McALLEN — Cheers emanated from the grounds of the convention center here Friday evening to the rousing sounds of horns, the pace of the guitarrón’s bass and the whimsical melody reverberating from the strings plucked from violins as the mariachis’ vocals vibrated in the atmosphere.
There was music in the air, and excitement. There was also a mixture of a savory and sugary aroma that filled the night sky, where you could see a little girl hoisted up on her dad’s shoulders as the two swayed to the music, in concert with festival-goers celebrating life, love and culture.
Revelers applauded the Sharyland High School mariachi band during the third day of MXLAN’s five-day run in McAllen this weekend, when the street parade where they performed also made room for the McAllen High marching band, and dancers wearing traditional Yucatan dresses affixed baskets of crosses and flowers atop their heads as they shuffled and danced through the crowd.
To describe these events as merely being festive would not do justice to the high school performers and those who attended the event, which according to organizers may hit as many as 81,000 in attendance before the show concludes Sunday.
If those expectations stand, then tens of thousands of people would have walked through the entrance of the McAllen Convention Center and felt as though they were transported to Old Mexico, with symbols of the old world greeting them on their way in.
Rows of families and friends gathered along the street at Oval Park, Oaxacan artist Irving Cano drew attention to the mural he was painting displaying vibrant colors depicted in a festive portrait, a mercado held inside the convention center featured vendors from Mexico selling items such as jewelry not so easily found on this side of the border, clashes of music from Latin rock to mariachi to EDM resonated from the grounds, and everywhere you looked plumes of pink, purple, blue and yellow colored the night.
It was Mexico in McAllen, and Laura Ramirez, 49, a native of Tampico, Mexico, loved every minute of it.
Ramirez attended the event as a vendor and saw MXLAN as an opportunity to represent her hometown through handcrafted tejidos artesanales with traditional designs from Chiapas and Oaxaca.
“It is important to make our Mexican culture stand out as well as the work of indignous people, whose work is very laborious and is often not valued,” Ramirez said. “It is handmade work made with materials from Mexico that makes the Mexican culture stand out.”
Carmen O’Caña, 49, a native of Mission was one of the many admirers of these handcrafted products. As she walked down the aisles of the artisan market it was as though she was revisiting memories from her childhood.
“It brings back the memories of growing up in Mexico. I’m wearing a headband that is handmade, I bought a little necklace with jarritos on it so all of it is just related to how I grew up and the memories of the toys I had when I was little, so I make sure I come out and buy jewelry that reminds me of that,” O’Caña said.
For O’Caña, MXLAN provided her the opportunity to find items that are only found in deeper parts of Mexico that brought a sense of authenticity with each item she purchased.
Vendors from various parts of Mexico such as Oaxaca attended the event where they displayed handmade shoes, shirts, dresses and jewelry embroidered with colorful flowers. O’Caña was especially impressed by the rebozos, a shawl-like garment that included more than just bright colors.
“There is so many different colors and designs …. there is a lady that sells a rebozo and takes the time to sow in feathers so it added to the design and adds to the whole look of the item,” O’Caña said, smiling in admiration of the precision and charm of the items, and expressing such enthusiasm about her finds that she wanted to rush to an ATM to get more money to buy as much as she could.
