Storytelling our Latinx Community and the Fandango de Durham (2025-2026)

Background

Durham boasts a thriving community of Latinx artists, musicians, business owners and tradespeople. Yet so often, stories from the Latinx community (especially in the context of arts and culture) are overlooked. Creative projects within the local Latinx community like the Fandango de Durham festival that brings the Son Jarocho (a regional style of music and dance) tradition from Veracruz, Mexico to North Carolina, help to bring some of those stories into focus.

How can we recognize and celebrate the creative contributions of local Latinx communities? In what ways do music and dance help these communities maintain connections to their cultural roots while establishing themselves in North Carolina? Most importantly, how can sharing local Latinx stories help us understand the challenges and complexities of the larger society and culture?

Project Description

This project team seeks to document stories of the diasporic community from Veracruz, Mexico, living in Durham, North Carolina. Specifically, team members will explore stories of community members who are tradition bearers of Son Jarocho, a regional style of music and dance from southern Veracruz. The team will employ methods of oral history, public ethnomusicology, anthropology and folklore, and use strategies such as field interviews, fieldnotes, participant observation, collaborative storytelling and public event planning to learn and share these stories.

The project team’s work will be divided into two parts:

1. The Audio-Visual Archive: In Fall 2025, team members will build an audio-visual archive of oral histories with a focus on 6-8 community members from southern Veracruz. Team members will work with Iximche Media to hone their storytelling skills and create audio-visual content from interviews with community members. Through close engagement with these oral histories, the team will explore how Latinx communities use music, dance, food and other cultural practices to stay connected to their place of origin while also making North Carolina home.
2. The Fandango de Durham in collaboration with Son de Carolina: In Spring 2026, students will deepen their relationships with San Jarocho tradition and culture in the planning and production of the Fandango de Durham. Students will assist in seeking partnerships from local Latinx owned businesses, arranging day-of event logistics and planning interactive community activities during the festival. Through this collaboration, students will explore questions about how we work together to recognize and amplify the creative contributions of our local Latinx communities and how we can assess the value of Latinx arts and cultural events in our local community amidst an ever-changing social and political climate.

Students will conduct original research and will connect with existing community efforts and networks through their collaborations with Iximche Media, Son de Carolina and the planning of the Fandango de Durham.

Anticipated Outputs

Audio-visual archive of oral histories; short film for Duke/Durham communities; co-planning and production of the Fandango de Durham community festival; editorial or article

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will include 1 graduate student and 8-10 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds who are conversationally bilingual in English and Spanish and eager to connect with Latinx communities in Durham, including connecting their own experiences at Duke to the wider Durham community. Applicants should want to spend time in community spaces and share a common desire to understand storytelling in the Latinx community.

Students will learn about how regional traditions (e.g., music, dance, food, crafts) are maintained and reimagined through migration and how the Latinx community in the Triangle is working towards keeping particular traditions alive. Students will also have opportunities to develop Spanish-language communication skills throughout the year.

In collaborating with Iximche Media, students will learn techniques and strategies for documenting oral histories, conducting field interviews, analyzing and transcribing interviews and curating audio and visual materials for production. Through the collective organizing of the Fandango de Durham in the Spring, students will develop additional skills, including event planning and logistics, community outreach and small group teamwork. Students will also develop communication skills in seeking partnerships from local organizations and businesses.

In Fall 2025, the team will meet on Wednesdays from 1:30-2:50 p.m.

Timing

Fall 2025-Spring 2026

• Fall 2025: Meet with Iximche Media and Son de Carolina; identify community members with roots in southern Veracruz for interviews; create a set of questions for oral history interviews; complete interviews with community members; produce documentary
• Spring 2026: Attend Fandango workshops with Son de Carolina; organize the Fandango Festival; celebrate the Fandango de Durham; present short documentary to public

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semester

 

_{Image: Fandango de Durham poster from 2024}