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Good evening, everyone. Good evening.
Hi. Welcome.
Hello.
Hi, everybody. My name is Kabir Sehgal.
I'm the executive producer of "Fandango at the Wall."
This is my mentor and colleague Arturo O'Farrill.
Everyone, Arturo O'Farrill.
And this is Jorge Francisco Castillo.
Jorge is the inspiration for Fandango Fronterizo,
and its founder.
This project has taken us
to the US-Mexico border
and beyond to Veracruz, Mexico,
where we met the incredible son jarocho artists
who you will see tonight.
We recorded an album with them
and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra in Tijuana
at the Fandango Fronterizo.
And now for the first time,
we're bringing that fandango here to New York.
Arturo O'Farrill: Chico and Lupe are my mother and father
My father was a famous Afro-Cuban jazz composer.
Considered one of the architects
of Afro-Cuban Jazz.
We, had, um...
a big ceremony
when they unveiled the street sign
and we planned this concert
at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.
And we had Wyn Marsalis and Paquito D'Rivera,
and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.
We had, like, a sound system and a whole stage,
and it rained like crazy.
My mother was, uh,
brought to Nuevo Laredo, Texas, at the age of 12 to sing,
and she just kind of
was a child Mexican singer and, um...
From her I got this real sense of justice.
I got this real sense of what ought to be
and what is not right.
And this is kind of what happened
when I came upon this article,
uh, about Jorge Francisco Castillo
and about the whole concept of, um...
The whole concept of being an immigrant, being a Mexican.
Being...
a non...
Being not the member
of the dominant, uh, societal, uh, culture.
Arturo and I were having dinner together
and he said, "I came across this article in the newspaper."
So I said, "Let me see it." And I read it.
And it was about this, uh, festival
that happens at the border wall
between San Diego and Tijuana.
And all it said was there was this man
named Jorge Castillo
and he's a librarian.
And he puts on a festival called Fandango Fronterizo.
This is the wall that I came to visit
for the first time in 2007.
And I saw some families on the other side.
And I remember a little boy handed me a bottle of water.
And shaking my hand.
And I was totally shocked by that action and...
immediately to my mind came the possibility
of having a fandango in this place.
I ended up starting, just to call
all the local libraries in... in San Diego.
And I finally found Jorge.
And then I asked him whether he would like
to join Arturo and me at the border
between the United States and Mexico
to record a live album inspired by what he started.
-Welcome to Mexico. -Mexico.
México.
Welcome, everyone, to day number one
of "Fandango at the Wall."
This is an incredible project we're bringing together.
Probably 150 people to make a statement.
To make music, but really to, uh,
to dramatize what's going on in our countries.
To bring people and countries together.
We're doing something that's never been done before.
And we're doing something that we hope will draw
all of us together
in a way that, um, nothing like music can.
Bienvenidos. Welcome, everybody.
We're really honored to have all of you here.
Starting with Arturo and Kabir.
It's a real blessing
to have so many people in-- in Tijuana,
being part of the Fandango Fronterizo.
It's gonna be a great experience to play together
tomorrow at the-- at the wall.
And, uh, to be part of one family.
That's the whole idea.
I really... I'm really touched with this.
This is really amazing. It's very emotional.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, guys.
-Thank you.
Thank you.
It's 40 feet from here,
is the US border.
No wall's gonna stop us, man.
-No.
Down!
Next year, the demilitarized zone.
There's, like, 75,000 guns in Mexico
-that have been traced to America. -Yeah.
-So the drugs are going this way. -Right, and the guns...
And the money and guns coming this way.
-I know. -And it's like this loop.
A vicious loop of drugs, people, money, all tied up.
And the addictions are right here.
Arturo.
I walked up to the water
and I felt my mother's presence
on this project.
It's incredibly important to me
that people have been gathered
from every corner of the Earth to the border.
To New York. To Veracruz.
To San Diego. To Tijuana.
From Iran. From Iraq.
Uh, people who have never met
have gathered around this campfire
that we've built.
And I'm just really grateful that this is the way
my life's energy is being spent right now.
I think I'm a free soul,
that I like to travel, I like to meet people.
And that's how son jarocho came to me.
