Lázaro (right) and Summer, along with a small group of musicians, artists, ecologists, and community advocates performing at Riverfront Park in Maywood, CA. Photo courtesy of the artist
Lázaro Arvizu Jr.
California Flute Playing and Crafting
Lázaro Arvizu Jr. is a Tongva artist, educator, musician, and researcher devoted to Gabrieleño culture. Born in the Los Angeles Basin, he draws on deep knowledge of the landscape and cosmology to create and teach culturally rooted programs. For over twenty years, he has led workshops and performances, teaching soapstone carving, clapper-stick and rattle making, sand-painting meditations, and Gabrieleño music demonstrations.
Influenced by family traditions and diverse flute practices, he studied historic museum pieces and collaborated with elders to revive the Tongva version of the California flute. Arvizu has presented widely at institutions and festivals, including the Fowler Museum, UCLA, Occidental College, regional libraries, and arts organizations. Through this work, he has created meaningful intergenerational experiences and advanced Tongva-language songs, cultural arts, and community-centered research.
2026
California Flute crafting and playing with Summer Wilson
Summer Wilson will learn from Lázaro Arvizu Jr. how to craft and play the traditional California elderberry flute, a soft-spoken endblown flute historically practiced by Native communities from the Kumeyaay to the Pomo. Summer will practice carving, tuning, and playing the flute to develop her own voice on the instrument, deepen her understanding of its sound and mechanics, and build the skills needed to become a lineage holder, teacher, and performer who can help preserve and sustain this endangered musical tradition.
