About the Program
Artistic expression is fundamental to the ancient Jewish practice of creating community while living in diaspora. On the eve of LA’s traditional Latino independence day celebrations, the Skirball invites adults and kids alike to spend an afternoon and evening in its oasis, making new, cross-cultural friends as you enjoy Latino music, attend dance workshops, participate in panel conversations, taste traditional Latin bites, and visit our museum exhibitions.

Performers
Mexican-American singer-songwriter Renee Goust seeks to make historically underrepresented groups visible in Mexican music. Her songs “La cumbia feminazi” and “Querida muerte (No nos maten)” are well-established gender equality hymns in Latin America. Her music has been praised by Billboard, Rolling Stone, and El País. Goust has also performed at renowned venues like El Zócalo in Mexico City, Lincoln Center and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Vivir Quintana is a Mexican singer-songwriter known for her powerful voice and socially charged lyrics that blend folk, regional, and ranchera music. Her song “Canción sin miedo” has become a global feminist anthem, and she collaborates with organizations advocating for human rights. Quintana’s music has appeared in films and series like Mujeres Asesinas (2024), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and Noche de fuego (2021). In 2023, she was named a Spotify EQUAL Ambassador, and Forbes México recognized her as one of the 100 most creative Mexicans. In 2024, the Recording Academy named her one of its Leading Ladies of Entertainment.

La Verdad is the West Coast’s premier Latin music ensemble and they truly live up to their name. La Verdad is a collective of world-class musicians embodying the truth of the Los Angeles Latino experience. Collectively led by award-winning singer-songwriter Gabriel Gonzalez (Quetzal, Boogaloo Assassins), they boast a traditional and original repertoire that spans the scope of Latin American route music, including salsa, cha-cha, boogaloo, funk, cumbia, Latin soul, and more.

Panelists and Workshop Leaders
CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company that champions compassion, confidence, and joy by creating communities where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents. The company creates a new physical, visual, and sonic vocabulary that collages salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance with theater, compelling text, and original music to bring dynamic multi-modal experiences to the concert stage.

​​Martha Gonzalez is a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies at Scripps/Claremont College. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Gonzalez has received various fellowships including a Fulbright Garcia-Robles, Ford Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and USA Fellowship, as well as the MacArthur Fellowship in 2022. Her academic interests have been fueled by her own musicianship as a singer/songwriter and percussionist for GRAMMY Award-winning band Quetzal. Gonzalez’s first manuscript Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles was published by the University of Texas Press in 2020 and translated into the Spanish Language in 2024 by Interpec.

​​Emilio Morales is the founder, publisher, and art/editorial director of La Banda Elástica. A Mexico City native, he’s lost count of the years he’s lived in Los Angeles. Under his direction, LBE has won several awards for design and content. Morales is the creator and executive producer of LBE Radio and the popular YouTube series Hecho en Casa, in which bands and solo artists perform sets in his living room studio. In another life, he was a graphic designer for the Los Angeles Times and a guitarist and songwriter for various LA rock bands.