If you could time travel back to 1930s on the West Side, entertainment was live, in-person and fascinating. And often, in a tent.
"There was Vaudeville and for us it was called Carpa, so basically, Carpa is a tent."
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center's Graciela Sanchez explains a tent-based traveling vaudeville show will transcend time to make a West Side stop on Saturday. A huge variety of entertainment starts at 10:30 a.m. with singers Las Tesoros de San Antonio.
"And they'll be performing for about an hour. And we'll have elementary school kids from J T Brackenridge; they're learning some of the songs that have been lost."
The connecting-people-to-their-cultural-roots theme continues with performances by Azul Barrientos, Conjunto Heritage Taller, Lourdes Perez, and then this:
"We'll have Pachuco Boogie Dance Company. So Pachucos were the men who dressed in the 1940s with zoot suits...and they'll dance some of the jitterbug style music."
Workshops will instruct how to trace your family's genealogical roots.
"How to play the LoterÍa, but the old fashioned, doesn't just name the card, but actually has a poem connected to it."
Identifying medicinal plants, making your own piñatas, and different ways to use chilés.
"Blanca Rivera comes in with 20 versions of how to make chilés and she'll be preparing them throughout the day."
Sanchez says food will be available, along with a lot for kids to do, too.
"Our hope is that you take it on and teach your children and grand children and great grand children the beauty of these cultural traditions that kind of get lost."
You can find them for free Saturday at Paseo Por El Westside.
Find more on Esperanza's Paseo Por El Westside here.
