R A D I O     B I L I N G U E

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            CONTACT:

June 5, 2009                                                                       Maria de Jesus Gomez

                                                                                            (559) 455-5782

                                                                                      chuyag@radiobilingue.org

Radio Bilingüe provides multimedia coverage of Smithsonian’s Las Américas festival June 24-29

As the nation celebrates its 231st anniversary of independence, Radio Bilingüe will broadcast performances from Las Américas, the Latino music component of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that begins June 24 through July 5 in Washington, D.C. with extraordinary folk artists who represent some of the best musical traditions from the U.S. and Latin America.

Radio Bilingüe, now in its third year of broadcasting the Latino music festival, will cover the opening ceremonies and the first half of the two-week run June 24-29 utilizing several multimedia platforms: broadcast, webcast, podcast, audio on demand, news text and photos.

The special coverage is in collaboration with fellow community station WLCH Radio Centro in Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania.

The free, outdoor festival attracts more than a million visitors every year to the National Mall for a rich display of the nation’s cultural diversity against the backdrop of Fourth of July festivities.

Las Américas is the final and most broad-reaching program of the Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture Smithsonian Folklife Festival "living exhibitions" series with outstanding artists from the United States and Latin America engaging in cultural dialogue.

This year, Las Américas will feature artists from the Tradiciones series of the recordings released by Smithsonian Folkways, the Smithsonian label -- artists who are succeeding in keeping the cultural traditions of their communities alive and thriving, said Samuel Orozco, executive producer of the radio series.

“This significant national event presents these unique performing artists, their grassroots music and their stories at a moment when the nation celebrates its birth,” Orozco said.

“We take pride in making this rich part of our diverse U.S. culture available via broadcast and webcast to audiences beyond the National Mall - connecting the culture and communities these performers represent to the heritage of the U.S.,” he added.

The Tradiciones/Traditions artists represent the rich diversity of emblematic musical styles in the United States and throughout the Americas including Puerto Rican bomba, plena, and jíbaro music, Mexican son music from various regions, mariachi music, Colombian vallenato, joropo, and currulao, Dominican merengue típico, bachata, and salve, Chilean cueca, tonada, and nueva canción, Venezuelan música llanera, Paraguayan polca, Guatemalan marimba, and Salvadoran chanchona music.

Featured artists are Adalberto Cruz Álvarez and Jesús García; Arpex; Cantadoras del Pacífico; Chanchona Los Hermanos Lovo; Ecos de Borinquen; Estrellas del Vallenato; Grupo Cimarrón de Colombia; Grupo Cuero, Madera y Costa CUMACO; La India Canela; Los Camperos de Valles; Los Texmaniacs; Maestros del Joropo Oriental; Marcelo Rojas and Álvaro Marazzi; Mariachi Chula Vista; Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano; Radio Bilingüe; Son de Madera; and Viento de Agua. (See artist info below).  

The format of the series will include music, in-studio interviews, field interviews, vox populi and ambience sound from the festival. The programs will be fed to Radio Bilingüe’s satellite uplink facilities in Fresno from the studios of Capitol News Connection near the U.S. Capitol.

The series will be broadcast over Radio Bilingüe’s six-station network. In addition, the programs will be offered via satellite to Radio Bilingüe’s 125 affiliate stations and to the public radio system at large. The audio stream of the programs will be offered live on Radio Bilingüe’s webcast service and the digital files will be available via podcast and audio-on-demand archives at www.radiobilingue.org.

A photo gallery featuring pictures of the festival also will be published on a timely basis on Radio Bilingüe’s online platform, Orozco said.

Chelis Lopez, a long-time cultural arts promoter and on-air talent at community station KPOO in San Francisco, will host the show with reporter Hector Valdez, from WLCH in Lancaster, PA, filing reports from the dance hall, artist patio talks, visitor kiosks and other tents at the National Mall.

Partial funding for this special project of Radio Bilingüe is being provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The James Irvine Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting also support in part Radio Bilingüe’s coverage of cultural artists.

For more information on this year’s festival and participant groups, visit the site of the festival: http://www.saveoursounds.org/2009/las_americas/index.aspx. Festival hours run 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. with additional concerts, special events and dance parties most evenings. Admission is free.

About Radio Bilingüe 

Radio Bilingüe is a community-based radio network with a satellite system that reaches 125 affiliates throughout the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico as well as its own six stations in California. Radio Bilingüe provides audiences with news, information and cultural programming from its award-winning programs Noticiero Latino and Línea Abierta. Programming is also available via webcast on Radio Bilingüe Internet: www.radiobilingue.org. The network’s online service features links to program audio archives, podcasting multimedia files, timely news transcripts, several interactive blogs, hyperlinks to relevant organizations and more.  

Funds for Radio Bilingüe's news services are provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Las Américas - Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Final broadcast schedule (Pacific Time):

Noon PST       Linea Abierta: Roundtable with leaders of musical groups. LIVE FEED 

Noon   Linea Abierta: This roundtable program will be recorded during the weekend of the festival.

Las Américas performers:

Adalberto Cruz Álvarez and Jesús García - Don Beto Cruz from Cucurpe, Sonora, forms part of an older generation of corrido composers and singers from the Sonora-Arizona border, whose repertoire includes stories about border heroes, horse races, and local events. Don Beto performs for family gatherings, such as weddings, quinceañeras, and wakes, as well as community events. Jesuús García is a versatile musician of the younger generation who learned many of these corridos growing up in Magdalena, Arizona.

