Fifteen Latino artists gathered to share and celebrate their art and culture last Friday at the Overture Center. Bringing in hundreds of Madison area residents, the ninth Annual Latino Art Fair was designed to encourage the connection between Latinos, artists and the community.
Walking onto the art room floor was like stepping into a vibrant array of color. Bustling with people, the room was occupied by Latino artists at crowded tables filled with photography, multimedia paintings, sculptures and jewelry.
Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development co-presented the event. LOUD is a statewide organization that promotes art and community collaboration. The Latino Art Fair is a free event for the public created to bring together Madison area Latinos and support community art.
Poet and editor Oscar Mireles organized this year’s Latino Art Fair. He serves on the Overture Center Foundation and the Madison Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors and is the founder of LOUD. Mireles loves his work as a connector between artists, patrons and the community.
“It’s a celebration!” Mireles said. “Latinos celebrate. We live, we work hard, we celebrate family and we celebrate the art. All the artists support each other.”
The Art Fair also included Cumbia Cachaca, a traditional Colombian musical group, as well as Puerto Rican pastries from Gianna’s Sweets and K-fe. The vendors have come to love the event because it brings together so many Latino people and cultures in a vibrant culmination of unity and diversity.
Following the Art Fair was a performance by the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a well-known band that performs collections of Cuban music that distinguish Cuba as the birthplace of a multitude of popular music.
Juan de Marcos González led the band. González is a world renowned musician and actor best known for his work with the Grammy Award-winning Buena Vista Social Club and the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
González seamlessly connected energetic songs from several Cuban genres, including traditional music like Son Montuno and Guajira, as well as modern music like Latin Jazz and Timba. Between songs, he explained to the audience what it meant for him to perform Cuban music, which he has been fighting his entire life to bring to the mainstream.
In each song was a Spanish spoken story woven into the rhythm like the wool of a sweater. The smooth timber of the singers’ voices blended effortlessly into the sounds of 10 different instruments, ranging from drums and trumpets to strings and keyboards.
In this performance, the audience was as much involved in the music as the musicians. Under neon lights, the audience clapped their hands and nodded their heads to each song, restlessly interacting with the music.
Then, the Cuban style dance party began. At the end of the performance, members of the audience rushed down to the space below the stage and began dancing. Filled with people from all parts of the community, the crowd moved excitedly to the vibrant music, bathed in a rainbow of stage lights.
The Latino Art Fair will be returning next year to continue the connections with and surrounding the Latino community. The Overture Center for the Arts will be hosting several other events in the coming months including Kanopy Dance sessions and a performance by the Kalaanjali School of Indian Dance.
