Festival Latinoamericano 2025- additional coverage

This year's Festival Latinamerico was well-attended, and featured dancers. music, food trucks, local artists, and numerous civic and business organizations. 

Thanks go to Janeth Valenzuela and the Arlington County Parks and Recreation Department. 

From the Arlington County website: “The 2025 Festival Latinoamericano was held on Friday, October 3 at the Arlington Mill Community Center. Arlington County's Festival Latinoamericano is dedicated to celebrating the vibrant and diverse cultures that enrich our community. Our mission is to showcase the rich tapestry of Latin American art, food, and culture in Arlington County, providing a platform for local artists, chefs, and performers to share their talents and traditions with the public. By supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, we aim to foster economic growth and community spirit. This free event is designed to be inclusive and educational, offering attendees of all backgrounds a chance to experience Hispanic Heritage firsthand.”

Photography by Dewey Tron.

"Young Mongolian woman on the Pike" : Dangers and strengths of AI

As an exercise, CPDP photographer Lloyd Wolf created this picture of a young Mongolian woman on Columbia Pike using AI (artificial intelligence- in this case Google's Gemini).  While the Pike is home to a significant Mongolian community, this woman, nor the scene she appears in, actually exists. 

The ability to illustrate the nature of life of our diverse community is of course expanded, but the perils to truth are clearly obvious in the ability to create such a seemingly realistic, ostensibly documentary, picture. 

This will be the one and only time this sort of picture is presented as part of our long-term project documenting the Pike.

Caveat emptor.