fiestas Patrias], provide resources and information in the community about our Child Safety Injury Prevention Center,” Dixon said. “We provide free low-cost supplies that help families address safe homes, safe sleep, safe travels [and] safe neighborhoods. We [also] have our community health navigator on site here, and he’s here to provide information about resources in the community: anything that addresses social determinants of health [including] housing, food supports, transportation, access to healthcare [or] Medicaid.”  

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On Sep. 13, the festival also celebrates El Grito De Independencia.

Fiestas Patrias, along with the many other Omaha festivals meant to celebrate and share Hispanic cultural heritage on historic South 24th Street, continues to be a unifying event for the Hispanic communities of South Omaha and those beyond. According to Flores, festival attendees from all over the nation may come to enjoy each other’s cultures and company.  

“When we were announcing what parts of Mexico [the Grand Marshall families] were from, you’d hear people in the audience yelling and clapping if they heard somebody say they’re from the same state as them,” Flores said. “It’s just things like that where you kind of have a bonding experience with a random stranger.”