After much fanfare and anticipation, the Los Angeles Metro’s 3.92-mile extension of the D Line subway finally opened last weekend. The costly new track that runs under Wilshire Boulevard can get riders from Beverly Hills and Miracle Mile — with stops at LACMA and the Academy Museum and only blocks from the Grove and the Beverly Center — to downtown in about 20 minutes.
To further encourage people to “Ride the D,” Metro is partnering with local community organizations to create near-daily programming at the newly opened stations, including farmers markets, food fests and free dance classes.
This Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., those who get off at Wilshire/Fairfax will get a free preview of LatinaFest: the largest outdoor festival celebrating Latinas in the U.S.
Prepping for its ninth iteration on June 7, LatinaFest brings together Latina entrepreneurs, community leaders and artists for an event that features 100 small business vendors. A scaled-down version of the festival will be available for D Line riders, with 25 vendors selling books, food, candles, plants and more, plus performances from several poets and artists.
LatinaFest co-founder Naibe Reynoso came upon the opportunity to work with Metro by chance after connecting with a fellow Latina entrepreneur at a networking event.
“In networking events, it’s rare to find other Latinas in the room. I saw a Latina at a table and I immediately went over there,” Reynoso told The Times. “She happened to work for the consulting firm Make Good Company and [they have] a contract with Metro to activate these new stations. We exchanged cards and then that’s how that partnership started. It was like the stars aligned.”
Encouraged by the success of the opening weekend traffic on the D Line, fellow LatinaFest co-founder Hernandez Castillo hopes many subway riders will engage in the event’s celebration of culture across the street from LACMA.
“What Metro wants is for there to be activity, so that people enjoy riding it, that they know that there’s a destination and can say, ‘Oh, they have this here’ and ‘They have that there,’” Hernandez Castillo told The Times. “What we’re doing is bringing culture to the Metro stations. We’re bringing the music, we’re bringing the vendors, we’re bringing the excitement of the Latina entrepreneur, which is at the heart of LatinaFest.”
Usually confined to the east side of the city, the Metro partnership will allow the fest to expand toward the west side and showcase Latin culture in a part of L.A. where that isn’t often highlighted.
“Wilshire/Fairfax is a tourist area and a lot of tourists are going to be riding that train. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of Latino businesses or representation in the heart of the tourist areas,” Reynoso said. “But we will bring a touch of Latinidad, which is a representation of what L.A. County is. So that brings me a lot of pride because someone that’s coming and visiting from a whole other country is going to say, ‘Oh, there actually are Latinos here.’”
Having worked in Hollywood as an actor — with roles in “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Selena” and “Mi Familia” — Hernandez Castillo understands the limited view that people who aren’t often in contact with Latinos may have of the demographic and hopes that an event like Saturday’s can help add layers to that perception.
“Hollywood puts out all these images of who Latinos are through their movies, and they’ve never been that kind to our community and everywhere in the world where [tourists] go, they think of us as that,” Hernandez Castillo said. “Here the tourists are going to see the real image of who we put out there, as Latinas, as businesswomen, as performers, as creatives.”
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