Timeline
Location: Harbour Event Center
Guests: 2,000
Partner: Brazilian Community Association and Sambacouver
Artists: Sambacouver, Shotsambado, Cabral’s Fault
For the third time, the Vancouverite version of Brazil’s most famous celebration took place in the city at Harbour Event Centre in February. This carnival party had live performances and DJ sets from top local Brazilian acts, food, drinks, costumes and decor bringing you the best Carnaval do Brasil experience in Vancouver!
Location: Zoom
Time: Fridays, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Instructor: Anna Paula Viveros
This is a cardio dance fitness class for all ages that combines the elements of muscle toning, balance and flexibility to boost your energy and feel awesome. We partied while exercising!
Location: Zoom
Time: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Performer: Paloma del Cerro
We prepared something very special to celebrate Mother’s Day with the acclaimed Paloma del Cerro, a very talented Argentine artist and therapist whose most recent single features the participation of Rubén Albarrán from Café Tacvba Oficial.
Paloma del Cerro gave an exclusive concert-ritual completely live from her current residence on the beautiful beaches of Mexico. Attendees had an opportunity to connect with the deepest part of your being in this unique experience.
Location: Zoom
Time: 1 to 3 p.m.
Cook: Linda Purcell
Breakfast in Spanish is called “desayuno”, and we prepared a good one. Typically, in Mexico eggs and beans are a good way to start the day, but we decided to opt out of eggs and opt in rice instead. Filled with protein and nutrients, it is a wonderful way to start your day. Variety is the spice of life!
Platforms: Youtube and Facebook Watch
Hosts: Daniela Carmona and Pablo Zacarias
Carnaval del Sol: Across the Americas emerged as a resilience strategy put in place by Latincouver with expansion in mind. Thanks to this online series, we expanded from Vancouver to Patagonia and featured some of the most renowned talents from Latin America as well as some amazing Latino talents from Vancouver and the rest of Canada, along with recipes, destinations, social innovation projects, comedy and more.
Carnaval del Sol: Across the Americas-Season 1 was an online series of 6 episodes featuring outstanding artists, projects, and people from BC, Canada, and all Latin America. It was the first time Latincouver ventured into such an ambitious project but we were able to feature some of Latin America’s most renowned artists along with a fine selection of local and Canadian Latin American acts as stated in the list below.
Venue: Zoom platform provided by Latincouver
Performers: Jessica Angel
In partnership with Vancouver Biennale, this interactive Zoom Workshop showcased how Jessica Angel, a Colombian-born artist living in New York uses technology to create art. Jessica showed how she uses her art to connect people and different cultures.
Venue: Zoom platform provided by Latincouver.
We travelled to the Indigenous world to discover new beliefs and the richness of the local culture and to learn more about Indigenous entrepreneurs. This was possible in partnership with Red de Empresarias y Emprendedoras Indígenas de las Américas and Red Global de Empresarios Indígenas as part of the World Indigenous Business Network, and Fundación Chipiri, and in collaboration with Indiarts Collective and Florezca.
In partnership with Mozaico Flamenco, Flamenco Night was a fun night with information about the dance and performances, and a great dance class.
Venue: Zoom platform provided by Latincouver
A beautiful afternoon on Zoom where Latin American Women shared their inspiring stories and secrets of success to motivate and encourage a new generation of women to step up and reach for their goals in a new country.
We had an amazing panel about “Feminism and Leadership matters” and closed with a multiculturalism workshop to share our ideas and thoughts!
On August 7, 8 and 9, 2020, the dates originally planned for Carnaval del Sol, we celebrated in a selection of Latino restaurants around the city with live music, Latin American food, and exclusive discounts.
Venue: Lonsdale Quay Market, North Vancouver
Artists: Kin Balam
Latin American Heritage Month started with great music. Kin Balam (Alan Ruiz, Jesus Hierrezuelos, and Antonio Balam) played a collection of native clay instruments providing unique nature sounds in their music.
