A Smile From Abuela Chela – For several years, Valeria Fernández has worked as a correspondent for Radio Bilingüe in Phoenix, bringing us the stories of immigrants in Arizona. This holiday season, Valeria is waiting to return to her home country of Uruguay to visit her family. She shares this story with us, about the person she is most waiting to see.
Sounds of California: Celebrating and Documenting the Voices and Music of Immigrants – What sounds, music, and languages define a particular region? And how do immigrants add to the rich culture of a place? A new project by Radio Bilingüe, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, or ACTA, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage seeks to document musical traditions of immigrants who have made California their home, and explore how they have redefined the state’s soundscape. To launch the project, an event was organized at the Oakland Museum of California, where storytellers, dancers, and musicians from diverse cultures in the state participated. Zaidee Stavely brings us some of these sounds. This story is part of the Raíces series: Stories About Grassroots Artists.
