Extravaganza on Museum Hill

Advance registration is required for this FREE event.

Join us for a celebration of Mexican cultural heritage with a vibrant fusion of music, dance, theater, educational activities, and a live luchador wrestling match on Milner Plaza on Museum Hill! This FREE event will highlight some of the rich regional cultural traditions reflected in the Museum of International Folk Art's current exhibition La Cartonería Mexicana / The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste, and honor the history and living traditions of Indigenous communities of Mexico and our region. This event is being produced in collaboration with the Museum of International Folk Art and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and supported by the Friends of Folk Art (FOFA). 

Participants include:

- Tropa Magica
- Los Niños de Santa Fe
- Xóchitl Ballet Folclórico
- Lucha Libre wrestlers!
- Food and drink vendors
- Hands-on crafts

Stay tuned for many more event details and a schedule soon!

"Invigorating," "brilliant," and "charismatic" are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Tropa Magica. "The East L.A. duo made a name for themselves by combining alternative, grunge, and psychedelic rock with cumbia" (Spin magazine).

Having toured nationally and on multiple southwest and west coast tours, they have supported established acts such as Los Lobos, Los Tigres del Norte, and Chicano Batman. The band has boldly and successfully taken on larger LA stages at venues as well.

All weekend Teatro Paraguas will be producing Encanto—The Music, Dance and Poetry of México in the Museum of International Folk Art's Auditorium.  Saturday's performance will be after the free outdoor events and require a separate paid ticket.

Beginning in an age before Spanish was even spoken in the Americas, continuing up to present times, Encanto celebrates the incredibly rich heritage of Mexican music, dance and poetry through a fully staged, choreographed production that also coincides with the Mexican Día de La Independencia or Independence Day (September 16).

Singers and dancers from Teatro Paraguas, as well as Ballet Folclórico Xóchitl and Los Niños de Santa Fe, and musicians under the direction of Thelma Arguello, come together in a lively performance of songs and dances from Pre-Colombian Aztec times, through the ages of Spanish colonization, Mexican Independence, and up to the modern era. Interspersed between numbers, actors from Teatro Paraguas celebrate the Mexican poetic tradition through showcasing the poetry of contemporary, living Mexican poets. 

All songs and poems will be presented in their original language—mostly in Spanish, some in indigenous languages—with English translations projected above the stage. Also featured in the final two weekends will be Alfredo López Mondragón, a professional Mexican folk musician coming to Santa Fe especially to participate in this production.