Gaztambide Living Traditions Veteran

Salt Lake City has been celebrating the Living Traditions Festival for 23 years.  The organizers, participants and visitors have been through it all from rain and snow storms to chorizo shortages.  Utah's Mary Gaztambide is showcased in a Salt Lake City Tribune article, see link below.  She has been instrumental in ensuring Utah Basque dancing and food booth organziations are always present and are able to showcase a bit of Basque culture in the multi-cultural festival.

Ms. Gaztambide shares a funny yet telling stories of festivals past and her commitment to her culture.  The first year the festival was held, the Utah Basque organization ran out of chorizos  because a local television news channel showed the governor eating one, then everybody had to try one, thus the supply was depleted.  The resourcesfulness of her organization came through when they offered a type of beef sandwich with red peppers in reply to the  chorizo shortage.   She also talks about how participants and visitors have had to endure severe weather such as rain, snow and cold temperatures during festival time.  She notes that sticking it out and not leaving the festival  gave the ethnic communities present a feeling of strength and togetherness.  One last item that Ms. Gaztambide mentions about the  participating ethnic groups is that they all  have a desire and love to share their culture with others. 

Read the full article published by The Salt Lake City Tribune