Segerstrom plans month of community-oriented events for LatinX Heritage Month

National Hispanic Heritage Month will soon be upon us, and Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa is preparing a fiesta. The annual national celebration of the influence and contributions of Latino Americans takes place Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, and the center has a series of programming for what it calls LatinX Heritage Month to mark the occasion.

The series will kick off on Saturday Sept. 14 with a family-friendly fest from 1 to 4 p.m. at the outdoor Julianne and George Argyros Plaza, featuring live music, dance and vendors. Local band Betty’s Mustache will headline the event, playing distinct music that fuses hip-hop and Cumbia.

Betty’s Mustache was formed by cousins Martin and John as a tribute to their twin parents, John’s mom and Martin’s dad, who performed as a folklorico dance duo. Both passed away in 2007, and the cousins started the band the next year as a way to honor them and their musical legacy. The group is known for infectious and danceable songs like “Cuantas Veces” and “Sangre.”

Also at the event, Santa Ana-based DJ AllieRockk will spin early 2000s R&B and Spanish pop, and a special dance performance by Diablada Espectacular Zulemar de Bolivia, a Bolivian dance group, is scheduled.

Attendees will have multiple ways to participate in the fun. Food trucks, lawn games and a photo booth will be on hand along with a DIY screen-printing cart and crafts for the kids. Segerstrom will host raffles and giveaways, and the Orange County Public Library Mobile Library will pull up for the event with books and magazines to check out and other services like library card applications.

Admission to the LatinX Heritage Month Kickoff is free with a downloadable Plaza Pass that allows access to other community programming at the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza year round.

For National Dance Day on Sept. 21, the center will present different Latino dance styles with a bilingual emcee from 1 to 5 p.m. All ages and levels of dance ability are invited to take part in this event, which is presented in partnership with American Dance Movement, an organization dedicated to building healthy communities through dance.

This year’s event will begin with a warmup from Studio D: Arts School for All Abilities followed by a Queerchata bacahata workshop with Spanish-friendly, trans nonbinary artist and Latin dance instructor Bex. Other highlights include a performance by students from the American Ballet Theatre Gillespie School and a ballet folklorico performance by Alianza Translatinx, the first transgender and gender nonconforming dance organization of its kind in Orange County.

Grammy-winning Mexican American singer Lila Downs returns to Segerstrom for a Día de los Muertos concert on Oct. 13.

(Courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

The center’s LatinX Heritage Month will close out with a Día de Muertos performance from Grammy-award winning singer songwriter Lila Downs at 7 p.m. on Oct. 13 in Segerstrom Hall. The Mexican American artist uses her songs as a platform for storytelling and activism.

“At one point, I decided to compose and sing songs that narrated important causes to me, about women, about indigenous women, about being a woman, of course, and violence against women, which is something that is taboo and was not easy, and still isn’t, to sing about,” Downs told TimesOC in 2023.

Growing up, Downs divided her time between Oaxaca with her Mixtecan mother and Minnesota with her Scottish American father, and the duality of her identity often influences her Mesoamerican music. For her Día de los Muertos performance at Segerstrom, Downs will celebrate the traditions of the Day of the Dead holiday on both sides of the border. The show will also be an interactive one, and audience members are encouraged to attend in Día de los Muertos costumes and makeup and bring photos or other remembrances of loved ones.

Tickets for Lila Downs’ performance start at $32.77 and are available at SCFTA.org.