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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Stephen Starr

Small US towns cancel fairs celebrating Latino culture: ‘climate of fear is real’

people hold signs that read 'hands off our neighbors' and 'abolish ice'
People protest against Ice in New York on 8 August 2025. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA

Harrisonburg, Virginia, a town of 50,000 people in the Shenandoah Valley, should have been alive with the color, sound and smells of local Latino culture. Soccer tournaments, taco trucks, Salvadorian chanchona musical bands and about 4,000 visitors were last month set to attend the town’s Hispanic Festival held at a sports complex outside the town.

But this year, it’s not happening.

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