Arpex - Miguel Prado Mora founded Arpex, a conjunto de arpa grande (big harp ensemble) in Atwater, California, in the 1990s. A predecessor of the Mexican mariachi ensemble, the conjunto de arpa grande has its roots in the towns and ranches of rural Michoacán. Arpex performs for weddings, quinceañeras, festivals, and other social events in the michoacano communities in the region. To create a bigger sound for larger venues, Arpex transforms the acoustic group into an electronic one by adding a drum set, electric bass, and direct microphones for the other instruments.

Cantadoras del Pacífico - The marimba is a vivid legacy of African presence in Latin America. But only on the Pacific coast of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador does it keep its close connections to a strongly African culture. Hailing from small towns along the Colombian coast, the seasoned women singers of Cantadoras del Pacífico raise their voices to the accompaniment of marimba and drums, performing their distinctive styles of music known collectively as currulao.

Chanchona Los Hermanos Lovo - A Northern Virginia spin-off of an award-winning group in their home country of El Salvador, Los Hermanos Lovo perform danceable cumbias and rancheras at family events and restaurants in the area.

The seven-piece ensemble—with its two violins, two guitars, percussion, and bass—takes its name from its large bass, which resembles a chanchona, or sow.

Ecos de Borinquen - represents the best of today's música jíbara—music from the mountainous regions of Puerto Rico—interpreted by six top-flight musicians from the island. Stringed instruments and sung poetic forms dating back hundreds of years to Spanish prototypes are combined with the Caribbean percussion sounds of the güiro rasp and hand drums.

Estrellas del Vallenato - Representing several generations and a range of song styles, the musicians in this all-star group hail from small towns and ranches on Colombia's Caribbean coast, a region known as La Guajira. Their recent recording with Smithsonian Folkways also became a full-length feature film on the Smithsonian Channel, Accordion Kings.

Grupo Cimarrón de Colombia - With Grupo Cimarrón, Carlos Rojas Hernández brings together an all-star team of instrumentalists and singers from Colombia. These masters of the joropo llanero tradition, which is practiced along the plains shared by Colombia and Venezuela, astonish their audiences with their melodic and rhythmic virtuosity, percussive drive, and sabor colombiano, or Colombian flavor.

Grupo Cuero, Madera y Costa CUMACO - performs traditional Afro-Venezuelan music, focusing on the coastal region of Aragua. Its name (CUero, MAdera y COsta) is an acronym that refers to cumaco, the long, heavy log drum traditional to the region. The group has been featured on numerous television, radio, and film programs, and has toured internationally.

La India Canela - Lidia María Hernández López is La India Canela, a renowned female accordionist of merengue típico. Accompanied by tambora (drum), güira (metal rasp), congas, alto saxophone, and electric bass, Hernández adds her own spice to the national music of the Dominican Republic. Rooted in the mountainous Cibao region, the merengue típico's driving dance beat, aggressive improvisations, and down-home lyrics make it an irresistible Caribbean original.

Los Camperos de Valles - a trio of Mexico's finest musicians in the son huasteco style from the northeastern Mexican cattle-herding region known as La Huasteca. Their sound is marked by hard-edged, improvised violin playing, driving guitar rhythms, and high-pitched singing with falsetto breaks. Dance forms an integral part of the son huasteco. Renowned lyricist and dancer Artemio Posadas, accompanied by Dolores García, performs with the trio.

Los Texmaniacs - a modern spin on the traditional conjunto sound from South Texas. The quartet adds blues and rock-and-roll influences to the traditional pairing of button accordion and bajo sexto. Moreover, Los Texmaniacs explore their instruments to find new ways of interpreting the sounds of the Texas-Mexico border.

Maestros del Joropo Oriental – featuring some of the best joropo oriental musicians in Venezuela. These all-stars have again come together to present this distinctive regional variant of Venezuela's national music. The joropo oriental style of joropo music is centered on the region around the eastern city of Cumaná on Venezuela's Caribbean coast and nearby Margarita Island.

Marcelo Rojas and Álvaro Marazzi - Marcelo Rojas from Yuty, Department of Caazapá in Paraguay, began studying the harp with his father at age ten. He eventually relocated to Asunción and became a soloist. He has toured Europe, Japan, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. His impeccable technique and creative spirit place him at the forefront of the latest generation of master arpistas. Originally from Paraguay, accompanist Álvaro Marazzi lives in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area where he is well known as a talented guitarist.

Mariachi Chula Vista - In 2001, Mark Fogelquist founded the mariachi program at Chula Vista High School in San Diego, California. In learning to play traditional Mexican mariachi music, Fogelquist’s students have developed a sense of self, heritage, and pride. Now one of the best student mariachi groups in the country, the Chula Vista Mariachi performs more than one hundred shows a year.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano - Native musician of Ahuisculco, Jalisco, in Mexico, and National Heritage Fellow, Nati Cano celebrates more than forty years of directing his highly accomplished Mariachi Los Camperos of Los Angeles. In addition to preserving a rock solid "mariachi sound," Cano has been an innovator in his musical presentations as well as in his business endeavors.

Radio Bilingüe - a nationwide nonprofit radio and online network that is run by and for Latinos, providing twenty-four hour news and musical programming. The radio network has collaborated with the Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture series by offering broadcasts of performances and interviews with participating artists at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Son de Madera - part of the current jaranero movement, Son de Madera’s main goal is to diffuse son jarocho based on the research of traditional forms, the incorporation of new sounds, and the revival of community gatherings of music-making and dance called fandangos. 

Viento de Agua - Afro-Puerto Rican vocal and drum traditions, which are popular both in Puerto Rico and in the large Puerto Rican communities in the United States.