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CHQ Hispanic Development will host the 2026 Hispanic Heritage Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Jackson Taylor Park.
The free community festival will celebrate Hispanic culture, highlight local Hispanic entrepreneurs and include food, music, activities, and connection.
This year’s festival marks an important milestone as leadership of the event transitions from the YWCA of Jamestown to CHQ Hispanic Development, a newly established nonprofit organization founded by Yanira Castellano, Carmen Perez and Solimar Vazquez.
For several years, the YWCA helped create the foundation for what has become an important celebration of the Hispanic community in Jamestown.
"We are truly thankful to the YWCA for starting this journey and giving our community a place to come together and celebrate," Castellano said. "This festival has grown so much over the years, and we are proud to carry it forward."
The creation of CHQ Hispanic Development represents the next chapter of that growth, with the founders working to create an organization that can celebrate Hispanic culture while creating opportunities for the community to connect, grow, and be represented.
"We wanted to create a Latino-led organization that could take the lead in celebrating our own community," Vazquez said. "There is so much talent, entrepreneurship, and passion within the Hispanic community, and we want to create opportunities for people to see it, experience it, and support it."
This year’s festival will feature six Hispanic-owned businesses and three Hispanic-owned food vendors, making this the largest representation of Hispanic-owned businesses at the festival to date.
"Seeing this growth has been incredibly meaningful to us," Perez said.. "Having so many Hispanic vendors participate this year is something we are very proud of. There will be businesses that cannot be there in person, like Zuli's Cleaning Services and UptownKix, but their desire to support the festival shows us how much this celebration means to our local Hispanic business community."
Sponsors include Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union and John Felton, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and United Way of Chautauqua County.