1. Taqueria Jalisco

📍 4075 Pine Ridge Rd, Ste 3

If you’re searching for the best al pastor street tacos in Naples, look no further. Marinated with pineapple and onions, the tender pork is bursting with flavor—and you’ll immediately wish you had ordered more. Want to take it up a notch? Try the choriqueso—a melty cheese dip mixed with Esther’s handmade chorizo. Just a warning: it’s highly addictive!

2. 7 Food Mart and Tortilleria

📍 2332 Santa Barbara Blvd

Hidden in the back of this Hispanic/Caribbean grocery store is a taco grill and deli beloved by locals. The barbacoa street tacos are a must—don’t skip the cilantro, onion, and house salsas. For something heartier, try the Cuban pork leg with black beans and rice (moro), a dish that keeps customers coming back again and again.

3. Garibaldi’s

📍 11510 Tamiami Trl E

Part bakery, part restaurant, Garibaldi’s is a delicious surprise in East Naples. While the pastries and desserts are eye-catching, the real showstopper is the molcajete—a sizzling stone bowl overflowing with meats, cheese, and even cactus, served alongside handmade tortillas and all the taco fixings. Bring a friend, because this dish is as big as it is bold.

4. El Tapatio

📍 11157 Tamiami Trl E

Don’t let the humble pink exterior fool you—this former roadside motel lobby has been transformed into one of Naples’ best-kept secrets for over 25 years. Owners Sergio and America serve up crispy-outside, soft-inside gorditas with fillings ranging from chicken to spicy pork to cactus. Pair them with a bowl of fresh guacamole and you’ll see why locals rave about this spot.

5. La Oaxaqueña Taqueria

📍 2795 Davis Blvd, Unit A

Step inside La Oaxaqueña and you’ll be transported to southern Mexico. The menu highlights include quesabirria tacos (a social media sensation) and tlayudas—giant, crispy “Mexican pizzas” topped with beans, cheese, meat, and veggies. Wash it all down with a passionfruit margarita or a refreshing agua fresca for a meal that feels like a celebration.

Whether you’re craving tacos, gorditas, or something adventurous like tlayudas, these five restaurants are perfect places to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with authentic flavor.

Liz Valdez is the founder of Paradise Food Tours and has spent years exploring the local food scene, discovering hidden gems and authentic eateries that showcase the rich flavors of our community.

The post Five Authentic Local Restaurants to Try During Hispanic Heritage Month in Naples appeared first on SWFL Family.

The starting date was selected to celebrate the five Hispanic countries that declared independence on September 15, 1821: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Here are 7 ways you can celebrate this month with your family:

1. Art and Essay contest:

(Deadline September 24)

The Governor Ron DeSantis’ and First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hispanic Heritage Month Art and Essay Contest’s 2025 theme is “Celebrating Florida’s Hispanic Heritage.”

The Hispanic Heritage Month essay contest is open to all students attending any Florida school in grades 4-12. Six winners will be selected: two elementary school students (grades 4-5), two middle school students (grades 6-8), and two high school students (grades 9-12). Each winner will receive a 2-year Florida College Plan scholarship provided by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and a $100 gift card for school supplies.

Contestants must be Florida residents, attend school in Florida in grades 4-12 (including public, charter, private, home or virtual) and able to provide a Social Security Number. Each student may enter only one essay, written in English, no longer than 500 words.

There are many examples throughout our state’s history of Hispanic Heritage. Using your own words, write about a Hispanic Floridian who has had an impactful effect whose story should be shared. The subject of the essay should be a Floridian.

Click here for more information on how to enter.

2. Épocas de Mi Pueblo: Celebrating Community Heritage

September 27, 2025 | 10:00 am-1:00 pm. Join us for Épocas de Mi Pueblo: Celebrating Community Heritage at the Immokalee Pioneer Museum at Roberts Ranch! Enjoy a day filled with: Crafting & Bounce House Fun, Live Entertainment, Traditional Ribbon Hair Braiding, Decorate Your Paiz themed trunk, Free samples from Cultivate Abundance, and more! This event is FREE!

Limited spots available for Decorate Your Paiz—call (239) 252-2611 to reserve.

Come celebrate culture, community, and family fun!

3. Discover Florida Hispanic Heritage Facts

Click here for a timeline of Hispanic history, contributions, and influence in Florida.

4. Día de los Muertos at Marco Island Historical Museum

October 4, 2025 | 10:00 am-1:00 pm. Diá de los Muertos is a Central American tradition honoring ancestors. It occurs very close to Halloween but holds very different meanings and traditions. Come learn how to decorate calaveras (skulls), create offrendas (alters), and learn more about this tradition that is important to many indigenous American cultures.

This event is free and open to all ages. It is part of the Honrando Nuestra Historia series of events.

5. Marco Island Center for the Arts “Day of the Dead” Grass Wall 

October 13, 2025 to November 14, 2025. This outdoor installation in the Art Center courtyard is part of ¡Arte Viva!

6. The Baker Museum at Artis—Naples

October 25, 2025 to February 8. 2025. With works that exuded cool elegance and sensuality, Tamara de Lempicka (1894-1980) helped define Art Deco. Capturing the glamour and vitality of 1920s postwar Paris and the cosmopolitan sheen of Hollywood celebrity, Tamara de Lempicka infused her paintings with a brilliant sense of fashion, design and the theatrical. This exhibition explores the artist’s distinctive style and unconventional life as she rose to the pinnacle of café society.

7. Aztec Dancers, A Living Tradition Exhibition at Immokalee Museum 

October 28, 2025 to November 1, 2025 | 9:00 am-4:00 pm. Aztec Dancers is a photo exhibition by local photographer Lisette Morales, celebrating Danza Azteca Guadalupana as practiced in Southwest Florida. Documenting a year and a half of devotion, the series centers the Navarro family’s twenty-four year commitment to this sacred, syncretic tradition, presented each year from Día de los Muertos through Three Kings Day. Morales’s images honor the spiritual power, cultural resilience, and collective joy of Indigenous and migrant communities sustaining this vibrant ceremonial practice across generations and geographies.

The post National Hispanic Heritage Month Activities and Events appeared first on SWFL Family.