On a recent Saturday evening at the Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato, the Portuguese singer Carminho is performing her second Fado called starting (The beginning). She is accompanied by a quartet of bass, electric and acoustic guitars and the emblematic instrument of fado, the Portuguese 12-string steel guitar. Fado songs are deeply melancholic, the lyrics are filled with ‘saudade’, a sense of nostalgia and longing.
It’s Carminho’s first time performing at the Cervantino International Festival and the audience is in awe. Backstage, after the show, she says the streets of Guanajuato have a lot of energy, like an erupting volcano. “And when I came on stage, I got the same intensity from the audience. It was wonderful, wonderful, unforgettable!” she said.
This year is special. After a virtual edition in 2020, and a hybrid version last year – the festival is back in person and celebrating its 50th anniversary. “It is a festival where people can come to enjoy theater, dance, music, movies, literature, gastronomy, street theater, circus and so on,” says the festival director. Mariana Aymerich. “They can come with the whole family, to enjoy 19 days to feel, dance and reflect with all the artists who are here with us.”
There are 25 sites spread throughout the city of Guanajuato, most of them located within the historic center. Indoor sites include theaters, baroque churches, a mine and a club in the catacombs, under the city. Half of the events are free. But one of the best components of the festival are the outdoor venues: five town squares, a former train station and a supermarket all bring the town to life every day.
At the festival’s largest outdoor venue, Coreyah, a psychedelic Korean folk band, is performing to more than 4,000 people. The group is a mix of traditional Korean music, American rock and world rhythms.
Each year, the festival organizers invite a country and a state of Mexico. Korea is the guest country this year. In cooperation with the Korean embassy, the festival programmers invited 10 different groups including K-Pop group KARD; Sumi Jo, a popular opera singer; and the Korean National Contemporary Dance Company.
One of the large performing groups invited by the festival did a flash mob in the Plaza del Baratillo, a picturesque square in the heart of the city. More than 40 performers, including an opera singer and a small orchestra, were recreating a piece from their large multidisciplinary show called Tururú, Young people also travel by metro (Youth also travel by metro).
Taína González is the production director. She made it a priority to include young people from working-class neighborhoods throughout Mexico City in the show. “There are many things they could do that they never imagined. For example, in the theater group I lead, many of the participants had no idea they were going to do a play,” she says. “They’ve been working on it for a year and it’s great to see how much they’ve grown and how calming it is for them.”
For 50 years the Cervantino Festival has been a cultural reference, feeding the public and all kinds of artists. Angela Gonzalez, director of the Ruelas Foundation, says the festival has brought all the great performers from around the world to Mexico. “There is no comparison to what the festival has achieved, at least in Latin America, as a space for a wide range of aesthetic experiences, a place of learning and a space of freedom.”
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/ Germán Romero, courtesy of Cervantino International Festival
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German Romero, courtesy of Cervantino International Festival
