DES MOINES, IA – Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival co-hosted IndyCar driver Gabby Chaves at a meet-and-greet event this month.
Chaves, a native of Bogota, Colombia, has raced in the Verizon IndyCar Series for the past two seasons. In 2015, he had two top 10 finishes and was named Indy 500 Sunoco Rookie of the Year and IndyCar Rookie of the Year. At age 23, he is currently the youngest IndyCar driver and has had a successful start to his career with several championship titles including the 2014 Indy Lights Championship title, which graduated him to the next level of racing. He competed in the Iowa Corn 300 on July 10 in Newton with the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda for Dale Coyne Racing.
“Gabby is a role model for the Latino community, especially our youth, and we were honored to help bring him to Des Moines and to receive his help in promoting our annual festival,” said Joe Gonzalez, executive director of Latino Resources Inc., the umbrella organization that oversees Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival.
The festival is from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people attend each year.
Activities include musical entertainment, folkloric dancers, martial arts performers, a children’s area, Latin American foods, a health village, an art tent, booths about the countries represented at the festival and more. Cost to attend is $5 for adults and $1 for children 12 and younger.
The festival will be promoted through social media sites Instagram and Facebook with #ialatinoheritagefestival.
For more information, visit www.latinoheritagefestival.org, or contact Melissa Walker at 515-681-7731 or mwmediaconsultants@yahoo.com. Visit Iowa’s Latino Heritage Festival on Facebook and #ialatinoheritagefestival on Instagram.