I was going through a divorce
at that time, in-- in my life.
So, uh...
I was kinda like at a stage
where I didn't know where I was going
with the music, with the...
Well, a lot of things were happening.
My kids were growing up,
they were leaving the house.
And then son jarocho came to me
and, and brought me all these friends and people
and all this community.
And I fell in love with this music.
I just felt like, uh, it-it held me in its arms.
And it was hugging me all the time.
Even though I was born in Texas
and then raised in Juarez, Mexico,
and being in California and then Tijuana,
and connect all this music and all this
through this movement of the Fandango.
It's been one of the best experiences in my life.
Jorge said to me, if you're gonna make an album
that features son jarocho music
you have to come to Veracruz and learn about this music
and meet the masters themselves.
So I said Arturo, "We're going to Veracruz."
Jacob was telling me...
that this is sacred magic land.
Exactly.
That little mystical creatures
called Pecheques or...
-Chaneques. -Chaneques.
And that this whole area is known
for mystical occurrences.
-Sí. -And so, you...
Yeah, you come here and you kinda feel that.
You feel that there is something in the Earth here.
There's something in the air here that is--
I think you have some Chaneques within you, Arturo.
-I think-- -Probably, we all do.
No, it's funny, now that I think of, at just this very moment,
I remember visiting my friend
in the University of Vermont.
And him giving me a whole rundown
of how the only place in Mexico
that really has Afro-Mexican music
is son jarocho in Veracruz.
And how the roots of son jarocho
and Afro-Mexican music is directly traced
to the, uh, the landing of slave ships here.
Don Andres is almost 90 years old,
and to me this, uh, icon.
He's one of the best son jarocho musicians.
-Sí, sí, sí.
Martha is one of today's
most accomplished dancers.
Or like we say in son jarocho, zapateado.
Dancing is very important for son jarocho
'cause that's your percussion.
The dancer is the drummer.
Oh!
Ohh!
Do you want me to go get it?
No, it's okay.
Arturo.
-La tierra.
Exactly.
Beautiful with the animals.
I just felt like I was in a...
not a postcard, but...
in a, like, a time capsule in a way.
Everyone in the kitchen yesterday making
-that best, amazing meal and those tortillas.
-Bro! What about those tortillas? -Oh, my God.
Those tortillas are, like, I don't know,
I can't get them out of my mind.
Bro, I don't think I'm ever...
Jorge, I don't think I'm ever gonna have a tortilla again.
Ever. Unless I come here.
How often do you come now?
-You come like every year? -Oh, I...
I come like two or three times a year now.
And-- and I love it. Uh, I love it.
Although I try to avoid the summer.
-Yeah.
Ramon Gutierrez is one of the best requinto players.
And requinto is the lead guitar of the son jarocho.
He likes to improvise a lot.
So, I think he will be perfect for this encounter
with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
at the Fandango Fronterizo.
The leona is the bass of son jarocho.
And Tacho is an accomplished leona player.
One of the best.
And Wendy is fantastic with the quijada,
a percussive instrument also known as the jawbone.
Patricio Hidalgo, one of the best musicians
in modern son jarocho
and at the same time he is like a mentor to me.
And he motivated me to be part of this music.
Fernando Guadarrama is a great poet.
In son jarocho, the decima is like a poem of ten lines.
Fernando will improvise.
Improvising on the spot is not easy.
And he is one of the best,
so I thought he will be a perfect match
for the Fandango Fronterizo.
One of the things I really like about the borderlands
is that people who grow up in the borderlands
grow up speaking two languages,
and America is one of the few places in the world
that if you speak one language,
you're considered well educated.
-No matter where you are. -Yeah.
That's true.
And so, when you talk about
the kinda world we're living in,
we're increasingly living together.
We can communicate with anyone online.
Being able to speak different languages.
We all come from kinda different...
We're kinda like hyphenated Americans, right?
I'm an Indian American.
You're a Mexican Irish American.
Jorge here, bi...
Bi-national, right? Mexican American.
And so being a hyphenated American,
I think is increasingly the future
because Hispanics are gonna be
the largest minority majority group in America,
if not they're... if they aren't already.
And it just...
the sooner you encounter people who are different from you,
it prepares you for the world.
