Trinity Hewtty
Staff Writer
The sounds of laughter filled the air mixed with blaring mariachi, cumbia and Tejano music – for the third annual “Viva Women Mexico Festival” event Oct. 5 at Mission Marquee Plaza.
The free event featured all Hispanic women musicians, Ballet Folklorico dancers, food trucks and craft vendors.
It is the first year the festival was held in October to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month, Valerie Vargas, executive director of Los Altos Mariachi Arts Council said in a phone interview Oct. 4.
“The last two years we held it during Cinco De Mayo, but we decided to move it in October for Hispanic Heritage Month as the festival is geared towards highlighting Hispanic women,” she said.
The Los Altos Mariachi Arts Council created the event to showcase the art and talent of women in the community.
“We just wanted to create a stage for women artists and business owners,” Vargas said.
The stage included the Flamenco Entre Amigas, Viva Tejana Dance company, the DJ La Guira De ATX and intermediate accordion students from the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.
The festival included businesses such as Girasol Vida Boutique specializing in handcrafted earrings, La Zua Print known for customized clothing and Charlotte Panaderia, a mother and daughter bakery.
“Our entire lineup is all women,” Vargas said. “We have all female cumbia bands, all female Folklorico dancers, women-owned vendors and food trucks. We just thought it was a beautiful thing to empower the women in our community.”
That empowerment also reached vendors like Angelica Gomez-Mayorga, a local artist, whose paintings reflect Latin culture.
”It’s a good thing that this has been organized to support women artists,” she said. “Sometimes we are overlooked as usually these types of things are geared towards men.”
Gomez-Mayorga’s artistic inspiration comes from her grandparents, who raised her in a traditional fashion.
”My grandparents partially raised me in that old tradition where you wear your lipstick to bed, you don’t dress down, you respect things like that, so I try to incorporate that in my paintings,” she said.
Besides Gomez-Mayorga paintings featuring women, she also finds creativity in Texas wildlife, which is visible in her artwork as the cardinal bird is the main subject in her canvases.
Gomez-Mayorga names her cardinal paintings contigo, a Spanish word that means ‘with you,’ because cardinals are seen as a divine messenger to those who have lost loved ones in Mexican culture.
Another vendor, Angel Contero, owner of Que Bonita Crafts, spotlights the support from the Southside community as her favorite part of the event.
“ Honestly, the Southside is a really big family community,” she said. “It’s always amazing to see the support from them. I know a lot of these people aren’t from the Southside and they travel to get here, but they also get that family vibe.”
Contero sells Mexican-themed products such as greeting cards, mugs, tote bags, magnets and T-shirts – all her own original designs.
Other items sold at the festival include traditional coronas, sarapes, mandils and huipil dresses.
Besides the vendors’ handiwork, the festival showcased Mexican treats and cuisine through pop-up booths and food trucks.
First-time attendee Christina Ciccotti said she enjoyed the mangonada from the 210 Snoballs food truck.
“ It was really good,” she said of the mangonada. “I also liked another food truck that I do not know how to say the name of, but it was all good.”
Additional options came from Taquizas Al Chile, Pico’s Street Tacos and Val’s Eat and Treats. They offered street tacos, burritos, raspas, nachos and chicken on a stick.
Ciccotti said she stumbled upon the festival while heading to the Mission Branch Library to study.
“When I was passing through, I thought, what’s going on here? And saw it was a festival so I decided to stop by to check it out,” she said.
Ciccotti also enjoyed the music, which played a huge role in the festival. Crowds of families and friends lined the grass in lawn chairs to watch The Tiarras, Mariachi Las Alteñas, Llamativa and the Ballet Folklórico Sol De San Antonio.
Amy Torres, Llamativa’s percussionist and singer, said the event has helped promote her band to the public.
“A lot of people are giving us kudos,” she said of the crowd’s response to Llamativa. “Many people are now wanting to follow us and see us again. They want us to come back next year.”
Torres performed at the festival with another band, Sonora Hechicera, when it first began and noticed an increase in the turnout over the years.
“ It’s interesting to come back and see how much it has grown,” she said. “In two years there are many more vendors, more people have shown up. I mean, it’s amazing to see not just women, but men and families and young children coming to support us.”
The band played their latest single, “Aguna Loca,” among other songs composed of cumbia, salsa, and Tejano influences.
Alynna Martin, owner and artistic director for the Ballet Folklórico Sol De San Antonio, said it’s the third time her dancers performed at the event and they keep coming back to continue to promote women.
“ It’s our third year performing at this festival,” she said. “When Valerie told us about it in the beginning, we thought it was amazing all these women coming together to promote their creations. We really just love to be a part of something that showcases women.”
The Ballet Folklórico group consists of girls and women from ages 4 to 55.
Martin said she wants the community to see how her group represents Mexican culture through traditional dances.
“I would love for them to see how we carry our culture,” she said. “To see how we study it so we can represent it and show them how traditional dances are.”
Martin’s hope to display Mexican culture through her dancers was noticed by San Antonio native Adam Armando-Ramos.
Armando-Ramos said he used to be a dancer and loved the platform provided for the dance community.
”I used to be a dancer, so I loved how the festival highlights the dance community plus the music,” he said.
Although the festival is women oriented, a large number of men were in attendance.
Armando-Ramos did not feel intimated and said it was rather refreshing to see Latinas given a platform for their businesses.
“ It was really refreshing because I actually didn’t know this was happening,” Armando-Ramos said of the festival. “ I came to support my friend because we did a jewelry collaboration. I was mostly raised by my mom and her sisters. So I really am inspired by all the women that raised me, but also all the Latina women business owners that are out here for the hustle.”
The Los Altos Mariachi Arts Council hopes to continue the festival for years to come.
