Tlalli Festival aims to showcase Indigenous communities of the Americas in Hamilton
CBC
Quique Escamilla remembers the tired faces of 14 Mexican migrant workers, a decade ago, as they returned one Sunday evening after a long day of work at a farm in Leamington, Ont.
"I saw them coming into the house, beat up," Escamilla told CBC Hamilton. He had an idea.
Escamilla started playing El Rey by Jose Alfredo Jimenez, a very well-known ranchera song in Latin America. The exhaustion on their faces vanished, and cries of joy quickly filled the air in the small house.
"That's the joy of the music," said Escamilla.
This was the first of many times he performed for a group of migrant workers, planting the seed for what would become the Tlalli Festival.
Escamilla's festival is a celebration of Indigenous cultures of the Americas with music, dancing, food, and more.
The festival will take place on Saturday at Plan B Organic Farms in Hamilton starting at 11 a.m.
Tlalli means Earth in Nahuatl, the Indigenous language of the Aztecs.
"I wouldn't call it Earth. I wouldn't call it Tierra [Earth in Spanish] because then we're still using colonizing [languages]," said Escamilla.
He chose Nahuatl over other Indigenous languages to honour the origin of the festival: Mexican migrant workers.
"I was being purposeful about connecting it to the language that these folks' ancestors, that worked the domestication of those products they're picking up today, spoke," he said.
The Aztecs and other Indigenous cultures of what is today South America are responsible for the domestication of many vegetables commonly used in modern cuisine, like tomatoes, potatoes, and corn.
As part of the festival's goal to honour the Earth, Escamilla has a zero-waste approach at serving food and running the event.
The festival is focused on showcasing Indigenous cultures from the Americas.
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This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
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