Do you think that there should be no border wall?
Yeah, I-I think, uh...
There should be no wall?
There should be no wall.
Do you want the wall to go away?
I think it's a meaningless...
Your book states the statistics...
-Right. But-- -That... No.
Your book states the statistics
that most of the illegal immigration
is visa overstays.
It takes place through border points.
That most of the drugs go through border points.
The wall is ineffective.
It has been ineffective. It will...
If you can make it profitable to be peaceful,
that's the way to do it.
When you... When you...
When you have to rely on someone
to get a part of an automobile
or you're part of the supply chain, like...
That's good business, yeah.
You make it profitable to do work with each other.
In Atlanta, where I'm from,
blacks and whites do joint business deals together,
they bid on contracts.
When you work with someone, you don't wanna kill 'em.
You wanna make money together.
So I say, how do we make this borderland community?
How do we bring more industry there
and do cross-border factories?
-Cross-border commerce. -But--
Cross-border trade.
-But think about-- -Really across border.
But if it's... if it's equal
then-- then it'll work.
My story goes right to that matter
because I escaped...
Iraq in 1991
to Jordan with false travel document.
And, uh, crossing
another border to Syria,
to Damascus.
As an Iranian person, I've been in that situation.
But in my country,
I'm as a Baha'i, that I practice
another religion, not Muslim.
I wasn't able to go to university
for higher education after high school.
So I came to the United States to just have
um, I mean, better situation
for studying and introducing my culture.
You're saying we can only drive during the day?
We shouldn't drive at night?
-In this land? -Yeah.
Yeah, it-- unfortunately,
these days it has become very, very unsecure.
What's the worst that could happen?
Like someone stops us right now,
what would happen?
Well, you know,
we could be stopped at any moment.
And hopefully it doesn't happen.
Some guys could all of a sudden stop you
in the middle of the road with weapons
and ask you to get out of your car
and-- and either kidnap you,
take your belongings away
or-or even, you know,
worse comes to worse,
I mean, they can even...
disappear you.
I mean, unfortunately
that's the kind of, uh, situation
that is going on in-- in this area
and a lot of places in Mexico right now.
When I was talking to Patricio one day,
Patricio Hidalgo,
he mentioned one time,
you know, um, Fandango...
is the road of peace.
The road of peace in Veracruz.
I never been to a Fandango,
uh, either in Veracruz or Tijuana
or San Diego, LA, wherever.
There is never violence, so...
so it feels like-- like this Chaneques
that we were talking about
are protecting us all the time.
When you come here
oddly you don't feel, uh, sad.
You feel a spiritual sense.
And you feel empowered on the human spirit
because of how they've taken what was an abomination,
have turned it into
something of the human imagination and beauty.
One of the musicians yesterday
said something that was so heavy.
He said this wall is not dividing us,
it's uniting us.
How do you think, Arturo,
the music makes a difference?
I've been traveling as musician
since I was 17 or 18.
So I always considered myself a borderless person.
Yeah.
Japan, Germany, Korea, Russia.
So, you don't really think about the fact
that there's passports and borders and things.
You become accustomed to the idea
that you belong to all of this.
And this is just... This is an aberration.
The thing that's odd if you think about with, uh...
Ronald Reagan
who is considered the...
paragon of American conservatism
talking about "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,"
and giving that amazing speech in Berlin
about fighting for freedom,
and then you come to the US-Mexican border
and see an ugly barrier here
of just metal jagging up
and it kind of speaks against American democratic ideals
to be, I think, treating our-- our border zone in such a way.
-Sí, bueno, bueno, bueno.
This has been a reality for the last...
What, 50 years...
Fifty years.
Having this thing here, right here.
It needs to come down.
And this is gonna bring it down, eh.
Art, music, culture.
It goes right through.
Our music goes right through.
High pinky.
All: High pinky!
High pinky.
Wow!
Every time you do that, the wall shakes.
After Fandango Fronterizo,
we coined this phrase "The Fandango Doctrine,"
which is all about bringing the fandango
to different places around the world.
And we thought, what better place
than our hometown of New York?
Wee-hee!
Arturo!
You're welcome to dance.
Whoo!