Folkloric dance employed in effort to add Oaxacan community to this city’s diversity

The Raisin Capital of the World has had a significant Oaxacan presence since the 1990s that has held its own festivals and religious ceremonies with music and dance away from the rest of the city.

They need to be embraced, said Óscar Hernández, by the city of 25,000 where Latinos account for 85% of the population.

That is why Hernández, founder/director of Centro de Folklor, opted to showcase four dances from the southwestern Mexican state during the group’s 6-minute performance at the recent Danzantes Unidos Festival.

“Selma has a big and beautiful and thriving Oaxacan community,” said Hernández. “But I feel that many times as a community they feel like they’re living in the shadows of our city.”

Centro de Folklor has many students that are of Oaxacan descent, said Hernández, “and we really wanted them to be able to present the beauty of their state.”

“It was a little bit of a dream come true for us,” he said.

The Selma group ended with ‘Flor de Piña’ (Pineapple Flower), and gave away the fruit to the audience at the Wilson Theatre.

The reaction was positive, from Centro de Folklor dancer Carmen Zárate to Danzantes Unidos CEO/President María Luisa Colmenárez.

“Experiencing other regions and cultures is really fun,” said Zárate, a 15-year-old freshman at Selma High School. “For ‘Flor de Piña,’ it was hard to do the line and stay straight going forward.”

Zárate describes the Oaxacan dances as “really beautiful.”

Lizette Salgado, who choreographed the performance, said the group has been looking forward to adding Oaxaca to its staple of dances.

“It’s so authentic and still very pure,” Salgado said of the Oaxacan dances. “Some of these other (Mexican) dances already have more influences, like American influences. But Oaxacan dances have stayed true to the choreography and the costuming.”

For the costumes, Centro del Folklor relied on its seamstress in Guadalajara. The group also borrowed some dancers from other groups.

“In Oaxaca alone, there’s over 200 dances, and this is only like a taste of it,” said Salgado.

For Colmenárez, whose parents are from Oaxaca, the Centro de Folklor performance “just makes me feel very, very proud.”

Growing up in Sacramento, she felt alone because the majority of other dancers were from the Mexican states of Jalisco or Michoacán.

“I defended myself and said, ‘Well, if there’s only one of me here, maybe there’s something wrong with our town. Why are you all here now?’” Colmenárez asked them.

That is why her parents got her into folkloric dancing, to show others that Oaxaca existed and had its own dances.

“They wanted Oaxaca to flourish culturally as ajenos (foreigners),” said Colmenárez.

Seeing groups like Centro de Folkor perform dances from Oaxaca translates into acceptance for that community, said Colmenárez.

Hernández said the performance is a way to unite the community.

“Selma is a small town, but it’s still kind of divided into regions,” he said. “The west side has historically been called El Barrio.”

Centro de Folklor is located in downtown Selma. Pioneer Village, where the group usually performs, is just east of Highway 99.

“We really wanted to present something that would bring them into the city and not feel like they had to be marginalized, or on the outskirts of the city,” said Hernández.

This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 8:03 AM.