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Photograph by Stephen Brashear

Grupo Folklorico Mexico Tenochtitlan dancers perform La Danza Azteca at the Columbia Neighborhood Center.

Art's Desire

La Peña Juchit Ireta brings musicians, dancers, poets and other artists to the Columbia Neighborhood Center

By Heather Zimmerman

While necessity may be the mother of invention, only true lovers of the arts would host a concert in their own back yard.

After finding themselves at a loss for affordable performance space, husband-and-wife team Victor Hugo Santos and Leticia Elicea were inspired by their profound dedication to traditional Latin American culture to organize a performance of Latin American artists on the patio of their Sunnyvale home. More than three years later, having moved the show to the Columbia Community Center, the performance--now a monthly event known as La Peña Juchit Ireta--continues to spotlight the talents of musicians, dancers, poets and other artists from Mexico, Central and South America and the Bay Area.

A "peña" is a cultural gathering popular in many Spanish-speaking countries. Santos and Elicea say that "Juchit Ireta" is a term from an old language spoken in Mexico before the Spaniards came, meaning something like "my people."

The name reflects the couple's desire to share traditional Latin American art forms with the community and to bring some lesser-known traditions back to their people and, as they emphasize, to all lovers of Latin American culture, no matter where they are from.

In addition to nurturing the arts, Santos and Elicea are artists themselves, each having become immersed in the arts at a young age in their native Mexico. Speaking with the help of an interpreter, Elicea recalls, "Since I was 17, I have been in contact with the arts in one way or another, always in contact with art, theater, movies. Most of all, marrying Victor has forced me to be in contact with the arts; we have worked as a couple to make the peña a reality."

Elicea doesn't exaggerate when she says that Santos has led her to an even closer involvement with the arts. He is an accomplished musician, a guitar teacher and the host of a radio show, "Maderos Latinoamericanos," on KKUP. He also writes for the bilingual newspaper La Oferta Review. Together, the couple has created "Enlace Cultural," a TV show on Mountain View cable channel 6. Santos hosts the show, conducting interviews with Latin American artists, some of whom also perform at the peñas; Elicea directs and produces.

Santos points to his work as the director of a folkloric (traditional) music group as one of the reasons La Peña Juchit Ireta got started. "Our group was looking for a place, but it was difficult because we weren't affiliated with any community organizations. I thought of having the peñas at home," he remembers. La Peña Juchit Ireta grew out of the couple's involvement in the arts, but it seems to be the linchpin of their efforts to promote awareness of Latin American culture. As Santos says, "For three years, we've been working like ants, with lots of effort but lots of enthusiasm, to gain recognition for the good side of the Latin American community--that is to say, the face of the creative man. Latin Americans are not only cheap labor."

Santos and Elicea find themselves in the unique--and often demanding--position of being both artists and patrons of the arts, often footing a substantial portion of the bill for the peñas in addition to arranging for the performers. And like many arts groups, La Peña Juchit Ireta struggles with the issue of an affordable performance space, with a recent added challenge of paying a rental fee for the community center space, which they had previously been using gratis.

Despite the routine difficulties in keeping the monthly event afloat, to hear Santos and Elicea talk about it, there can be no doubt that the peñas are a labor of love for them. And their love of the culture is clearly shared by a modest but enthusiastic audience that frequents the performances. The audience engages in the usual discreet toe-tapping as well as some clapping along that seems inevitable with the lively music. As the evening progresses, the clapping becomes more vigorous, people rock in their chairs and children move to the music in the aisles. The group at September's show that performed huapango music--an old and increasingly rare Mexican form--received more than a few cries of otro (encore) when it seemed that they were finishing the set. But the dance troupe that performed the same night--colorful Mexican dances that ranged from the more familiar swirling skirts and flourishes to rhythmically raw Azteca acrobatics--had silently awed the audience by the end of its performance, until it came time for the applause.

Although La Peña Juchit Ireta was founded as a way for members of the Latino community to enjoy their heritage, Santos and Elicea welcome all with an interest in Latin American culture, and their audience certainly reflects that inclusiveness. The performances are conducted entirely in Spanish, but that shouldn't pose too much of a problem to those who don't speak the language. Although sometimes the musicians do stop between numbers to explain the songs, it doesn't necessarily require a Spanish vocabulary to appreciate music and dancing that ranges from soulful to vivacious. As Elicea says, "The art is a language with no frontiers."

The next La Peña Juchit Ireta features Lorena de la Rosa performing Latin American songs and Renacer de Bolivia performing traditional Bolivian dance. Oct 11, 7pm. $7/children free. Columbia Middle School, 739 Morse, Sunnyvale. Call 732-7829.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 8, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.