Heartbeat of Mexico festival returns to Chapman University this weekend

By Richard Chang

May 24, 2018 3:45 PM PT

The Musco Center for the Arts will celebrate Mexican arts, culture, food and music during its third annual Heartbeat of Mexico festival this weekend at its Chapman University-based arts center in Orange.

The free festival is mostly an outdoor event, and this year it has expanded to two days with a lecture series.

More than 20 regional acts will perform on three stages on the plaza in front of the Musco Center on Sunday.

Inside the center, two-time Grammy winner Mariachi Los Camperos is scheduled for Saturday, and multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner Natalia Lafourcade is set for Sunday. (The two concerts are ticketed, paid events.)

“We want the people in and of our community of north Orange County to be able to come to Musco Center and experience their traditional cultures at the highest levels,” said Richard Bryant, executive director of the Musco Center. “Then we also want the parents and grandparents and grandchildren to be able to experience the contemporary culture of their native countries. Thirdly, we want to celebrate the art forms that are uniquely American that are inspired by the culture of the motherlands.”

The Heartbeat of Mexico festival is part of the Musco Center’s World Cultural Arts Festivals and Events (CAFE) series. The university’s Latinx Staff and Faculty Forum also helped plan the gathering.

“It’s a celebration of Mexico’s rich history, music and art,” said Marisol Arredondo Samson, chair of the Latinx Staff and Faculty Forum, and director of institutional research at Chapman. She has helped organize the festival since its beginnings in 2016.

“We need to celebrate our heritage,” she said. “We need to celebrate who we are. We need to continue to put positive energy out there, and I think this festival does that. There’s a lot of rich history that people don’t know about. There’s beautiful music, beautiful art, and we just want to shed light on that beauty.”

Arredondo Samson noted that the university hopes to attract people from diverse backgrounds and age ranges to campus this weekend. Perhaps some may consider making Chapman a choice for post-secondary education, she said.

Latinos comprise about 14% of Chapman’s student body, she said. That number is considered a bit low, when compared to the Hispanic or Latino population in the surrounding communities of Orange, Anaheim and Santa Ana, which are 39.1% , 53.6% and 77.9%, respectively, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Increasing the number of Latino students at Chapman is also part of the university’s diversity and inclusion strategic plan, according to the university’s website.

Sunday’s outdoor festival will feature Southern California’s top local and regional Mexican American ensembles. Traditional and contemporary music, dance and folklórico performances are on the schedule.

On the Aitken Arts Plaza Stage, an opening ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m., followed by El Sol Academy at 1:15 p.m., Calle 4 Cumbia Electric from Santa Ana at 2:15 p.m., Ballet Folklórico Estrellas de OCSA from the Orange County School of the Arts at 3:15 p.m., Primero Sueño Ensemble at 4:15 p.m., and El Santo Golpe at 5:15 p.m., an Afro-Latino ensemble that combines cumbia, son jarocho, garifuna, African drum beats, poetry and folkloric dance.

On the Performers Court Stage, Los Sanchez Mariachi Quartet will kick things off at 2 p.m., followed by Mariachi Los Santos of Santa Ana High School at 3 p.m., Felipe Orozco and his Mariachi Tierra Azteca at 4 p.m., R & B/rock duo Ruby Clouds at 5 p.m., and father-daughter team Daniela y Fito at 6 p.m.

On the Wells Fargo Stage, Relámpago del Cielo will perform at 2:45 p.m., followed by the Dream Act at 3:45 p.m., MEXIKA (Music & Dance of Ancient Mexico) at 4:45 p.m., Grupo Folklórico Fusion Mexicana from Ventura County at 5:45 p.m., and Cambalache at 6:45 p.m.

Cambalache is an East L.A.-based quartet that plays high-energy son jarocho music from Veracruz, Mexico. “Cambalache” in Spanish means “exchange,” and son jarocho is a folk music that combines indigenous, Spanish, Arab and African elements.

“When I’m performing, I become an instrument of my culture,” said César Castro, one of the founders and lead vocalist of Cambalache. He also hand crafts son jarocho instruments and teaches the music at colleges and community centers.

“It’s important for people to learn — the discipline is a window to history, recent and ancient history too,” he said. “And that gives you more context to who you are.”