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San Anto Putting On A "Chupachanga" Block Party (With Metal Foundry)

John Medina
Chupachanga poster.

San Antonians will soon come together to create something unusual. The event where that something will be created is called the Chupachanga.

"Chupachanga is a term that we coined for our block party," said San Anto Cultural Arts Program Coordinator Samantha Lopez, who explained how the name makes perfect sense.

"It’s on Chupaderas Street, and it’s a play on the word Chupaderas and pachanga," she said.

Pachanga is a Spanish word for a style of festive music and dance.

“Our Chupachanga will be kind of three events in one," Lopez said. "We’ve got a community workshop going on, we’ve got an artists showcase going on, and musicians as well."

But there's something else that separates this block party from others.

“An artist from Corpus Christi named Jack Gron will be bringing his mobile foundry to melt down some aluminum," Lopez said. "Some members of the community will have the opportunity to create aluminum tiles."

These tiles will eventually be turned into a public sculpture, the location as yet to be determined.

“So we’re inviting as many people as we can to come and make these tiles,” Lopez said.

That includes you. Chupachanga is a community block party with food, music, art and interestingly, a mobile foundry.

“It’s free, 100 percent free, open to the public, family friendly," Lopez said. "It’s on February 8, it starts and 10 a.m. so people can come whenever they want."

"You know that if you’d called it the Chupacabra every TV station in town would’ve been there," I said.

"Yeah!" Lopez laughed.

San Anto Cultural Arts’ Chupachanga is the weekend after next.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii