The Guelaguetza Festival planned for Sunday at Palomar College in San Marcos has been postponed, with organizers saying fear tied to rising immigration enforcement across San Diego County left little appetite for celebration. It marks the second year in a row the beloved Oaxacan cultural festival has been called off before it could happen.
The Coalition of Indigenous Communities of Oaxaca, which organizes Guelaguetza San Diego, announced the postponement after an emergency meeting, according to KPBS. The group said the move was meant to keep community members safe, and coalition member Cuetz Rodríguez pointed to a climate of distrust driving the decision. “There's this fear of insecurity, and it all stems like from racial profiling,” Rodríguez said, per KPBS. Separately, organizers shared the postponement announcement on social media, citing community members' well-being, and told CBS 8 they had prepared for months before pulling the plug.
Rodríguez said the same forces derailed the festival in 2025 as well. “Guelaguetza San Diego was canceled last year also because of the Trump administration ramp-up in immigration enforcement,” Rodríguez said, according to KPBS's reporting. Coalition members had already lined up buses, a stage, rental equipment and university contracts, Rodríguez told CBS 8, before voting to postpone the event after an emergency meeting. Rodríguez said the well-being and safety of everyone in the county mattered more than the logistical headaches of unwinding those arrangements.
A Community on Edge
KPBS reports there have been instances of people detained at their workplaces throughout San Diego County amid the ongoing crackdown. Rodríguez estimated that nearly 40,000 Oaxacans live in the county, most of them in North County, the same region the festival was meant to serve. Rodríguez said people across the county, from varied backgrounds, were worried, and some simply did not feel like celebrating, according to CBS 8.
The numbers behind that fear are stark. Federal immigration arrests in the San Diego Area of Responsibility, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties, hit a record 1,952 in July, according to FOX 5 San Diego. The station reported that arrests have trended sharply upward since May 2025, and that more than 70% of people arrested in San Diego since January 2025 had no criminal record. A separate analysis by CalMatters found arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties jumped nearly 1,500% from May through October 2025 compared with the same stretch a year earlier, with agents arresting more than 4,500 people in that window versus fewer than 300 the year before.
Reports of a Widening Crackdown
Community activist Arturo Gonzalez described a sudden spike in enforcement activity in the days before October 12, telling KPBS, “What's happening right now in the last week and a half is a complete, big, immense surge.” The California Immigrant Policy Center cited news reports describing an operation referred to as Operation Safe California that reportedly began in the San Diego area earlier in October and was expected to run for at least 45 days, though no primary government source has confirmed its scope. The Los Angeles Times reported separately that a surge in enforcement activity had disrupted agricultural communities across California's Central Valley.
San Diego was not alone in canceling its celebration. The Guelaguetza Madera festival in Northern California was also postponed for the same reason, KPBS reported. The Comité Guelaguetza Madera said the event was being put on hold in response to what it called an undeclared state of emergency in Madera, according to the Fresno Bee. That festival, first held in 2023, was also canceled the previous year over ICE concerns, and Fresno's own Guelaguetza event was delayed in 2025 as well, the Bee reported.
What the Festival Means to San Diego
Guelaguetza San Diego has brought together families from across the county for more than 20 years, celebrating the traditions of Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, and honoring its eight regions through dance, music and food, according to CBS 8. The festival also gives younger generations a chance to connect with their cultural heritage. Valentín Ramírez, COCIO's coordinator, said the celebration gives the community a platform to make its voice heard and build connections with other San Diego organizations.
“People look forward to La Guelaguetza,” Ramírez said, per CBS 8's reporting. For now, organizers say they already have a date in mind for a rescheduled celebration but are not making it public yet, according to KPBS. The coalition has said it plans to announce a new date once details are finalized, leaving the festival postponed until further notice.
