Beyond Borders : Festival to Honor L.A.’s Mexican Influences Opens

Elba Bonilla plopped her two children on the moist lawn at City Hall on Saturday and watched the parade of men dressed as feather-covered Aztecs, indigenous dance troupes and mariachi bands marking the start of a four-month Mexican arts festival.

“I am here because I am from Mexico,” Bonilla, 35, said. “I like to see these things. It reminds me of home.”

And so it was nostalgia that attracted at least part of the crowd attending the opening ceremony of the Artes de Mexico festival, 187 performances and events exploring Mexico’s influence on the arts and culture of Los Angeles.

The festival, which will end early next year, is timed to capitalize on the interest generated by next month’s “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries,” a comprehensive exhibition of Mexican art to be presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Mayor Tom Bradley joined Latino actors Ricardo Montalban, Edward James Olmos and Carmen Zapata in inaugurating the festival.

The free event began with the Cuica Calli indigenous dance group. Bare-chested men wearing leggings made of nutshells danced an ancient ceremonial ritual that signifies the blessing of the land.

Then, as white doves were released from inside City Hall into the late afternoon sky, a parade began of men and women wearing traditional costumes from different regions and eras of Mexico.

Lazaro Arvizu was near the head of the parade. Dressed to represent an Aztec, he wore a huge sequined headdress made of the blue, green and spotted feathers from the quetzal, the tropical parrot and other exotic birds.

He was followed by women in colorfully embroidered poblanas and huipiles with piles of centuries-old trading beads around their necks, men in white guayaberas , and one delegation dressed as peasant soldiers from the Mexican Revolution, complete with guns and bandoleras .

“Viva Zapata!” one man in the crowd shouted as the group passed.

The Boy Scouts of America were represented. Troop 58 from the Union Elementary School played a drum and bugle rendition of “Soldado Raso” (“Buck Private”). But several of the boys didn’t know too much about Mexico; they were Salvadoran.

“(The festival) brings you the art of the people who founded this city,” Armando Duron, president of the Artes de Mexico festival committee, told the crowd. “The people who are your neighbors and friends.”

Comedian Paul Rodriguez took a tongue-in-cheek approach. “Los Angeles has always been Mexican,” he told reporters before the show. “We just lent it to you. And now the rent is due.”

Despite all the homage being paid to cultural harmony, there was an occasional faux pas.

The cue card to tell parade participants when to take a bow was a giant green poster board. “Watch the green card,” the announcer told the participants. Of course, “green card” has a special meaning for those not born in the United States.