More than 300 Madera residents gathered inside Hatfield Hall at the Madera District Fairgrounds on Thursday afternoon to celebrate dozens of cultures and religious faiths as part of the Madera Coalition for Community Justice’s 17th annual Interfaith/Intercultural Day.
Below a stage carrying banners with slogans such as “joined by our differences,” “stronger by our diversity,” and “united by our humanity,” people flocked between dozens of booths demonstrating the broad scope of Madera’s cultural and religious origins.
“This is really about letting Madera know about the wide diversity there is here,” said Pablo Fernandez, the Madera Coalition for Community Justice’s youth coordinator and co-coordinator of the event. “There is more than one culture, one religion, and there is much to be learned about where we come from and who we are.”
Fernandez, 23, said that it was the first time he had coordinated the event since joining the coalition seven years ago but that it had grown every year, with 59 booths signing up for this year’s incarnation...