Fair Haven Celebrates Oaxacan Culture

On Sunday afternoon, dancers blessed the elements in four cardinal directions, following the traditions of generations — traditions carried from Oaxaca, Mexico to New Haven, and presented in the Elm City’s first-ever guelaguetza.

The guelaguetza was the brainchild of artist and organizer Sarahi Zacatelco, who is originally from Oaxaca, where the guelaguetza is celebrated with parades, dancing, food, and artisanal crafts. The word has its origins in the language of the Zapotec, one of the two largest indigenous groups in the Oaxaca area, where it refers to an exchange of gifts. Oaxaca’s guelaguetza has become one of the largest indigenous gatherings in Mexico, sprawling across a weekend and with enough attendance that a site in the city has been dedicated to it. As Oaxacan migrant communities have established themselves in the United States, the ritual has come with them. Guelaguetza celebrations in the United States started on the West Coast but in recent years have been happening on the East Coast as well.

Zacatelco was able to organize New Haven’s guelaguetza thanks to a grant from the Arts Council and support from the New Haven Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism. She wanted to organize a guelaguetza in part because, simply, ​“we don’t have one” — despite a growing Oaxacan population. ​“We have enough” people, she decided, to make the work worthwhile.

Zacatelco also saw the celebration as a chance to share her culture with others, and to give others a glimpse of the cultural diversity within Mexico. 

“I was working for five months” to organize the event, Zacatelco said. ​“I had to travel to New York many times to see the dancers, and to get Jarana Beat,” a son jarocho band that played in the middle of the afternoon. She did the paperwork with the city to get the event approved. When she was done organizing, she thought, ​“I don’t want to do it next time — but I think I can do it next time,” she said with a laugh. 

After offering blessing to the elements, the dancers proceeded to further offerings, of drumming and dancing that set the tone for the entire afternoon, both in the sense of honoring tradition and in the sense of celebrating community and enjoying a hot, lazy afternoon. By the time the dancers began, a crowd of families and friends had gathered to appreciate them.

Artisanship is a part of the guelaguetzas in Oaxaca, and so it was in Fair Haven as well, as vendors set up a row of booths where people could buy clothes, jewelry, woven bags, and other crafts.

The food truck La Chiapaneca was park on Front Street, offering tacos, burritos, elotes, plantains and other Mexican fare. This reporter and his party can relay that the food was uniformly excellent, and the plantains with a side of dark chocolate sauce were a particularly delicious surprise.

Dancers from Mujer Guerrera — ​“woman warriors” — performed next, steeped both in tradition and in women’s dignity. As the dance heated up, the dancers extended their hands in invitation to all the women present to join them for their last song. About a dozen did, following the dancers’ steps, smiling all the way.

Jarana Beats then took the stage and blasted through a set of son jarocho that drew loud applause, whoops and cheers from the audience. Chinelos NY, a dance troupe from NYC, would end the festivities with another set of high-energy traditional dance.

“I love New Haven,” Zacatelco said, and as someone who grew up in Queens, New York, she loves showing people she knows in New York City what New Haven is like. ​“They come up and they see the bridge, they see the water, the river, and they say, ​‘oh my God, this is a beautiful place.’ ”