The 'Varios Pueblos' dance group
Elsa Bautista believes that if she quits celebrating the customs of her hometown of San Andres Solaga in the Mexican state of Oaxaca it will lead her four Los Angeles-born children to forget their roots, little by little. That is why Bautista has her kids join the “Varios Pueblos” dance troupe and Juvenil Solaga, a traditional music band in their neighborhood.
The mix of music, dance and other cultural roots came together at the July 5 festival of Virgin of Carmen at a dance hall in the Koreatown district west of Downtown Los Angeles. The band and the dance group performed for the gathering — and to honor the Virgin of Carmen, the patroness of the Oaxacan town of San Andres Solaga. Guests savored servings of Oaxacan staples, including bean tamales, special breads, and chocolate. The music, dance and food all served as reminders of the roots that many immigrants from San Andrés Solaga maintain amid life in Los Angeles.
The 30 or so children and youths who make up the Juvenil Solaga USA-Oaxaca band played melodies while the younger members of the dance group moved to the strains of the folk music of their community — all in front of the image of the Virgin of Carmen, a version of the Blessed Mary, whom the faithful believe to be the mother of Jesus Christ.
Fiesta-goers arrived at the dance hall with bouquets of flowers, candles, and money to deposit as offerings while the musical group of the Mercadito of East Los Angeles, also made up of community children, played Las Mañanitas to the Virgin.
Bautista, who came to the U.S. in 1983, emphasized the importance of the religious festivities for her and other members of the Oaxacan immigrant community in Los Angeles.
“We celebrate so we won’t lose our customs, so that the kids, our children, know what our customs are like, and maintain them,” she said.
The festival is Koreatown was just a warm-up, too. Bautista also planned to take her children — Melinda, Melisa, Joana and Orlando — back to the Oaxacan mountains to celebrate the Virgin of Carmen from July 14th to 18th in her hometown.
Jeremias Baha, director of the Juvenil Solaga band, said that the fiesta in Los Angeles offers double proof of Oaxacan immigrants’ commitment to their cultural roots. The local celebration is earlier than the one in Oaxaca, he said, because so many of the immigrants make the sojourn back to Mexico for the annual event that the local celebration would likely come up light on turnout if they held it on the same dates.
Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.
Photos by Impulso
