Dancing with tradition
Ventura County’s Oaxacan population celebrate Mixtec culture in Oxnard
By Joan Trossman Bien 09/27/2007
For the first time, Ventura County will be site of a southern Mexican tradition: the “Oaxacan Lunes del Cerro Gueleguetza,” a celebration of the indigenous Mixtec culture. It is a festival of live music, authentic Oaxacan food and dancers in traditional costumes performing dances from each of seven Oaxacan regions.
The festival will be held Sept. 30 at College Park in Oxnard beginning at 10 a.m. The Oxnard site was chosen because the grassy hillside amphitheater in College Park resembles the hill where the Oaxacan event is held in Mexico. The festival started in 1932 as a way for indigenous people to share their culture with each other and the world.
The word “guelaguetza” is derived from a Zapotec word, “galaguez,” meaning social and communal reciprocity. It reflects the spirit of sharing and celebration which lies at the heart of the festival.
The audience benefits from the sharing aspect because at the end of each dance group’s performance, the dancers throw gifts into the crowd. The gifts are usually produce from their particular region. This is a way to share it with the larger community.
The authentic Oaxacan food will be a big draw at the festival, according to Susan Haverland, executive director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP).
“The most famous Oaxacan food are the moles,” Haverland said. “It is likely there will be tamales wrapped in banana leaves or corn husks. There is something called a toayudo which is a great big corn tortilla which is shaped by hand and cooked on a charcoal grill and then topped with chorizo or beans or cheese.”
Haverland said she is pleased a local venue was found for the festival.
“I think what is exciting about this festival is this is a really rich cultural tradition that goes back thousands of years and it has never happened in Ventura County before,” she said. “The primary purpose of the festival is to celebrate this culture in order to keep it alive. We hope to make it an annual event.”
Although the Mixtec community is well established in Ventura County, their presence is nearly invisible. Haverland said the entire Mixtec culture is often overlooked by society.
“Many of the Mixtec who live in Ventura County speak neither Spanish nor English, only the language Mixteco, which is not a written language,” she said. “They lack literacy skills in any language.”
Haverland said these language difficulties keep the Mixtec community separate from other Mexican communities where Spanish is spoken.
“As a result, the Mixtec are frequently subject to discrimination and oppression at work, in the fields, in the marketplace, and in housing,” Haverland said. “They are, without a doubt, the most impoverished and probably the most vulnerable residents of the county. The average family income of a farm worker family is under $10,000 a year. That is with mom and dad both working.”
Approximately 20,000 indigenous Oaxacan people from southern Mexico live and work in Ventura County, according to Haverland. The Mixtec in Mexico have always followed traditional agrarian lifestyles, but large-scale deforestation and the resulting loss of topsoil have destroyed their ancestral farmlands, making their established way of life impossible to maintain.
The resulting poverty in their native home has driven thousands of Mixtec to seek work in California, tending and harvesting many of the local crops. They find employment as migrant farm workers instead of being able to stay in one area throughout the year.
“I think it is safe to say that a very high percentage of the workers who pick strawberries in the county are Mixtecs,” Haverland said. “Strawberries, of course, are a very big crop in Ventura County. Picking strawberries is very difficult labor and the Mixtecs end up taking the least desirable jobs among farm workers. That is part of the problem.”
Proceeds from the event will go to help MICOP continue its work. According to the MICOP Web site, the stated mission of the nonprofit organization is to provide aid to and encourage the empowerment of the Oaxacan immigrant community in Ventura County.
MICOP serves the Mixtec community by training Spanish-English-Mixteco interpreters and by sponsoring monthly meetings designed to help those in need to access health care and educational and social services.
Although the festival is celebrating the Mixtec culture, it is designed to appeal to a wide range of people.
“My expectation is that we will have a lot of indigenous Oaxacans, that we will have other, non-indigenous interested Mexican immigrants, and I think that people who are interested in other cultures will certainly be interested in the festival,” Haverland said.
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