Estimados,

It's that time of year again: Our mariachi and ballet folklorico workshops are just around the corner! We're delighted that they will be held at The Tech in San José during Labor Day weekend -- so make San José your destination this Labor Day and enroll your entire family! What a great way to spend time together -- dancing and making music as a community and as a family. We have made arrangements at San Jose's Marriott hotels for travel discounts on the regular room rates: You can make reservations easily online!

Fernando de la Mora and Mariachi Sol de Mexico.

We're also beyond delighted to announce that Mexico's foremost tenor -- Maestro Fernando de la Mora -- will provide a master class in voice instruction at our workshops this year! Our team for the 2013 mariachi and dance workshops will be led by Maestro José Hernandez and Mariachi Sol de Mexico with local instructors Juan Diaz, Juan Diaz, Jr., and Carla Diaz from Mariachi Azteca and José Baillin, who teaches at Lincoln High and Hoover Middle schools in San José. 

Maria Luisa Colmenarez and José Tena.

We're also thrilled to welcome back Maestra Maria Luisa Colmenarez and Maestro José Tena as the co-directors of the 2013 dance workshops in Mexico's ballet folklorico! Together, Maria Luisa and José have over 25 years of experience teaching and performing the heritage and regional folk dance repertoire of Mexico. Maria Luisa is also the founder of Danzantes Unidos, a non-profit arts organization that preserves and celebrates the dance heritage of Mexico through its annual festival.

Workshops will provide three days of intensive instruction in mariachi music and ballet folklorico. And of course, here's the extra-special bonus: All students will perform during our gala concert on September 7, at the SAP Center, with Mariachi Sol de Mexico and Fernando de la Mora. Tickets for this spectacular event are available through Vivafest.org, at the SAP Center ticket office or online through Ticketmaster.

Click here to register online.  

Workshop recuerdos (memories)

To give you a taste of what our mariachi and ballet folklorico workshops are like, here's a slide show from workshops past: 

A look at our past workshops.

Never been to a mariachi workshop before? Check out this video from Maestro Hernandez's Mariachi Academy for a more in-depth look at this educational experience:

Mariachi Nationals 2012

About the audio in our slide show

The audio recording you hear with our slide show of photographic memories of workshops past is from The WPA California Folk Music Project. We think it is an excellent example of the early-20th-century Mexican romantic and social music we are celebrating at this year's ¡VivaFest!

Called "Atonico," the song was performed in Spanish by Olive Flores, vocals; Frank Cunha, mandolin; and Joaquim Flores, guitar and vocals. It was recorded in Oakland on April 12, 1939, by folk-music collector Sidney Robertson Cowell.

The WPA collection comprises 35 hours of folk music recorded in twelve languages representing numerous ethnic groups and 185 musicians. This elaborate New Deal project was organized and directed by Cowell for the Northern California Work Projects Administration. Sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley, and cosponsored by the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center), this undertaking was one of the earliest ethnographic field projects to document European, Slavic, Middle Eastern, and English- and Spanish-language folk music in one region of the United States.

Saludos,

Marcela

Funding for the Mexican Heritage Corporation and its programs such as ¡VivaFest! and Los Lupeños de San José is provided in part through: a grant from the Office of Cultural Affairs of the City of San José, and from The San José Arena Authority, The National Endowment for the Arts, The TomKat Charitable Trust, The Hewlett Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Union Bank Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank, Mundo Fox, earned revenue from ¡VivaFest! and from readers like YOU. THANK YOU. To learn more about all of our generous donors please visit

www.vivafest.org/sponsors.