Downtown Las Cruces will fill with color, music and crowds Saturday as Southern New Mexico Pride brings its annual celebration back to the heart of the city.
Pride on the Plaza returns Oct. 3, beginning with the fourth annual Pride Parade at 4 p.m. before festivities continue at Plaza de Las Cruces from 5 to 10 p.m. The free, all-ages event will feature local vendors, food trucks, community organizations and eight drag performers, along with a beer garden by Dry Point Distillers.
For Southern New Mexico Pride board member Raquel Madrigal, the gathering has grown into something larger than an annual celebration.
“It’s really grown to something amazing,” Madrigal said. “It’s actually turning into a really good community resource.”
This year’s theme, “Here to Stay,” carries a message organizers hope lasts beyond Saturday night. Madrigal, who helped develop the concept, said its imagery incorporates an ocotillo with rainbow-colored roots to represent the LGBTQ+ community’s longstanding place in Las Cruces.
“Queerness has always been a part of the human experience,” Madrigal said. “This has been growing. This is a part of our roots and part of our community, and it’s not leaving.”
Southern New Mexico Pride traces its history to 1990. Madrigal said she has watched attitudes shift during roughly 15 years living in Las Cruces, including greater awareness surrounding gender identities and pronouns.
That visibility, she said, also creates opportunities for people to show up without hiding parts of themselves.
“What my role is, is to provide a space for people who may not feel welcome in everyday society or invisible,” Madrigal said. “To have a time where they can show up, be their authentic self and feel great about it.”
Putting that space together takes months. Planning began around February, with volunteers working across sponsorship, entertainment, and publicity committees. Madrigal said organizers need to raise about $20,000 each year to put on Pride events, with fundraising taking place throughout the year.
“All this work is volunteer-based,” Madrigal said. “You don’t get paid for anything but people’s smiles, hopefully, if they like it enough.”
For Madrigal, seeing different generations gather carries its own significance.
“Pride has always existed through community,” she said. “They support each other. They take care of each other, and they show up. They become family.”
The celebration continues after Pride on the Plaza with an after-party at Dr. Lucky’s, followed Sunday by a Pride brunch at Chachi’s.
Additional information is available at SNMPride.org.