Venue: Zoom
Guest speakers: Paloma Morales, Dr Don McKenzie, Adriana Bartolli, Michele Trask, Beatriz Metzner and Cathy Marr
Artist: Gabriela Melo
Partner: BC Cancer Foundation
Latincouver is committed to increasing breast cancer awareness and educating the community to improve screening practices. We brought together real stories of women who survived breast cancer and shared their advice and experiences with us. In addition, our guest speaker was Dr. Don McKenzie, a global leader in the science of cancer and exercise and whose research has had a significant impact on improving the lives of women with breast cancer. Dr. McKenzie answered questions from the event attendees.
Venue: Zoom
Guest speaker: Manpreet Dhillon
Partner: Veza Global
Ranked #15 globally on the 2020 EmPower Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list, Manpreet Dhillon is an equity, diversity, and inclusion specialist with a unique lens as a leadership coach. In a forum, we discussed the following:
Venue: Online
Artist: Carmen Keitsch
In this online workshop, Carmen showed us how to decorate a Catrina Skull, what it represents in the Mexican culture, and how it relates to the Dia de Muertos celebration. We had the opportunity to learn about this tradition while expressing ourselves through the creation of a beautiful piece of art.
Venue: Lonsdale Quay Market
Artist: Paloma Morales
Sponsors: Lonsdale Quay Market, North Vancouver
Día de Muertos is a remembrance celebration of our dearly departed, and Altar de Muertos is its most important element.
For this activity, we teamed up with the Lonsdale Quay Market in North Vancouver to set up a beautiful altar commemorating this tradition celebrated in some Latin American countries such as Mexico, Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Peru. The public was able to appreciate it for a month.
Venue: Zoom
Performers: Jaques Lalonde and Bill Santiago as the comedians and Janet Law as a host
We presented Unity host Janet Law for an evening of carefree laughter. Two gifted comedians, Jaques Lalonde and Bill Santiago, helped us appreciate the lighter side of life.
Venue: Zoom
Sponsor: FlowH2O
As there are many ways in which ancestral knowledge is being and could be preserved and transmitted, this hackathon aimed to shed light on the ancestral wisdom carried out through generations of First Nations and Indigenous groups from around the world. This wisdom can now be transferred to digital platforms that could assist in tackling the many problems we face with our global water resources in the 21st century.
Participants had the chance to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams from around the world and to work on creating and prototyping their ideas. These ideas were pitched to a panel of experts for a chance to win prizes sponsored by Microsoft; the selected idea will be implemented in the real world through the FlowH2O water resource platform sponsored by Canada’s Digital Supercluster.
Venue: Zoom
Guest speakers: Silvana Goldemberg, Davina Agudelo, Claudia Salazar, Lidice Magla and Esther Frid
During this amazing event, five Latin American female writers read a chapter, poem or short story for the audience of Latincouver’s channels and social media while also telling a brief story of their work, challenges and accomplishments as a female writer abroad.
Venue: Zoom platform provided by Latincouver
Guest speakers: Maria Fernanda Medrano, registered Clinical Counsellor, and Vanessa Fiabane, NYIT
Partners: Vast Vancouver and New York Institute
In this workshop, Maria Fernanda Medrano offered a trauma-informed, non-judgmental, anti-oppression, social just and strength-based approach that highlights capacity and resilience in individuals and community as a whole. Vanessa Fiabane guided us on how education can help newcomers integrate into the Canadian society.
Venue: Zoom
Artist: Paloma Morales
Sponsor: Lonsdale Quay Market
During this exciting online webinar, Paloma Morales showed us how to create our own Altar De Muertos for our homes, so that we could celebrate the tradition of Día de Muertos and commemorate our lost loved ones. Since last year, Paloma by the hand of Latincouver have exhibited the altar of the dead in Vancouver for the general public inviting them to witness that this Mexican tradition is more alive than ever.
