I saw the advertisement everywhere (good shot!) and then, last minute, I got a call “could you review an event, it is this evening, in a few hours.”
I was already planning to go but time flies and you try to keep up with all the commitments and forget what you wanted to do in the first place.
Well, this festival helped me to remember what really a commitment is and, most importantly, who to choose them.
I’ll explain better.
How British are you? Photo by Michelle Marshall
First show: Victor Rios with his gig “How British Are you”. A TV-show-like test to see how British we are. Explored through the life journey of a migrant who came from the high altitude of the Andes (Bolivia) as a young person, embracing the cultural contrast of the UK, and is now conflicted by how to identify himself.
Thanks to Victor for the first time, I laughed thinking about pre-settle and settlement status: immigrants’ nightmare, mine included. He also explores the unfairness of citizenship exams where they asked questions that nor the British know! When he asked them to the public that was a palpable fright. With a witty humour he explored the experience of being a person that no longer lives in the country where they or their parents were born: the struggle with accents, the languages, cultures and, not less important, the existential crisis through the self-identity journey and the bias you must face in the public opinion when you meet new people. For example, I am Italian, people take for granted that I am an amazing cook. Sorry lads but no, not. I wouldn’t cook for my worst enemy for their own sake. And – take a seat – I drink Americano coffee. Same for him, he is Latin, and everybody is expecting from him to know Spanish, to move as a professional Latin dancer and so on. He showed that he tried to wear those clothes that people were trying to sew on him. No success. Same in trying to act as he was British, no success again. The result was the question: “Where I fit in?”. At the end you will feel a foreigner in both countries, in both cultures, in both communities.
He also talked about the reasons why their parents leave the country, and he said something that really got me about his mother “she taught me a lesson without words.” Well, maybe he needed words, but his show taught a lesson too: identity struggle is international.
Just after having this lesson taught another artist kicked the stage for the second show: MC Millaray.
She is 16 years old, and she is a rap star from Chile. She uses her fierce lyrics to convey centuries of injustices against the country’s largest Indigenous group – called Mapuche – by European coloniser. Her songs decry environmental, social and political injustices. She sang in Spanish and in her own indigenous language (Mapudungun). She sang with such a force in her voice that at some point – I swear to Neptune – I thought I could speak Mapudungun too.
MC Millaray photographed by Michelle Marshall
It was interesting to hear from her, and Victor, their opinions and feelings about and within their arts at the end of the show in the Q&A section. Having their insight and time for self-reflection. This part is when I thought about the diversity of a huge region as Latin-America and about what is really important to take as commitments, some things that worth to work hard for, and most importantly to share it with everyone that wants to listen to it.
With this new acknowledgement in my mind, I went also to the next day’s events:
I had the opportunity to see dancing Magaly Flores from Mexico, Daniela Rodriguez from Colombia, Valeria Cazas Lozada from Bolivia, Marina Pozo Such from Spain and Sabrina Steel from Liverpool. This was a fusion dance experience that opens your eyes on the diversity of each country and culture. All of them really represents their roots and the journeys of migrants from all over the world who have come and made a second home, creating a beautiful hybrid, same as the dance.
On that night I also had the pleasure to listen to Lokandes, an Andean Latin Afro Groove fusion band. They fuse traditional roots and Afro-rhythms with other modern genres. What an experience! I have never heard something so new and so catchy. At the end of their concert people were asking for one last song three times at least, everybody was standing up and dancing together. A proof that cultural differences can, and should only, bond people.
But these are just a few of the events that the amazing LUMA Creations team put together for the La Feria Festival: there were many other concerts, dancing sessions and DJ set music (with the amazing Bandita la Inquieta from Chile; Martin Alvarado, Gerardo Villar and Los Aguirre from Argentina; Colibri Fold Fance from Mexico; Warmis from Ecuador; San Simon Sugre London from Bolivia, Mambe&Da-Nochilango; Roxy and Toby from Venezuela and UK; Cidtronyck from Chile). They offered also a taste of Latin America food and more for a whole evening at District and Baltic Triangle and, last but not least, an amazing free exhibition of Latin American women who through their art music, writing and activism have inspired people through the worlds at St. George’s Hall.
I am just speechless in trying to be describing the effort, the passion and the inspiration they put and share in this organisation. I also had the pleasure to talk to Saranne, the event manager and she really showed me her passion, deep commitment and willing to share with the world the diversity of this beautiful region and the roots of each culture. As she said: “the main purpose is the keep the connection”. I believe that the goal has been achieved. They promote a variety of activities that really make you strive for the next event and, why not, the next festival. They used endless conjugation of culture aspects through infinite platforms, channels to proof the misconception of prejudice. Giving a real taste of Latin America beyond the typical public imagination. Having these deep messages conveyed by arts and talented people in different fields has been an amazing experience that I am looking forward – in her words – “to learn our own heritage and to educate the others”. Could you think about anything more beautiful that this?
As Victor said: “if you can’t jump a door, jump from the window.”