Update: Winners announced in Fiesta de Mayo taco contest

The taco that had gotten the judges’ attention early Sunday afternoon was the one with sesame-seared tuna served on a hand-pressed sesame-ginger tortilla.

Judge Orchid Paulmeier, celebrity chef and owner of One Hot Mama’s, estimated she’d tried seven tacos by 2 p.m., almost halfway through the inaugural Taco Libre: Batalla de los Tacos — or, Battle of the Tacos — event at this year’s Fiesta de Mayo Festival.

The festival, in its fourth year, featured 28 taco vendors competing in several categories judged by the likes of Paulmeier and Hilton Head Island mayor David Bennett, among others. Hundreds of people filtered in and out of Shelter Cove Community Park while the judges performed their duties and troupes entertained spectators with traditional Latin American and Hispanic dances. Kids kicked soccer balls and twirled Hula Hoops while their parents stood in line for cold drinks, ice cream and tacos.

And while tacos were the big draw this year, festival organizers and community members hoped attendees left with more than just full bellies.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from, everybody loves tacos,” said Elizabeth Mogil, an immigration paralegal with Mogil Law Firm on Hilton Head.

“(Tacos) represent really well, in my opinion, the entire Hispanic community,” she said.

Mogil sat under the tent her law firm had set up, one of several dozen booths that ringed the park. Written on the brim of the tent, at eye-level, was “Immigration Services.” Mogil spoke Spanish to prospective clients and dished out her business card. Her goal, she said, was to help people “get legal.”

She told the story of her own immigration to the United States, how she fled Venezuela — where she’d worked as journalist — because she’d openly opposed Hugo Chavez’s government. In 2001, she went to Miami, where she modeled and found other work. She said she lived in constant fear of deportation until she got her green card in 2005. She became a U.S. citizen in 2010.

“We adopt this,” she said, gesturing around her, referring to America. “And we want to be adopted, too.”

Mogil said she thinks the local community has tried to adopt its Hispanic members. She’s felt “welcomed really warmly.” Still, she said, the adoption is “limited.”

“There is very little information in Spanish (in the Lowcountry) besides La Isla,” she said.

La Isla Magazine, the primary sponsor of the festival, has been serving the Lowcountry’s Hispanic community since 1999. The magazine’s president and publisher, Eric Esquivel, grew up on Hilton Head. He’s half Colombian, and he explored his cultural roots with several study abroad experiences in college.

The festival, which he said drew about 4,000 people last year, “is about letting people see into each others’ lives.”

Esquivel hoped festival attendees would experience different cultures and realize that not every non-English speaking Hispanic-looking person is in the country illegally, and he hoped people would enjoy the tacos.

“Tacos — it’s a foodie culture,” he said, “and foodie culture is for everybody.”

Shortly after the festival’s noontime opening ceremony, George Kanuck of the Lowcountry Immigration Coalition took the stage with a specific message: register to vote.

The coalition, another sponsor of the festival, had a booth on site to register attendees. Kanuck, who took part in a protest at a Sun City rally for Donald Trump, said the coalition doesn’t tell people who to vote for — rather, the coalition wants citizens to exercise their rights.

The number of Hispanics in the area is increasing, he said, which could create a powerful voting constituency.

He talked about the landscapers and the kitchen workers, people who often go unseen in the community.

“Paradise is supported by the Hispanic community,” he said.

The festival, he said, was a day for members of that community — regardless of their immigration status — to come out and celebrate their culture.

“A day to come out of the shadows,” he said.

This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Update: Winners announced in Fiesta de Mayo taco contest."