Mercado on Fifth sets records; seeks to top them in 2023

Mercado on Fifth reported a record-shattering 2022 season Wednesday, Oct. 26, just four days after its leaders celebrated an inaugural Día de los Muertos parade Saturday that jammed the streets of downtown Moline with visitors. Now with a successful 2022 in the books, leaders of the organization that operates the summer outdoor market on Moline’s […]

Mercado on Fifth reported a record-shattering 2022 season Wednesday, Oct. 26, just four days after its leaders celebrated an inaugural Día de los Muertos parade Saturday that jammed the streets of downtown Moline with visitors. Now with a successful 2022 in the books, leaders of the organization that operates the summer outdoor market on Moline’s Fifth Avenue and supports Hispanic entrepreneurs already say they are looking for more growth in 2023. "I am very proud to be a part of all that Mercado has accomplished,” Anamaria Rocha, Mercado’s executive director, told the QCBJ today, Thursday, Oct. 27. “Our record-breaking year is a testament to our community's desire to be part of authentic cultural experiences. I believe that if we keep authentically representing and supporting the community we aim to inspire, we will continue breaking records and widening our footprint."

Drawing a diverse crowd

Mercado has been working since 2016 “to foster social interaction by drawing a diverse crowd and has worked to build and support an equitable local economy through its direct assistance to minority-owned small-scale entrepreneurs,” Ms. Rocha wrote on the Facebook post celebrating the 2022 data. She said: “This year, Mercado broke a lot of records. We welcomed thousands of attendees and helped to establish 16 new businesses! We remained at full vendor capacity and maintained an active waiting list of vendors eager to join Mercado this summer.” “But that’s not all,” she added in the post. “The amount of money spent at Mercado this year also surpassed the amount of money spent by attendees at Mercado last year. This lets us know that not only did we have record-breaking attendance, we also had record-breaking consumption!” According to Mercado, in 2022 a total of $591,302.74 was spent on food, beverages, merchandise and activities. That’s a 92.5% increase in vendor impact over 2021 and 251% growth over 2019. The agency also reported that, to date, it has increased social media reach by 24.8% to 259,463 engagements. And the agency said 116 entities participated in Mercado this year including 27 food vendors, 20 retail vendors, 22 corporate vendors, 35 nonprofit vendors, and 12 sponsor booth spaces. Mercado paid dividends for nonprofits, too, according to the report. Fifteen organizations collected $8,885.45 in volunteer tips at the Mercado beer tent. “Thank you, Mercado family, for your continued support, engagement, and active participation,” Ms. Rocha’s Facebook post said. She added that the money spent at the open-air market primarily benefits “our participating vendors who work so hard week after week to be part of Mercado. We are so proud of their hard work and also proud of our supportive community. We know that we could not do what we do without the constant support of our attendees, city, volunteers, sponsors, and generous donors.”

Celebration and loss

While the 2022 season offered plenty of reasons to celebrate, Mercado leaders also suffered a huge loss that reverberated throughout the Quad Cities community last winter. Bob Ontiveros – community leader and founder of Group O, one of the largest and most influential U.S. Hispanic-owned businesses –  died on Feb. 8. He grew up in the Floreciente neighborhood and co-founded Mercado on Fifth with his granddaughter, Maria Ontiveros, who now serves as its president.  Fittingly, his Celebration of Life was held at Mercado on Fifth near the organization’s new indoor building, its new patio and the adjacent Food Truck Lane where vendors plied their wares in the summer of 2022 for Mercado’s Friday night markets as well as served up Wednesday lunches.  The 6,300-square-foot indoor space is open to the community and hosts year-round classes and workshops to assist minority businesses owners as well as provides space for craft making opportunities, including recent ones with a Día de los Muertos theme. That came in handy when the organization hosted an inaugural “spectacular” Day of the Dead parade on Saturday, Oct. 22, that had leaders including Ms. Rocha celebrating. “Yesterday was so special,” Ms. Rocha wrote on Mercado’s Facebook page Sunday, Oct. 23. “I was blown away! I have been very emotional today looking at all the pictures, comments, and kind messages I have received. I worked so hard to make this happen, and it was worth all the hard work." Ms. Rocha believed in the parade so strongly, in order to sell the idea to the Mercado board she used her own money to hire a professional photographer and enlisted her friends and family to do a catrina photoshoot. The idea, she wrote on Facebook, was “to provide a visual for what I hoped to create for the Quad Cities, but I never would have imagined it would be something this big. The energy yesterday was unlike anything I have ever experienced at a parade. It was absolutely amazing!”

The inaugural event

The inaugural event featured highly decorated floats and elaborate costumes. “I had chills looking at all of them,” Ms. Rocha wrote. “You know, I may have been the one who put in the leg work to get the support I needed to kick off the idea, but it was everyone who was a part of it who takes the credit for making it as special as it was.” It was special, too, for Janessa Calderon, executive director of the Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "We saw an amazing turnout of support for this event,” Ms. Calderon told the QCBJ. “We were touched by how many people of the community came to the parade to support its Latino culture. It was a fun event and there were so many beautifully done handmade floats.” She also said that she and the GQHCC’s board of directors and friends “had fun leading up the parade with our trial makeup runs and putting labor of love into our wardrobes. Overall, a successful event for such a meaningful holiday."  “If they have it again,” Ms. Calderon added, “I would love to join.” Ms. Rocha, who called the parade “spectacular, added: “We created something this area has never seen before. We made our loved ones proud. I honestly almost cried looking down the street and seeing how many people were flooding the street looking for a place to sit. I cannot thank everyone enough for supporting the parade.” Other supporters included Vibrant at the Mark of the Quad Cities, which hosted the Day of the Dead food truck festival and a concert featuring top acts on Oct. 22, and parade sponsor R3 Roofing & Exteriors. The market and the parade are important events for the Quad Cities, but Mercado on Fifth continues to be more than entertain the Quad Cities, it educates. Among its community contributions is providing a platform for more than 30 minority-owned businesses in the region. It launched the Food Protection Manager course in Spanish at Black Hawk College, Moline. And thanks to Mercado, Moline has developed a food business policy. Mercado also partners with the Small Business Development Center at Western Illinois University-Quad Cities on minority grants and bilingual workshops.