Building on the accomplishments of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Latino Music Recording Initiative, "Tradiciones/Traditions," Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture was the preview for a series of Festival programs exploring how Latinos use music to build community, give meaning to life, and assert their presence in a multicultural society. Music of distinctive styles and from distinctive cultural traditions presented a picture of the complexity of the Latino community in the United States. Artists from Latin America featured musical traditions at the foundation of Latino heritage. Musicians from U.S. communities underscored both the rootedness and the adaptive creativity that marks much Latino life in this country. Lively "roots" sounds from Veracruz, Mexico, the violence-torn plains of eastern Colombia, and the mountains of Puerto Rico were heard on the same stages as music from Afro-Cuban santería, Texas-Mexican conjunto, New Mexican "Spanish Colonial," Dominican merengue, Guatemalan marimba, and California-based mariachi traditions. The Salón de Baile, or dance hall, featured social and sacred dance performances, demonstrations, workshops, and classes.
In addition to musical performances at the large La Fonda concert stage, two stages at the Festival were dedicated to talking about music, culture, and Latino life. Both La Peña and El Portal provided interactive spaces where people explored not only musical traditions but also the stories behind them. Artists from different traditions had the opportunity to talk to one another in ways that spanned cultural boundaries and regional borders. These conversations highlighted both the commonalities and differences present in contemporary Latino musical traditions and experience.
The Festival was a collaboration of the Smithsonian Institution and many other arts organizations. The National Endowment for the Arts sponsored two evening concerts and two narrative sessions with Latino National Heritage Fellows participating in the Festival program. Radio Bilingüe Satélite featured two segments of its popular "Línea Abierta" program from the Mall and broadcast other pre-recorded programs on the Nuestra Música program to millions of listeners around the country and beyond in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Latino Festival visitors dramatically increased from 5 percent in recent years to more than 8 percent; audiences for Nuestra Música programming were as much as 40 percent Latino. Print, radio, and television media outlets championed the program, delivering an amazing media reach. Many major print media outlets, such as the Washington Post, El Tiempo Latino, and the nationally syndicated broadcast media outlets Univisión, Telefutura, Hispanics Today (NBC), and National Public Radio, supported the effort by dedicating major program seg-ments to Nuestra Música and the Smithsonian's Latino effort. The online media visitation for the Festival was equally impressive. Spanish-language news agencies and bureaus, such as Spain's EFE, also pushed Festival reach well over the 40 million estimate.
Research, planning, and fundraising are underway for future Nuestra Música Festival programs. A collaboration with the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago aims to feature artists from that city's longstanding and culturally diverse Latino population in 2005, exploring how musical life builds community among Latinos. The "building community" framework promises the opportunity to view the role of music in Latino culture as much greater than entertainment. Rather, it long has been a force used both to strengthen ties of specific communities to their historical roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, and other departure points of migration and to create a new, pan-Latino identity around a shared sense of place and social mutuality. Audio restoration of historical tracks, original Smithsonian Folklife Festival recordings, and mastering of the CD were done by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Elizabeth Goldberg is an intern at the Center from Smith College.
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