The festivities continue Sept. 12 with the Latin Music & Dance Festival at East Boston Memorial Park (ZUMIX.org). The following day is the return of the Embrace Massó “¡Con Salsa!” International Music Festival on Boston Common (embraceboston.com), and another downtown event, Fiesta en la Plaza (boletos.boritix.com/tickets), returns to City Hall Plaza for two editions on Sept. 28 and Oct. 12.
“These are separate events, but we’re collaborating together,” explains Johnny Giraldo, the cofounder of Salsa y Control, a dance company that will bring dance lessons and performances to three of the celebrations.
“That way, we become one community, coming together to celebrate one rhythm, instead of a group of separate communities in different neighborhoods,” he added.
Over its 22 years, Salsa y Control has grown to offer salsa and bachata lessons in Cambridge and Allston, and last month the company hosted its 11th Boston Salsa Festival in Waltham. Such opportunities are part of the area’s vibrant year-round Latin dancing scene, which is anchored to a trio of hot spots in Cambridge: La Fabrica, Dante’s, and Havana Club.
Experienced salsa dancers can display dazzling moves at all of this month’s events, but Giraldo says beginners are always welcome to learn and practice at the festivals.
“If people are shy or have never done this before, this is a great opportunity for them to get their feet wet,” he said.
Another commonality among the East Boston, Embrace, and City Hall Plaza festivals is that they each draw from the wide spectrum of Latino culture that ranges from Dominican bachata to Indigenous dance.
“This is designed with the intention to include as many of the cultures that we have here in East Boston as possible, and to be welcoming to everybody,” says Madeleine Steczynski, the cofounder and executive director of ZUMIX.
The long-running East Boston music education center helped organize the fourth annual Eastie event alongside Mass. Senator Lydia Edwards. Other co-organizers include the mariachi-focused Veronica Robles Cultural Center and the Bajucol Dance Company, which specializes in Colombian folk dancing. Performers include ZUMIX’s own Latin ensemble, ¿Porque Puma?, and the rock en español of La Rockola.
Numerous East Boston eateries, such as Brasil Brazil Cafe and Salvadoran restaurants Bono and La Hacienda, will also offer food tastings at the festival. One of the hosts will be José Massó, the community and cultural activist who this year is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his “¡Con Salsa!” radio show on WBUR.
The next day, Massó will host and curate Embrace Massó “¡Con Salsa!” International Music Festival on the Common, which began last year and featured the final Boston performance by Latin jazz giant Eddie Palmieri, (who passed away last month).
Massó says that when he was initially approached by Embrace Boston, he was told that the festival concept would be a live version of what he does on the radio every Saturday.
“They said, ‘We want to be able to dance to the sounds that you play, we want to enjoy the spoken word that you share, and we want to learn and be inspired by what is being presented,’” he explained.
This year’s edition of the event will include such “¡Con Salsa!” favorites as the Grammy-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra and saxophonist Jonathan Suazo, whose jazz sound reflects his Puerto Rican and Dominican roots. Poet aja monet, a highlight of last year’s Newport Jazz Festival, will appear with her own band as well.
Another innovative jazz collaboration will be part of the Sept. 28 edition of Fiesta en la Plaza, a two-part gathering that showcases Latin music, dance, food, and film. Boston pianist Leo Blanco, who hails from Venezuela, will appear in a duo with flamenco dancer Nino de los Reyes.
Blanco’s versatile playing and composing draws on everything from classical music to the deep Afro-Latino roots he explores with his Sugar Road Ensemble. He said that his work with Reyes includes “everything that we inherited.”
“Some people might ask, ‘Why include flamenco in a Hispanic celebration?’,” Blanco said. “But we cannot deny the huge influence from Spain that we have, along with the Afro-Latino and Indigenous heritage.”
The September date of Fiesta en la Plaza will also include Puerto Rican sensation Zayra Pola, the first female percussionist to receive a full scholarship from Berklee College of Music, as well as cabezudos, the giant papier-mâché heads created by Agua, Sol y Sereno (the same Puerto Rican collective which provided visuals for Bad Bunny’s 2023 Grammy Awards performance). One of those cabezudos will be of Massó; another one will be a surprise, said Elsa Mosquera of Ágora Cultural Architects, the Boston-based production and consulting firm producing the event.
The October edition of Fiesta en la Plaza will include a screening of “Género: Salsa,” a new documentary that tells the story of transgender dancers in the Colombian salsa hot spot of Cali. Afterward, guests can dance together to a playlist from the film’s soundtrack.
It’s not lost on the organizers of these Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations that the Latino community is grappling with political divisions and fears over immigration enforcement.
“This year has a special meaning,” said Mosquera. “Our community needs some safe places to gather and celebrate our heritage, and to make sure people understand the contributions of Latinos in our city.”
The links between the different festivals are “solidarity, a way of showing that we’re not alone, especially this moment in time,” added Massó, who is one of the Boston social justice leaders honored by the 1965 Freedom Plaza surrounding the Embrace statue.
“In a moment of resistance, we’re using the arts as the banner that says we are one community,” he concluded.