Venue: Zoom
Artist: Clarissa Banos
Clarissa guided us through the creation of a mixed media painting showcasing imagery and symbolism representative of this celebration, showcasing either a Catrina or a Sugar Skull inspired by her own artwork. This was a family friendly art project that required no previous experience and which could be completed within a 1-to-2-hour time frame. She gave us step-by-step instructions throughout the production of this piece. In addition, she talked about the meaning of the celebration, including its visual symbolism, as attendees added their creative and artistic contribution to their unique paintings.
Venue: Zoom
Guest speakers: Cpt Rey, Sgt Guillermo, MP Chiu and the main speaker Ari De La Mora
As part of the celebrations of the Latin American Heritage Month, we decided to create this space where our three guest speakers shared with us their ideas and experience, and reminded us about the importance of diversity in Latin America, Canada and the world.
Venue: Zoom
Partners: Universidad Católica, EIDI, Universidad del Rosario, UR Intercultural, DailyHive.
Indigenous, Afro and Palenquera women safeguard their ancestral legacy of management, use and control of the territory. This legacy serves as a process of bodily self-care, and as the future of the community. On this occasion, the women contributed their point of view and knowledge so that participants could see their healing and protection practices as an alternative to Western health. The language of this event was held in Spanish.
Venue: Zoom
Performers: Antonio Balam S
Born in El Salvador, Antonio and his family moved to North America as political refugees when he was a child. Antonio says he had a difficult youth surrounded by poverty, violence and racism. As he got older he became more interested in playing music and traveled to Madrid, Spain, to study under the great flamenco musician, Jeronimo Maya. In 2016 he began writing and composing his own music, pulling inspirations from a multitude of different genres that spoke to him, and with a few other musicians, he later created the musical project now known as Kin Balam.
This workshop presented the opportunity to sharpen up one’s guitar skills by teaching how to play some Latin American songs. The workshop included a brief history of the guitar, a brief overview of the most prominent rhythms with guitar accompaniment of Latin America, 1-to-3 basic guitar techniques, and 1 popular Latin American song to learn.
Venue: Zoom
Performers: David “El Dee” Espinosa.
David Espinosa, also known as El Dee, is an illustrator and cartoonist living in Cholula, México. He has published several comics in México and his work appeared in artworks and art shows all over the world. He won the “Best graphic novel” at Mexico’s Tierra Adentro Awards in 2018. Right now, he is working on his new graphic novel that will be published by Editorial Planeta in 2021.
In this workshop, participants learned to draw Catrinas, a Mexican tradition for Día de Muertos, following the style of their original creator José Guadalupe Posada. Participants were taught to draw skulls the Mexican way with basic shapes, some lines and a lot of humor! This activity was a fun way of celebrating being alive and learning why skulls are widespread in Mexican art.
At the end of the workshop, attendees were introduced to additional techniques that allowed them to draw different skulls and represent themselves, their friends and families.
Venue: Lonsdale Quay Market North Vancouver
Artist: Ari De La Mora
Sponsors: Lonsdale Quay Market and Dulux Paint
Ari De La Mora is a self-taught figurative painter born and raised in Mexico. Ari holds a degree in Advertising with a specialization in Creative Visualization from the University of Communications in Mexico City. After moving to Canada, she began collaborating with the Vancouver Art Gallery. Ari’s artwork had been exhibited in group and individual exhibitions in Vancouver, the United States and Mexico.
For this project, we worked with Ari to create a colourful and beautiful mural that portrays the most heartwarming memories and experiences of Latin American immigrants.
The mural is exhibited at the Lonsdale Quay Market until October 31, 2021.
Venue: Online on several podcast platforms
The Latinos in Canadá series of podcasts was created to provide valuable information around COVID-19 updates and highlight successful stories of Latin American people. We had 8 video-podcasts with interviews to artists and community members during Latin American Heritage Month.
Copyright © 2022 Latincouver.ca. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: Comments and entries represent the viewpoints of the individual and no one else.
