October 1, 2010
A wide array of musical styles will be highlighted at the Museum of Northern Arizona’s 7th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente on Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24. Mariachi music from Mexico, Mexican root music, Latin American bolero, and South American folk music will take center stage at this annual Day of the Dead event, produced in partnership with Nuestras Raices (Our Roots), Flagstaff’s Hispanic pioneer families dating from the late 1800s.
Museum Director Robert Breunig stated, “This festival encourages us to examine the universal experiences of life and death, and reminds us of the role that Hispanic pioneers played in Flagstaff and throughout the Southwest.”
“Dia de Los Muertos is a highly celebrated and significant holiday held throughout Mexico, Latin, America, and the Southwest. It is a day when homage is paid with prayers, offerings of food, and the building of ofrendas,” added Heritage Program Manager Anne Doyle.
Music
Tucson’s nine-member Mariachi Sol Azteca will provide a unique opportunity to hear traditional mariachi music and learn about the rich Mexican heritage of the instruments and the songs they play. While its roots are folk-derived and rural, since the 1930s contemporary mariachi music is an urban expression, associated with post-revolutionary Mexico City and widely considered to be the quintessential Mexican music.
On Sunday, Zarco and Carmen Guerrero will perform a musical play titled Cantando con Tata, honoring the story and music of the late Lalo Guerrero (1916–2005). An Arizona-born composer, musician, singer, and recipient of many awards, Lalo Guerrero is known as the Father of Chicano Music. He played guitar, entertained, and sang in films for six decades. He received the prestigious National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton and won a Grammy with Los Lobos. The music will include Lalo’s parodies, which are funny bilingual takes on popular Mexican and American pop music. Lalo was famous during the 40s and 50s, and wrote some of Mexico’s most loved music.
Also on Sunday, Los Compadres will play their familiar Mexican root music. A local community conjunto (small group), they have played together for 30 years for weddings, baptismal and birthday parties, and funerals.
Cesar Mazier will perform Latin American songs in Spanish with an emphasis on boleros, characterized by a sense of love and romance.
On Saturday, Flagstaff’s Ballet Folklorico de Colores will perform three dance traditions of Mexico, including Danza, indigenous dances generally religious in nature and usually performed in ritual or community settings. Also typically religious in nature, Mestizo dances are indigenous dances reflecting European influences in either the steps, themes, instrumentation, or costuming. Bailes Regionales, or regional dances, are primarily social in origin and are performed by most ballet folklorico performing groups in Mexico and the U.S.
Ofrendas (Altars)
Altars are an integral part of the Dia de los Muertos tradition. Nuestras Raices will enliven the organization’s tradition of a community altar and is inviting the public to bring momentos and photos of their loved ones to contribute to this special place of memory and reverence. Flagstaff Hispanic pioneer families will again create ofrendas in the Museum’s Jaime Major Golightly Historic Courtyard to honor those who have gone before them. Family photographs, candles, yellow marigolds, copal, salt, water, pan de los muertos or bread of the dead, and sugar skulls representing the sweetness of life will decorate the ofrendas.
Artists
Hispanic arts will be presented by Carmen and Zarco Guerrero (beaded jewelry, crafts, and books), Anthony Esparza (paintings), Francesca Anatra (glass art jewelry), Oliverio Balcells (paintings), Lucia Cartez (Mexican folk art), Juan Lopez (filigree jewelry), Gina Santi (photography), Ralph Sena (precious stone and silver jewelry), and Vicente Telles (retablos). Oaxacan woodcarving, Zapoteca rugs, and a Mata Ortiz pottery demonstration by Jorge Quintana from Oaxaca, Mexico are new additions to this year’s festival.
Also this weekend, visitors can take part in a sugar skull demonstration each morning, storytelling about La Llorona, and papel picado workshops and spray painting mural creation throughout each day.
Heritage Insight Presentations
Dr. Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, Chair of the School of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Arizona State University, will give a presentation titled Transborder Culture and Influence on the academic, economic, and overall societal benefits of living in a multidimensional transborder culture. Dr. Vélez-Ibáñez has a sincere interest in articulating the complexities that form our rich and diverse region, geographically, historically, and in ways that make our lives much more compelling.
Northern Arizona University’s Anthropology Professor Dr. Miguel Vasquez will present Immigration: Rhetoric or Resolution, exploring the history and background of immigration and its current implications. Dr. Vasquez is an applied anthropologist who has worked with Mayan, Latino, Native American, African American, and Southeast Asian refugee communities for more than 25 five years in the areas of globalization and its impacts, traditional ecological knowledge, community-based participatory research, and rapid qualitative assessment techniques.
On Saturday, Carmen Guerrero will give a Dia de Los Muertos presentation, with over 60 images of altars, festivals, and performances from her 30 years as a Day of the Dead participant.
Kids Activities
At Creative Corner both days, creative people of all ages will enjoy making Hispanic colorful take-home paper flowers, Day of the Dead masks, and bead necklaces. “A Piñata for Pepita” puppet show by Museum docents will entertain youngsters. Pepita’s story is that she is visiting from Mexico on her birthday. Her abuela (grandmother) is not sure what present to give her. Will she give her a bag of wool? Seeds? Bones? Find out what the perfect gift is for Pepita.
7th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente Sponsors
The 2010 Celebraciones de la Gente is sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; Arizona ArtShare; City of Flagtaff, Flagstaff Cultural Partners; Arizona Humanities Council; Salsa Brava; Fred Nackard Beverage Company; and Vino Loco.
MNA’s producing partner Nuestras Raices is a local grassroots organization dedicated to promoting the Mexican, Mexican American, and Hispanic cultures.
The mission of the Museum of Northern Arizona is to inspire a sense of love and responsibility for the beauty and diversity of the Colorado Plateau. Now celebrating its 83rd year, MNA is one of the great regional museums of our world, surrounded by tremendous geological, biological, and cultural resources in one of Earth’s most spectacular landscapes. By providing a deeper insight into the living cultures on the Colorado Plateau, MNA’s Heritage Program continues to foster communication and deeper insight into the Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, and Hispanic people.
The Museum is located at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, three miles north of historic downtown Flagstaff on Highway 180. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission to the Museum and festival is $7 adults, $6 seniors (65+), $5 students, and $4 children (7–17). For more information, call 928/774-5213 or go to musnaz.org. You can also find MNA on Facebook and Twittter.