Ritual Azteca Señor de los Milagros performing at Living Roots Festival on October 19, 2025. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

ACTA Story

Living Roots: Mapping the Heartbeat of the Antelope Valley

Arleth Castañeda, Cultural Treasures Project Advisory Team

January 27, 2026

The Invitation of the Desert Sun

It was a beautiful fall day in our desert community. If you are from here, you know how the Antelope Valley can be—sometimes the wind wants to be the loudest voice in the room—but that day, the wind stayed at bay. The Divine Sun came out to celebrate us, beaming down a golden light on a gathering we called Living Roots: Putting the Antelope Valley’s Culture on the Map! As a Purépecha woman, I see these gatherings not just as events, but as a re-weaving of sorts that have been here long before us. Hosted at the Legacy Commons in Palmdale, California, the space allowed us to be together as it has always been intended for the community to be. This wasn’t just a festival; it was a safe space cultivated by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) with the project’s advisory council that I am part of, to show the world—and ourselves—that our culture isn’t a resource to be mined, but a living root that feeds us all.

The Opening: A Circle of Kinship

The day began in the courtyard, the sun kissing the earth as our local Aztec dance group, Grupo Ritual Azteca Señor de Los Milagros, opened with a ceremony. To see the dancers move, their feathers catching the light, their feet grounding into the desert soil, it set the tone for everything. It was a call to the four directions and a call to the community to wake up and see the treasures in our own backyard. As we gathered, the spirit of generosity was everywhere. We had free food provided by our very own local small businesses, ensuring everyone was nourished and fed. It was a beautiful reminder that community care starts with making sure no one is hungry as we celebrate our rich roots.

Inside, the layout was a beautiful, sprawling map of our valley’s soul. We had a stage for voices to be heard, tables for organizations doing the heart-work for our people, and workshops where hands could create. My heart loved the hum of it all—the joy, the laughter, the children running around like little sparks of light. It felt like a family function; you either knew everyone, or were about to be introduced to a new cousin or a new person who connected your world to theirs.

Black Art Distrik performing one of their songs at the Living Roots Festival. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

Arleth Castañeda posing alongside her table at the Living Roots Festival. Photo courtesy of the author.

The Nomination: Why VRTU Arts?

Before the festival, there was the work of the heart: the nominations. When I thought of who represents the cultural treasures of the Antelope Valley, my mind went straight to VRTU Arts—Xóchitl García and Christopher Fuentes. I nominated them because they are the answer to a question our youth have been asking for a long time: “Where can I be an artist here?” They didn’t wait for a museum or a gallery to give them permission. They built their own platform. Xóchitl, with her murals and her Creatrix spirit, and Chris, with his music and his vision for a safe artistic harbor, are exactly what this project is about. Their work isn’t just a creative endeavor; they are protectors of identity.

The Interview: Old School Palabra in the Wind

Before the festival lights were even plugged in, I sat down with Chris and Xóchitl to gather their cultural treasures, and build up the map that is the center of this project: creating a list of resources that people who live and work in the Antelope Valley can use to feel more connected, organize, and build together. I want to share a bit about that process because it reveals something.

Xóchitl is a media genius—she and Chris suggested a full mic’d up/video interview, high-tech and shiny. And while that’s amazing, I’m still navigating that world, and honestly, the wind at Jackie Robinson Park that day had other plans! It was blowing like a wild ancestor. I made the call to go Old School. I pulled out my phone, hit record, and we just talked. Because the audio was a battle with the wind, I sat down later and meticulously transcribed their words into a written palabra {word). I wanted to ensure their wisdom wasn’t lost in the gusts. It was in those quiet, wind-swept moments that they told me they became the people they needed when they were kids. That kind of guts—that abuelita medicine (grandmother medicine), I like to call it, of taking charge—is why they had to play a part in ACTA’s Living Roots festival.

Xóchitl shared with me during our talk:

I don’t have anyone [to look up to as a bearer]… and that’s why I’m doing this, so that I can be that person for someone. We don’t have an answer because the space that we occupy… we are the first people to occupy it. We are the answer.

