Utah is a special place that's incredibly unique, but also can make people from all over the world feel like they're at home.

One example of that comes from the founder of Oaxaca en Utah, a nonprofit organization whose leader hails from Mexico but found a sense of place and belonging here in the hills of Davis County.

(lively music) - The colors, we are full of colors.

The dancers from Oaxaca.

We are full of happiness and joy and its gastronomy, its customs, its traditions, its dialects, its textiles, music, everything together.

Oaxaca is very rich with people because we have so many dialects, different tribes, and it's very unique and it's beautiful.

(lively music) My name is Norma Carver.

I am the founder of Oaxaca here in Utah.

When La Guelaguetza Festival came to Kaysville, a lot people came to see it.

All the neighbors came and they were wondering, "What's going on?"

you know, what is this mean?

And then we explained them, you know, Oaxaca, it's a beautiful state from Mexico.

And we brought it here to Utah.

Oaxaca, it's located on the southwest of Mexico, close to Guatemala, so we are very south.

I was born in Guadalupe Nuevo Centro.

This is a beautiful town that my dad founded when he was really young.

I was very independent in Oaxaca, Mexico.

I was helping my family with and, you know, all the needs there.

But then I moved here to the United States.

After a while, I married my husband, Benjamin, who is from Kaysville, Utah, and I moved here Seeing all those beautiful mountains in the valley, that's how Oaxaca looks like.

And I'm like, wow, you know, I'm missing so much my family, you know, my town.

But now I found it again here in Utah.

- Don't worry, my friend.

This is chocolate.

The first thing I wanted to do is find my people from Oaxaca.

At that time I didn't know Flor, Flor Torres.

She's the owner of La Oaxaquena, That is a Mexican restaurant here in the valley.

And, she she doesn't know this, but, you know, I came to the restaurant and I had some tamales.

I had some horchata, a rice water from Oaxaca, beautiful and amazing drink.

And I'm like, okay, I finally was able to meet, you know, a place where I can go and I can eat and I can feel the beautiful things that Oaxaca has, especially the gastronomy.

If you're wanting some Oaxaqueno food, you can find this wonderful food at La Guelaguetza, which is a wonderful festivity from Oaxaca that Oaxaca en Utah puts in this state.

So we will have the (speaking in foreign language) all this wonderful food from Oaxaca, and we want everybody to come to the festival.

(lively music) La Guelaguetza is a beautiful festival that happens once a year in Oaxaca.

And it's when the eight regions of Oaxaca come together and they share their music, their dancing, they gastronomy, textile style, dialects and everything that they have in each region.

And Oaxaca en Utah is trying to replicate that.

Many people that don't know about Oaxaca and how diverse it is, people mistreat us because we're short.

We're dark and people get mistreated because they don't speak fluent Spanish.

But it feels great when somebody says, "I'm so proud to be, you know, a member of Oaxaca en Utah.

I'm so proud to dress one of the textiles from there.

I'm so proud to speak another dialect that is not Spanish or English.

It feels good to paint the alebrijes.

It's good to make a tlayuda.

It's good to go to a presentation and dance one of the regions."

One of the visions of Oaxaca is that here in the state of Utah, we wanted to tell everybody to come and try, you know, get to know Oaxaca, get to know the organization.

We love the community friendship because this is what the organization is all about, is uniting the community.

In order for us to prepare La Guelaguetza, we have to prepare the whole year.

It takes lots and lots of months to prepare the props that we're going to use.

It takes a lot of time for the people who are going to participate, for the costumes, and it takes a lot of work and is thanks to their volunteers that they come and they help us.

(lively music) In order for us to prepare the Monos de Calenda the puppets, giant puppets, we take a lot of hours of work in.

It's thanks to Ramon Ramos, who is our teacher in Oaxaca en Utah, that we are able to prepare those.

This year we have 10 big puppets to represent each region of Oaxaca and Ramon, it's just wonderful thanks to the management that he has and all the skills he has.

He does the design, but then the wig work and the clothing, the make up, We do a lot of details as a community and everybody comes.

Children come to work for the Monos de Calenda Older people, you know, everybody, everybody work.

And that's what Oaxaca en Utah is.

It's working together as a team.

- We doing different stuff all day.

In Oaxaca en Utah everybody have the opportunity to work with or working with art.

What is Oaxaca?

Oaxaca is happiness.

Oaxaca means a party.

Oaxaca is express love with the culture, with the tradition, with the food, with everything.

So the Monos de Calenda invite all the persons to come to their party or to come to enjoy.

What is the happiness in living the cultures?

Really fun because it's something you can express.

Like when you are in a puppet, it is like, okay, nobody want to see you.

You can go in wherever you want, you can dance whatever you want.

- The men there get so happy to get into there because they, you know, they get to wear a big skirt, a big shirt, and they are able to dance, you know, and it's like, it's a secret identity that, you know, that they have.

They don't try to show who is Oaxaca in the beginning, but in one point I ask you to my grandma, "Grandma, where are you from?"

And she tell me from Oaxaca, They show me a lot of stuff.

I really don't know.

When I have 12 years old.

I really like the colorful stuff.

I really like that music.

When I come in here, my grandma pass away and for me was something really hard.

And the only way to feel the connection with my grandmother or with Oaxaca is Oaxaca en Utah.

Sorry.

(lively music) - I'm grateful that Oaxaca en Utah has given me a huge family because we are growing so much and it feels good to have, you know, people from different regions in Oaxaca and be able to, you know, to get to know them, to love them and to care for them.

- We want Oaxaca en Utah have the power to connect to the real Oaxaca and try to bring Oaxaca here because we no have the opportunity to be there.

(lively music) - The first things, when I go to a to a fiesta, I go to a place I say, "I am from Oaxaca.

My name is Norma and I am from Oaxaca."

I am from what I want everybody to be proud of who they are.

(lively music) We want everybody to know how rich is Oaxaca.

How educated we are, how smart we are, how beautiful we are, And, that we have so much to give to the community.

(lively music) Wow, so many vibrant colors and characters who warm my hearts simply by sharing their story.

And we want to hear your journey too.

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Until next time, I'm Liz Adeola and This is Utah.