Multiple vehicles were a part of the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Parade, donning authentic garb.  

CAIRO- Downtown Cairo saw visitors from all across South Georgia and North Florida on Saturday morning as they celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month. 

According to the City of Cairo Tourism Director Shelly Searcy, the idea for the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration came from local resident, Silvia Salgado. 

“She approached us with the idea, and then we backed it,” Searcy explained. 

Salgado is the founder of the Mission Vision Foundation, whose mission is to fill the gap in the community by providing essential needs for at-risk children and their families. 

“I’m very involved in trying to build relationships,” Salgado said. 

Despite Salgado’s best efforts to build relationships with City officials and School Board members, she said she still felt like her Hispanic community was never being recognized. 

“I was born in California and raised in Georgia,” she said. “I was a farm/labor contractor with members of my community for two years and it is horrible. We work long hours and are underpaid, despite contributing to over 50 percent of Georgia’s economy.” 

Salgado felt as if the lack of care and support demonstrated how no one was embracing their community. 

“I continued to go to meetings and not see anything be done for my community,” she said. “I finally said someone has to do something and I guess it’ll be me.” 

After countless years of feeling unrecognized, Salgado’s dreams came true on Saturday morning. 

“It was long overdue, but it turned out better than I could have ever imagined,” she said. 

Salgado said she had always envisioned a village of support and Saturday proved that such a place existed. 

“Words cannot explain how overjoyed I am,” she said excitedly. “My community came together like I knew they would and that just makes me so happy.” 

Not only was Salgado thrilled with the turnout, but she said her community was as well. 

“Everyone was so thankful,” she explained. “We had people come from all over Tallahassee, Adel, Quincy and Gretna.” 

With the event a success, Salgado said she would now like to begin hosting the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration as an annual event. 

“I would love to continue bringing our diverse community together,” she said. 

Searcy agreed, stating how much the City loved the idea and really wanted to make sure everyone felt heard and seen. 

“From a city perspective, everything was just really positive,” she said. “We are thinking about doing other events moving forward.” 

However, in order to host other events and raise awareness for communities that feel undervalued, Searcy said a leader like Salgado is needed. 

“We are a smaller community, and sometimes we need help heading up these events,” she concluded.