LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — For some families in Las Vegas, the words spoken at home carry deep history. This weekend, one community is making sure native languages aren’t forgotten.
The Federacion Hidalguense of Las Vegas is hosting an event with the City of Las Vegas, celebrating native languages featuring dancers, food and music from all around the world. The celebration starts at noon on Saturday at Sammy Davis Junior Festival Plaza.
The nonprofit is made up entirely of volunteers who originate from the Mexican state of Hidalgo, and they’ve been working to bring this event celebrating culture to the valley community.
In a year where many Latino families say they’ve felt tension and uncertainty, the local organization says coming together is more important than ever.
Preserving languages for future generations
“What we do is rescue culture, teach what we know about culture and where we come from, that’s why we hold this event, Mother Language Day,” said Isidro Maqueda Martin, president of the nonprofit.
Maqueda Martin said it’s important to celebrate this day and to feel proud to speak a native language.
“Because I speak a dialect, it’s another language, and there are many people here who speak it, we gave ourselves this task of being able to make this event so they can express what they know,” he said.
The focus is on the younger generation in Las Vegas, inspiring them to not lose touch with their roots even thousands of miles from where their story began.
“For us, it is important to rescue what we know because it is being lost, it is being lost in the sense that our children who are here are no longer going to speak it,” Maqueda Martin said.
The International Mother Language Day was created in 1999, partly in response to the discrimination and suppression many indigenous languages have faced across the world.
“Take care of yourselves with everything that is going on, we don’t want to talk too much about it, but take good care of yourselves and come here to have some fun, and don’t misbehave,” Maqueda Martin said.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
