8th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente

 Festival Schedule

Festival Fliers & Posters
Flier (8 1/2 x 11) English or Spanish
Poster (11 x 17) English or Spanish

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.

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.

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.

Poco de Todo or “a little bit of everything” plays favorite Mexican oldies. Flagstaff locals Ruben and Robert Hernandez get together with cousin Manuel “Chuco” Jaramillo and friends Jesus “Chewy” Hernandez, Tony Armijo, and Anamarie Ortiz to form this talented group.

La Cantadora Alena Chavez from Flagstaff will be singing Tejano (or Texano, a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage) songs.

Ofrendas (Alters)
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.

Workshops and Storytelling
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. Pete Dimas will discuss and present on the celebration of the Hispanic people of northern Arizona. He says: “My role will be to integrate the history of the people of Mexican descent in northern Arizona into the celebrations. I will discuss at least three “movements” of people coming north from Mexico to become part of the northern Arizona scene: the movement of the mining and ranching frontier coming north from Sonora in the mid-19th century; the movement west from New Mexico, itself an extension of that great northern movement from Mexico, that brought the sheep industry and also the labor for building the first railroads and operating the sawmills of the region; and the larger movement of people from central Mexico that come with the arrival of the railroad into that country thereby providing the means by which much of the labor needed in northern Arizona will arrive. These people played a major role in the integration of Arizona into the United States economy, but their story is one of survival, segregation, patriotism, and integration into the larger society---it’s a story worth celebrating. Time permitting, I will discuss the progress of the documentary project, Arizona’s Mexican Heritage: An American Story and some of the surprising findings--at least to this historian--of that project.”

Dr. Paul Espinosa will present: Exploring the US Mexican Border Region: A Documentary Journey

This session will explore the dynamics of US-Mexico border history and culture through the medium of film. Using short DVD clips from award-winning films produced by Dr. Paul Espinosa, the presentation will provide a historical journey through the border region and will include:

• an introduction to the historical moment which gave rise to the creation of the current border (The U.S.-Mexican War: 1846-1848);
• a profile of the labor recruitment system in the southern Arizona region (Los Mineros);
• an exploration of the volatile events in 1916 when the U.S. and Mexico came to the brink of war (The Hunt for Pancho Villa);
• a look at how schools dealt with the growing presence of Mexican American students and the early battle for educational equity (The Lemon Grove Incident);
• a portrait of the migrant experience seen through the eyes of a young Mexican American boy (…and the earth did not swallow him).
• an examination of how contemporary spoken word artists are redefining cultural spaces for poetry (Taco Shop Poets).

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.

Other Festival Activities
This year’s NAU Cline Library Special Collections and Archives exhibit is titled Walking through Time, about people and places in the early Southside Hispanic Community. Visitors will have a chance to participate in this exhibit, by helping to name unidentified individuals in photographs that were found in a trash bin of the historic Tourist Home, built in 1926, on South San Francisco Street.

Also this weekend, visitors can take part in a sugar skull making and decorating workshop, Lupe Anaya and her La Llorona storytelling, a papel picado workshop to make the colorful cut paper decorations, and face painting.

Nuestras Raices creates a community ofrenda each year and invites visitors to bring photos and mementos of their loved ones to contribute to this special place of memory and reverence. Nuestras Raices will also be a presentation about Dia de los Muertos traditions and the preparation of ofrendas.

Schedule of Performances and Activities

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.