Gary Seurer stood over a layer of white-hot charcoal as three legs of lamb turned on a spit and the air around him pulsed with heat.
“People like to see how they’re cooked,” the retired Denver police officer said, nodding toward the glistening joints of meat. Seurer, 59, who grew up in Globeville, was back in the Denver neighborhood Sunday to participate in an annual Ethnic Food Festival.
Like most of those selling foods that included Russian povitica, a nut bread; tamales; and German butter cake, Seurer attends Holy Transfiguration of Christ Cathedral in Globeville, one of the sponsors of the festival.
The neighborhood was originally settled in the late 1880s by immigrants from Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, Poland and other Slavic countries.
Seurer lives in Lakewood, but each Sunday, he returns to his old neighborhood to attend church in the 110-year-old Russian Orthodox church.
He remembers a time when many of the residents were displaced persons who left their native countries when World War II swept the continent.
“The parents all worked down here at the packing houses,” he said.
Most of the European immigrants and their children who lived in the small homes that line Globeville’s streets have moved on, and the area is now largely Latino.
Tomas Parra, 68, came from his home in the Baker neighborhood to watch his daughter, Yanis, 12, dance.
Yanis Parra is a member of Grupo Folklorico Sabor Latino and performed traditional Mexican dance at the festival. “It is so much fun; it’s a workout,” she said, patting her stomach as she headed to buy something to drink after her performance.
Ben Yohannes of Aurora also is a parishioner at the church and was selling the food of his native Eritrea.
Yohannes, who works in assembly at a medical supply company, has been in the United States for 20 years. He left Eritrea during the country’s 30-year war of independence with Ethiopia, he said.
It was his first year cooking for the event, the proceeds of which go to Holy Transfiguration.
The two-day festival, which ended Sunday, featured an arts and crafts show, games and cultural and historical displays, historic tours and ethnic singers, dancers and bands from around the world.
“Every culture is here,” Seurer said. “That is the neat part of it.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
