Special Events
odd: label: Introduction
content: The Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert is an annual event that honors the legacy of Smithsonian Folklife Festival co-founder Ralph Rinzler and his support of "citizen artists," people whose creativity and art-making summon public engagement, foster social awareness, and build bridges among communities.

The 2015 Rinzler Concert also paid tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of both the Delano Grape Strike and the passage of the Immigration and Nationality (Hart-Celler) Act, two events that significantly impacted the cultural landscape of California and the United States. It was co-presented with the Smithsonian Latino Center and curated by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and featured the California sounds of two distinctively powerful ensembles, Agustín Lira & Alma and Viento Callejero.

The artists represented different stylistic and geographic coordinates across the long trajectory of Latino music in California, from the region's earlier occupation by Mexico to the Latino plurality that characterizes the state today. They reflected the diversity, historical continuity, and the transformation of communities. They demonstrated the importance of music for illuminating civil rights struggles, countering social and political marginalization, and celebrating cultural heritage.

Agustín Lira & Alma chronicle the experiences and hidden histories of Chicano, Indigenous, and immigrant communities integral to California's cultural fabric. Drawing from his experiences as a farmworker in the San Joaquin Valley and inspired by both Mexican and Anglo American musical traditions, Lira contributed to producing the sounds that helped mobilize a historic labor and civil rights movement in the mid-1960s. Participants and allies of the farmworkers' struggle shared his songs at planning meetings, frontline protests, rallies, and the 1966 United Farm Workers' pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento. In 2007, Lira was honored as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Viento Callejero ("street breeze") represents the youthful vigor of a renaissance of Latino dance music in communities from East L.A. to Oakland. This Los Angeles-based ensemble is part of a younger generation of artists driving the resurgence of cumbia - reinterpreting this Afro-Colombian form and providing new opportunities for creative collaborations and community building. Breaking down the rhythmic and melodic pulse of cumbia, son montuno, merengue, reggae, dance hall, funk, and rock, Viento Callejero brings a fresh approach to urban "tropical" music, stripping it to its rawest elements and unleashing a sound that keeps audiences on their feet.

Produced in collaboration with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, this presentation previewed a future Smithsonian Folklife Festival program focusing on California communities. It was supported by the Smithsonian Grand Challenges Consortia for the Humanities and part of the Smithsonian Our American Journey - Immigration/Migration Initiative.
label: Participants
content: Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert

Agustín Lira and Alma  -- Agustín Lira and AlmaRoy Edward Anderson, Fresno, CaliforniaAgustín Lira, vocal, guitar, Fresno, CaliforniaAntonio Rene Sauza, vocal, Los Angeles, CaliforniaPatricia Ann Wells, vocal, guitar, Fresno, California

Viento Callejero  -- Viento CallejeroGloria Estrada, guitar, Los Angeles CaliforniaFederico Zúñiga, Jr., bass, Los Angeles, CaliforniaGabriel Jose Villa, drums, San Dimas, California

Amy Kitchener, Fresno, California

Lily Kharrazi, San Francisco, California

Russell C. Rodriguez, Watsonville, California
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.2015, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials