After living in Santa Barbara for two years, my idea of the Santa Barbara community was stressed UCSB students, the surfers living on DP, and the Arts & Lectures regulars. The only diversity I experienced came from my friend group and my Chinese math professor. It wasn’t until I worked with !Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara! that I noticed a more colorful side to Santa Barbara.
Through VIVA I had the opportunity to work for groups from Los Angeles, CA, Veracruz, Mexico, and even Lima, Perú; Each group connected with a slightly different subset of the Santa Barbara community through similar and shared cultural traditions.
The most memorable group I worked with was Los Utrera, a family group that performed traditional Son Jarocho music and dance from southern Veracruz. I noticed how large the Latino community was in Santa Barbara when we went to an elementary school assembly and Los Utrera didn’t need a translator because all the students spoke Spanish! I loved that the students readily understood Los Utrera’s sones, or improvised love verses, because the lyrics would not sound as special if translated to a different language (especially since it would’ve been me doing the translating). At the Isla Vista School performance, I even noticed some local jarocho members. I could hear them cheering from the crowd with their traditional grito. Los Utrera reminded me of my own community, as I have family living in different parts of Mexico. Their humor and kindness made me feel right at home! We talked about everything: family origins, places we had visited, the places we wanted to go, tattoos, and what we did for a living. They even taught me Son Jarocho essentials, like how drunk a “torito” could get you (an alcoholic drink made from fruits and distilled sugarcane juice) and how they used to make the strings of their instruments with cat guts (no, they don’t kill the cats themselves).
I also got to briefly work with some members of Las Cafeteras from Los Angeles. Their main message at the school assemblies was “we’re all the same because we’re all different” and they encouraged the students to pursue their goals regardless of what others may think about their abilities. Las Cafeteras talked and sang about their experience growing up as Chicanos in LA and shared where they and their parents were from. At 10 years old I didn’t know what a Chicano was, or if I had indigenous roots, and yet, there were so many kids raising their hands when Las Cafeteras vocalist Daniel asked how many of them had indigenous roots. Even if some students didn’t know if their ancestors belonged to an indigenous group, I found it valuable that the kids were invited to think about it. The fact that these young students were being introduced to the diversity of their community and encouraged to be different made me wish I had experienced something similar when I was in elementary school. The process of finding your place within your community can be difficult if you try to “fit in” instead of embracing your differences. I can only hope that these students will remember Las Cafeteras’ message when they begin that process.
As UCSB students we experience life in a bubble, everything revolves around our campus and the surrounding IV community. But as a student who has worked with VIVA, I got to know the rest of the Santa Barbara community and witness a celebration of the various cultures. And even though I’m no longer living in Santa Barbara, I hope I can have a similar experience when I return.