Artist Archives - Page 20 of 37 - Alliance for California Traditional Arts

Salvador Ramírez learned how to play the guitar and violin from an aunt in his hometown of San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. He has been playing Mixtec (indigenous Oaxacan) chilena music for over twenty years, and is often invited to play at baptisms, weddings, and community festivals throughout Central California.

West African Traditional Djembe and Dunun

Paul Cason is an artist, community leader, and speaker of the Northwestern (Konkow) Maidu language. Paul’s dedication to the art, culture, and community of this language is unwavering. He understands that for Maidu art to be fully cherished, it must be experience through the Maidu mindset, language, and worldview. Paul…

Claudia Lyra has brought Brazilian culture to others since she moved to US in 2003. Claudia trained in Brazil in capoeira (a Brazilian art form that can be practiced as a martial art or a dance, and its accompanying music). Claudia is also an accomplished percussionist, studying traditional Brazilian percussion…

The batá is a sacred drum tradition originating among the Yoruba people of West Africa and brought to the New World during the slave trade era. Female in nature, the three two-headed drums played by three men activate a sacred language that communicates with the spirit world of the Orisha (or…

Congolese Ngoma, Drumming

Kalenda (African stick dance/fight ritual)

The art of kumidaiko—ensemble drumming with the taiko, a traditional Japanese drum—was developed in post-World War II Japan in the 1950’s. Kumidaiko came to America in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, entering through the Japanese American communities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Jose. Hiroyuki “Jimi” Nakagawa has…

Deshilado (des-ē-lah’-do), or Mexican openwork embroidery, is traditionally used on household items such as tablecloths, napkins, and linens. Openwork embroidery is the art of removing threads from a fabric to create a design over which embroidery is made. Patricia Zavala de Arias learned deshilado from her mother in her hometown…

The Chicano mural movement began in the 1960s in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture. Chicano muralism has been linked to pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas, who recorded their rituals and history on the…