Silvina Spatocco/Courtesy photo
Granby will host its first Hispanic Heritage Celebration on Sunday, Sept. 21 in Polhamus Park.
From 12 to 3 p.m., dance performances, art and culture displays, live music, food trucks, activity booths and vendors will be featured in the park to honor Grand County’s diverse Spanish-speaking community. The free event, led by Grand Latin in partnership with Destination Granby, will be held in place of the town’s Día de los Muertos celebration this year.
Silvina Spatocco, Grand Latin and Family Support Services Coordinator at Mountain Family Center, and María Cecilia Peterson, organized the event and recruited its vendors, with marketing assistance from Destination Granby. Both women immigrated to Grand County from Argentina over 20 years ago.
Since moving to Granby, Spatocco said she has seen a growing body of Spanish-speakers in the county, but little to no representation or Latino-centered events.
“We have people from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Peru,” she said. “I did see, when I started working at Mountain Family Center in 2023, that the amount of Spanish-speaking people was growing. And when they come to the county, they don’t have many resources.”
Spatocco was the only bilingual person on staff at the Mountain Family Center when she started in 2023.
“I could see there was a very huge gap between the Spanish-speaking clients we were having and the rest of the communities,” she said. “They had no access, or very limited access, to services in the county just because they couldn’t communicate.”
In an effort to create accessibility to services for Spanish-speaking families, Mountain Family Center launched Grand Latin in February 2025. Spatocco took on a leadership role at the new organization, which helps families register kids for school, provides information about health insurance and medical services, and assists with rent and utility bills.
The food pantry at Mountain Family Center, accessible to Grand Latin clients, offers nonperishable donated items, proteins, dairy and fresh produce grown at the center’s community garden.
The Hispanic Heritage Celebration highlights Grand Latin’s work while also giving Latino families a visible role in the community.
“This is just the start,” Spatocco said. “The celebration is one day, but Grand Latin is about making sure families are not invisible here.”
The Hispanic heritage celebration grew out of last year’s Día de los Muertos gathering, which drew a crowd of over 300 people. This year, organizers hope the festival will bring more families together, despite ongoing uncertainty and fear pulsing through the Latino community amid changing federal immigration policies.
Though Sky-Hi News has yet to independently verify them, rumors spread all week about ICE in Grand County.
“People are scared,” Spatocco said, also admitting she is unsure if this fear will affect turnout to the Sunday event.
Housing and affordability remain ongoing challenges for Latino families, many of whom live in Kremmling and commute to jobs in Grand or Summit counties. Spatocco said the festival is one way to show families they belong in the broader community while Grand Latin works on the practical side of support.
With its many programs and minimal staff, Spatocco said Grand Latin relies on community support to ensure that events such as the heritage celebration happen annually. While applying for grant funding to keep food pantry and other services running, she also hopes to recruit more full-time help at Grand Latin and Mountain Family Center.
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