Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
Though Santa Fe is surrounded by quite a few pueblos, the Native People dwelling inside its midst can generally use a little bit of cultural refreshment.
That concept is on the coronary heart of the upcoming Indigenous Neighborhood Day from midday to 4 p.m. Saturday at Ragle Park.
“Connecting again to our Native tradition is vital,” mentioned Caren Gala, director of the Santa Fe Indigenous Middle, which is sponsoring the occasion. “For the city Natives who stay in Santa Fe, there’s generally a scarcity of the cultural connections, so we wish to make certain we offer a spot to assemble, and to have fun our tradition by means of track and dance.”
The free occasion, canceled by COVID final yr, is open to Native People who wish to return to their roots, in addition to the merely curious who wish to study extra about Native tradition, Gala mentioned.
Coming into its ninth yr, “it began off as a picnic with about 30 members and it’s grown to greater than 200 individuals,” she mentioned. “In fact, we wish the Native individuals to come back and revel in, and have fun tradition. If any individual desires to study concerning the tradition, they’re welcome, too.”
The afternoon will function meals, music, dancing and cubicles run by greater than 20 nonprofits that provide providers to Native communities.
Dancers from the Taos and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos will exhibit their conventional abilities, and famous Ohkay Owningeh caterer Norma Naranjo will placed on a conventional northern New Mexico group meal of southwest-style posole, inexperienced chile enchiladas, bread pudding and horno bread.
Music spinner Garron Yepa, of Jemez Pueblo, who has been a DJ for greater than 20 years beneath the identify of DJ Garronteed, might be delivering background music all through the occasion.
“I’m very snug taking part in the music and setting the ambiance,” he mentioned. “I don’t produce music myself, however I play different individuals’s creations and string it collectively so it hopefully tells a narrative, helps individuals loosen up and have afternoon. That’s my strategy.”
Yepa mentioned he tries to achieve his viewers with music applicable to the occasion that has attraction throughout a broad spectrum of listeners.
“I really feel like I can learn a room, or a park,” he mentioned. “I’m fairly assured that I can contact all of the completely different age teams at completely different occasions, trip the wave. I might steer these tunes to these sorts of viewers.”
Noting his roots within the Jemez and Diné communities, Yepa provides, “I’ve performed for plenty of neighborhood occasions, graduations, quinceañeras, weddings. I type of simply strategy it with these hits and misses in my again pocket.”
Guitarist Nelson Alburquenque performs six-string and seven-string guitar music that may be very a lot earth-inspired.
“I play instrumental music, and I see music as poems and poetry, prayers and likewise poems having to do with land and sky, and connectivity,” he mentioned. “Ethereal. That’s how I might first describe it. Meditation, poetry, however it does come from a supply of earth, and wholesomeness and inclusivity.”
He developed the sound whereas dwelling in Los Angeles for eight years.
“It started with a band and, all through the years, morphed into this nearly symphonic sound the place all of the strings are in live performance with one another in distinctive tunings,” he mentioned. “I play the guitar like a harp. It’s very distinctive in its sound and really full.”
Each males mentioned they’re trying ahead to the possibility to do their factor in entrance of a stay viewers once more.
“The previous yr and a half, the entire world, significantly individuals of shade and Native communities, have been decimated by COVID,” Alburquenque mentioned. “Everybody has been operating with worry and coping with a number of nervousness. This is a chance to really feel therapeutic and neighborhood. As a pupil of the Institute of American Indian Arts, I’m trying ahead to being part of that unity and offering individuals with that kind of feeling in my music.”
Reside music is a robust healer, Yepa mentioned, and one thing that has been lacking within the COVID period.
“I’m joyful to be requested to do my half,” he mentioned. “These gatherings of individuals, they like to listen to music loud. We miss concert events. We miss human expertise and a giant bassline. The loudness, it’s a sensory expertise.”
