O.C. Mariachi Band Joins Festival

Mariachi Uclatlan, a mariachi band based in Orange, has been added to the growing list of groups and artists from Orange County to participate in September’s Los Angeles Festival of the arts.

The 12-member band, which regularly performs at El Mariachi restaurant in Orange, is scheduled to play at a gathering “of the best mariachi in the greater Los Angeles area,” said Judy Mitoma, festival co-curator.

Other recently confirmed festival participants from Orange County are San Juan Capistrano photographer Mihoko Yamagata, to be featured in a solo exhibit, and Florinda Mintz, a writer from Santa Ana who is co-organizing a mini-festival of poets from Latin America and Canada. Mintz said Pablo Antonio Cuadra, one of Nicaragua’s leading poets and director of the newspaper La Prensa, will be among those reading their work.

The mariachi gathering, the Yamagata exhibit and the poetry mini-festival all will be subsidized by the festival. An “open” segment of the festival will feature other artists, including several from Orange County, who will pay to present their work. All events will take place throughout Los Angeles County.