Members of the Living Roots Project Advisory Council, alongside ACTA Staff, pose for a photo after the Living Roots Festival, which they helped plan throughout 2025. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

The Festival Feature: Doodles and Community Spirit

At the festival, seeing VRTU Arts in action was a highlight. Xóchitl had her Doodle Booth set up, and before his set time, Chris was right there supporting her, scoping out the event with his TMEG bandmates who were scheduled to perform, and soaking in the energy of the community. It was beautiful to see that partnership in action before they even took the stage. Xóchitl’s booth wasn’t just a table; it was a makeshift, DIY vending machine built onto a large board. It was pure creativity, raw and inviting. She would draw you on the spot in five minutes—capturing your essence before you even had time to feel shy. It was beautiful to witness folks flocking to her. It sparked something in others, too; I saw other artists standing by, watching her hand move, and deciding to try their own hand at a sketch. Even Chris’s band, TMEG, got in on the magic, doing a group doodle that Xóchitl brought to life with such grace.

Xóchitl García (left) and Christopher Fuentes at the Doodle Booth. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

Xóchitl’s medicine isn’t just in her painting, photography, or graphic design; it’s in her touch. She is also a plushie artist—someone who breathes life into original characters by designing and sewing plushies (soft, fabric-based sculptures stuffed with flexible materials to create a tactile companion intended for comfort, sensory support, and play). That day at the festival, her creations were a dream for any texture lover—tremendously soft, cuddly, and grounding.

She kindly gifted me one named Whibbo. In the middle of the festival’s whirlwind, Whibbo sat with me. Every time I felt my neurodivergent senses start to peak, I’d touch that soft fabric, and Whibbo would keep me supported and grounded. It was a reminder that culture is also about how we soothe ourselves, and how a gifted creation can become a branch of care between two people.

Xóchitl shares these companions with the world through her Etsy shop Xochizzle, and she has even introduced a brand-new design to kick off the new year. I encourage everyone to check her out—not just for the art, but for the grounding presence her work brings into a space.

Community Care: The Duo in Motion

What I witnessed that day was a true example of community care at its core. Chris and Xóchitl move like a divinely orchestrated team. While the festival was buzzing, Xóchitl was also leading interviews for VRTU Arts about Living Roots, capturing the words of other community leaders to share on their social media (@VRTU.arts), amplifying our voices. When it was time for the music, she shifted roles again, becoming the photographer for Chris’s band, TMEG, capturing the fire they brought to the stage. They are a duo that shows us how to hold space for one another’s dreams.

*The band TMEG performing on stage at the Living Roots Festival. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.*

Confidence Rising: TMEG and the Stage

When TMEG took the stage, I saw a beautiful shift. Chris is the extrovert of the bunch, but the rest of the band and their circle of friends were a bit shyer. You could see them taking the stage with a bit of that desert shyness, but then, the community bridge began to build. In just a few moments, with kinfolk gathered front row, that shyness melted. When you are surrounded by humans who support you in ways you didn’t realize you need tending to, you find your wings.

Chris had told me in our interview:

A strong community has a good sense of growth… you grow with the community and the community grows with you. A community that lacks love isn’t a community—it’s just a group of people.

I saw that growth happen in real-time. Once the band started, they moved the whole room. From air drummers in the crowd to folks grooving to the jams up front, the energy was electric. TMEG took up the stage and filled the hearts of everyone watching.

Band The Flesh Radio performing at the Living Roots Festival. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

Traditional Filipino Dance Group performing Tinikling at the Living Roots Festival. Photo: Oscar Vargas/ACTA.

Reflections: Tending the Garden

ACTA’s Living Roots festival showed us that the Antelope Valley isn’t a desert of scarcity; it is a landscape of hidden springs. We are making big changes with small, intentional steps. By turning our old school voice recordings into a written palabra, and by celebrating the Doodle Booths and the TMEG jams, we are ensuring that these stories don’t just blow away with the next windstorm. May this space we are cultivating continue to be tended to as we do. As we create these safe spaces, the community arrives in full gratitude, ready to be seen and ready to connect. We are the protectors of our identity, the creators of our own platforms, and the community who show up for each other when the stage feels a little too big to walk onto alone. We are still out here. We got each other. And we are putting ourselves on the map, one doodle, one song, and one sun-kissed ceremony at a time.