World Beat offers opportunity for local dancers to share their culture

Dancers with Casa de la Cultura Tlanese are excited to be back at World Beat after the COVID-19 pandemic paused the annual festival.

The Salem-based nonprofit has been involved with the annual celebration since the start, said Paola Sumoza Maciel, COO and co-founder of Casa de la Cultura Tlanese. The group is nervous but excited to be back and show their hard work, she said.

World Beat is celebrating its 25th anniversary and will feature more than 70 nations and cultures through music, vendors and food. The festival at 200 Water Street NE is 5-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5.

Maciel is glad to see how much the festival has grown. It’s a growth she hopes to see for Casa de la Cultura Tlanese as well.

The cultural organization is celebrating its 17th year of teaching and showcasing traditional Mexican dances and music.

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Maciel started the organization in hopes of teaching younger people about their traditions. She joined a dance group while attending North Salem High School and her passion for dance grew from there. “It’s a sense of identity. It’s a sense of expressing my culture, my roots and telling them where we come from,” Maciel said.

She has two children, ages 10 and 7. It’s important to have them understand their culture, she said.

“I want them when they go [to Mexico] to not feel foreign to their own culture,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like ‘I don’t know if I'm from here or from there.’ I want them to know ‘I’m from both places. And these are my roots from both places.'"

Anyone from the community and anyone who is interested in Mexican culture is encouraged to join,” Neftaly Sumoza said. He himself began dancing at the age of 3. Sumoza described the organization as a family business. Maciel is his sister and most of the other board members are also related.

The group performed alongside another group, INDUS, on Friday but will also have dancers perform Saturday afternoon. The youngest dancer is under 10 and the oldest is over 60.

Estrella Moreno Garcia and Mitzi Gonzalez, both 15, were preparing backstage to join the advanced dancers group on stage Friday night. Both joined Casa de la Cultura Tlanese nearly five years ago. Neighbors and close friends, Moreno Garcia’s mom signed them both up.

Gonzalez said the group has become a second family.

“It brings out my emotions,” Gonzalez said about performing.

Both described feeling closer to their culture through learning traditional dances.

Maciel hopes the community will continue to support World Beat and organizations like hers.

“Without the support of the community, it doesn’t have a sense of meaning,” she said.