Every summer the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION sponsors the SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL. They have done so every year since 1967. Every year they have had a different program. (You can see a list of past programs here: http://www.festival.si.edu/past_festivals/year.aspx )
The following is from the mission statement:
"The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an international exposition of living cultural heritage annually produced outdoors on the National Mall of the United States in Washington, D.C., by the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
The Festival takes place for two weeks every summer overlapping the Fourth of July holiday. It is an educational presentation that features community-based cultural exemplars. Free to the public, like other Smithsonian museums, each Festival typically draws more than one million visitors."
The festival takes place on the National Mall (between the Washington Monument and the Capitol) and this year the festival will take place June 24-28 and July 1-5, 2010. (The festival exhibits and entertainment are free.) General festival information can be found here:
http://www.festival.si.edu/index.aspx
For 14 years I volunteered for the Folklife Festival - always a lot of fun, but was not able to do so last year because of health issues (I hope I will be able to volunteer this summer - even if just for a few days).
This summer's program includes: 1) Smithsonian Inside Out; 2) Asian Pacific Americans; and 3) Mexico
Details of the MEXICO program (partly in celebration of the Revolution Centenary) can be found here:
http://www.festival.si.edu/2010/mexico.aspx
I hope you have the time to read about the festival and about some of the participants that will be coming from various parts of Mexico. If anyone plans to visit Washington DC this summer, try not to miss this.
Natalie
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Mexican Culture and History in the Capital
Natalie:
Thank you for sharing the information on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's showcasing of Mexican culture.
There is also an exhibition at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum on the African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present on view November 9, 2009–July 4, 2010.
Below is a description of the exhibition. Let me know if you would like to go one of these days.
The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present is a traveling exhibition developed by curators Sagrario Cruz-Carretero and Cesáreo Moreno at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. The exhibition examines the history, culture, and art of Afro-Mexicans, and begins in the colonial era and continues to the present day. Highlights of the exhibition include discussions of African slavery in Mexico and the hero/slave rebel Yanga; artifacts related to the traditions and popular culture of Afro-Mexicans; and paintings, masks, photography, and other works of art.
This exhibition is accompanied by Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, and Recognition, developed by curator Elena Gonzales. Who Are We Now? charts the history of the relationship between Mexicans and African Americans in the United States as well as the relationship between African Americans and the country of Mexico.