Hispanic Heritage Month has officially kicked off for the month of September and Camille Viera-Hewell is hoping to bring festivities to Cornelia with a celebration for La Herencia Hispana on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Viera-Hewell, originally from Puerto Rico, owns Camille Viera Services and has expanded into a partnership with Ana Pugliese for the Cornelia location, which opened in November 2021. Viera-Hewell, who is no stranger to hosting or participating in events at the location in Gainesville, said she wanted to bring something to the Cornelia community that they did not have before.
“We thought about doing it in Cornelia because even though there is a pretty good size of the Hispanic community, there is nothing, there isn’t a place where they can come together,” Viera-Hewell. “We have been looking for more than a year and there were no events for Hispanics.”
Hispanic Heritage Month was the perfect moment to start something that can potentially grow into a yearly event, said Viera-Hewell.
The event will be the first hosted at the location but hopefully not the last, said Viera-Hewell.
The free event will be offering food from participating local restaurant favorite, El Patron, who will be having a “taquisa,” a taco party, as well as a moonwalk for the kids, gifts, raffles, live music, and more. La Que Buena Radio Station will also be in attendance.
An immigration attorney will also be present to offer free consultations, along with a real estate and mortgage company.
The event is also being sponsored by the City of Cornelia, who Viera-Hewell said, were supportive and excited to participate.
“The City of Cornelia is honored and proud to have these businesses to serve a large portion of our community, and we are more than excited to help them succeed however we can,” said Jessie Owensby, community development manager for Cornelia. “We thought helping them with this event was very natural and complements our mission for Hispanic engagement.”
“I think it’s because it’s not common to have an event like this for the Hispanic community,” Viera-Hewell said. “We want to let the people know that we are there to help,” Viera-Hewell said. “It’s to gather them, to bring the people of Cornelia together, and to have fun. We want to be a bridge between all the resources that we have and bring that into the community.”
Services offered at Camille Viera Services are income tax, notary, accounting, translations, as well as having partners in their legal department team that are able to assist clients with different cases including immigration.
“It’s going to be on a Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. so it is around lunchtime, so I am thinking we will have a good turnout,” Viera-Hewel said.
The event, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 739 N. Main Street in Cornelia.
“This is the first one,” Viera-Hewel said. “We are hoping to establish it at a yearly event, so people can look forward to that, and hopefully every year will get bigger and bigger. Expect good things happening as we did in Gainesville.”