Mexico Now Festival: Fandango Jarocho Newyorkino

Presented with The Latinx Project at NYU

Community Celebration – Free with RSVP

A fandango jarocho is a 400+ year-old living celebration of community. Over the centuries, a spontaneous jamboree would inevitably arise whenever neighboring rural townships gathered at local festivals and markets in Mexico. Performers and craftspersons would share poetry, theater, food, fashion, and (always) music: jaranas, violins, harps, folksongs, and zapateados around a wooden platform called tarima. The spirit of these intersectional rural/urban gatherings migrated across the country, developing into rituals that inspired lasting and meaningful cross-cultural pollination. Fandango Jarocho Newyorkino is a participatory, family-friendly community celebration based on the fandango jarocho of the coastal Sotavento region of southern Mexico – Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Chiapas – but accentuated with distinctive New York influences. We hope to inspire a natural sense of inclusion, diversity, and belonging. México Now Festival and the fandanguero community of New York inspire a natural sense of inclusion, diversity, and belonging. Everyone is invited to bring their traditions to our table and sample our offerings as we dance the night away together!

This presentation is part of Mexico Now Festival (MXNOW), celebrating its 20th anniversary from November 20 to 24 with five nights of music, photography, film, multimedia art, and a community celebration. Events are free to attend with an RSVP and will take place at the festival’s new hub for 2024: Chelsea Factory. Over the past two decades, MXNOW has provided a pivotal pipeline connecting the arts and cultural communities of Mexico and the United States. The festival has presented over 500 artists to audiences of tens of thousands of New Yorkers partnering with over 150 venues and cultural institutions throughout the five boroughs. Founded in 2004 by award-winning curator and producer Claudia Norman of CN Management, MXNOW is New York City’s first and only independent festival spotlighting contemporary Mexican art and culture. To this day, Ms. Norman remains the only major Mexican-born festival director in New York City. Her continuing goal is to share the rich ancient traditions and vital new ideas emerging in Mexico’s vibrant arts scene by showcasing Mexican and Mexican-American creators alongside US artists who embrace Mexican culture.