Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival celebrates Day of the Dead, November 1
La Llorona is an evening of puppetry, music, dance, and a Mexican folk tale
The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival presents La Llorona at the Carnegie Community Centre Theatre on November 1 at 7 pm
THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE Heart of the City Festival is celebrating Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) this year by telling the story of La Malinche. The Mexican icon was an intelligent and multilingual exiled Aztec woman who was enslaved before serving as a guide and interpreter for Hernán Cortés during the Spanish-Aztec War from 1519 to 1521. She then became Cortés’s mistress.
Directed by Gerardo Avila, the event called La Llorona features the singing of the Mexican folk song of the same name about a “weeping woman” who, according to legend, can be heard at night wandering the streets wailing, “¡Ay, mis hijos, mis hijos!” or “Oh, my children, my children!” She had killed her kids and was condemned to cry forever looking for them.
Taking part are puppeteers Hazel Bell-Koski and Dana Wilson, storyteller Steven Schwable, and Calle Verde, which performs traditionally inspired flamenco dance and music infused with jazz, Latin, and pop elements.
Gail Johnson is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.
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