Morrison Road will celebrate Westwood’s history and residents this weekend as the Saigon Azteca Night Market returns for a third year.
The event, a celebratory fusion of the neighborhood’s deep Latin and Asian American roots, is put on by Hecho en Westwood and the Far East Center.
Organizers have expanded the market from one to two nights, now running from 6-10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, and 1-9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9.
“It was so great that, this year, we were like, ‘Why don’t we turn it into two days?’” said Mimi Luong, whose family owns the Far East Center complex on Federal Boulevard.
The wider footprint means there will be room for more activities, she said. Friday will focus on dining, with food trucks offering fusion dishes and a kimchi burrito-eating contest for attendees. Saturday will focus on arts, including a blacklight-infused K-pop cover concert.
Luong said local officials, perhaps including local City Council representative Jamie Torres, might end up singing karaoke.
“It’s possible,” Torres coyly half-confirmed. “I'm so excited for this year.”
Damaris Ronkanen, an organizer with Hecho en Westwood, said the collaborative format has allowed both communities to plan events and attractions that go beyond their usual fare — like Lunar New Year and Cinco de Mayo festivals, which tend to stick to a script.
“This event really does allow people to collaborate and fuse their cultures together in their own unique ways,” she said.
Current events are influencing Saigon Azteca’s messaging this year.
While Ronkanen said she’s pumped to invite the entire city to experience Westwood, she said her target audience, as always, are people who live in the neighborhood.
It’s part of her long-term mission to provide cultural stability to an area threatened by gentrification and displacement.
“We really want to focus on a lot of the shared similarities between both the Asian and Latino communities, specifically around a shared immigrant experience and being children of immigrants,” she said.
It’s a pointed theme as federal officials arrest immigrants in Colorado and across the country, many of whom have no criminal records.
Sarahi Hernandez, Ronkanen’s organizing colleague with Hecho, said that’s why a message of “solidarity” will be part of the entire festival.
“We are in a current climate right now that is attacking our communities,” she said. “So it's: how do we come together? How do we celebrate our culture, but at the same time also let each other know that we stand here with each other?”
A year of building existential pressure, she and Ronkanen said, means that a weekend of celebration and joy is more important than ever.
