Henry Hudson’s trip up the river 400 years ago is being celebrated in a big way this weekend with a flotilla making its way north. One event will acknowledge some of the newest arrivals in the river towns — Ecuadorian immigrants.

Two Ecuadorian poets will give readings at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow between 1 and 2 p.m. Saturday. The literary hour is part of a Sleepy Hollow Arts Festival and Field Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I wanted our authors to reflect who now lives on the river,” said Jerri Lynn Fields of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. She had proposed the idea in an application to the state, and the event grew into a full-blown festival. The park is at the end of Palmer Avenue at the Hudson River. Afterward, the boats tracing Hudson’s route are scheduled to dock at the Tarrytown waterfront between 5 and 6 p.m.

Here is the literary lineup:

At 1 p.m., the winners of a “Haiku-on-the-Hudson” contest for grades 3 – 8, co-sponsored by the Junior League and the Writers’ Center, will read their winning entries. The Writers’ Center will also present author Hudson Talbott reading from his new book River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River, as well as bilingual readings by Alex Lima and Petronio Rafael Cevallos.

Alex Lima (Guayaquil, Ecuador. 1975). Alex moved to New York at the age of fifteen where he finished up high school in Brooklyn. He went on to major in Economics and Latin American Studies at SUNY Albany (1997). In 2002, Alex completed a Master’s degree in Hispanic Languages and Literatures at St. John’s University where he co-founded the bi-annual journal Entre rascacielos. Alex is currently completing his doctoral dissertation at the Graduate Center (CUNY) with a concentration in 18th century colonial poetry of the Americas. The author is also an editor of Hybrido magazine, a publication devoted to emerging artists and writers. Alex published his first book of poetry, Inverano, last year.

Petronio Rafael Cevallos (Ancón, Ecuador) is author of De otros héroes (novel, 1992), Santa Lorena de Bucay (comedy, 1994), Ideario (essay, 1996), Contracuentos (essay, 1996), La belladona (drama, 1997), En un país sin nombre (essay, 2000), Eyaculaciones (poetry, 2003), Serenata (novel, 2004), Un lugar bajo el Sol (essay, 2005), and Bárdica (poetry, 2006). He has lived in Brooklyn since 1990.

… Meanwhile the word of the month is “Quadricentennial.” For more details on the boat load of exhibits, festivals and such happening this year, click here.