Mamdani visits Mixteca for Three Kings Day celebration

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani paid a visit to Sunset Park, joining a Three Kings Day celebration at Mixteca on Tuesday, Jan. 6. Council Member Alexa Avilés and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Helen Arteaga Landaverde attended alongside Mixteca staff as families gathered for food, music, and the cutting of a Rosca de Reyes cake, a traditional ring-shaped bread associated with the holiday.

Three Kings Day, widely celebrated across Latin America and in Latino communities, marks the biblical story of the Magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus. In many families, it is a day for children to receive presents, for neighbors to share a meal, and for communities to gather around the Rosca de Reyes, which sometimes contains a small figurine of the baby Jesus baked inside.

Mixteca, founded in 2000, has built a long-running network of support for Mexican and Latin American immigrants in Brooklyn, offering programs that range from health and wellness education to mental health services and immigrant rights advocacy. The organization works to build stability for families navigating complex legal, economic, and health challenges.

“I was so proud to have the new Mayor join us in Sunset Park for a 3 Kings Day celebration at Mixteca,” said Avilés, whose office discovered the new mayor would be partaking in the celebration only hours before it began. “As a long-time community partner and strong advocate for immigrant New Yorkers, Mixteca is the perfect organization to help welcome South Brooklyn into a new era. It's important that Mayor Mamdani is spending his early weeks in office supporting our community.”

Mamdani echoed the holiday’s themes in a post on X, writing that “Día de Los Reyes embodies the values of generosity, hope, and community” and describing the celebration’s spirit as “alive and humming” in Sunset Park as neighbors came together to cut the Rosca de Reyes.

Mixteca’s own statement struck a sharper note about the broader national climate. “At a time when immigrant communities face attacks across the country, coming together is itself an act of resistance,” the organization wrote, calling the celebration a way to honor tradition while reaffirming what Mixteca has aimed to be for 25 years in Sunset Park, “a home away from home for immigrant families.”

Appointed by Mamdani in late December, Arteaga Landaverde came to City Hall after serving as CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, one of the city’s busiest public hospitals. As deputy mayor, she is expected to oversee the city’s health care and human services, including agencies and systems that immigrant New Yorkers often rely on.

The Sunset Park visit comes as Mamdani begins laying out an early governing agenda. In the first days of January, his administration announced a series of executive actions focused on compliance and oversight in city jails and shelters, and additional consumer protection efforts, signaling an emphasis on enforcement, public accountability, and day-to-day quality-of-life issues.