Chuy MartinezDue to illness on the original date, The Silver City Museum has rescheduled AN AMERICAN DIALOGUE: Latin American Ballads, Cumbia, and Nueva Canción. Musician and folklorist Chuy Martinez will give a live musical performance and talk about the history of some important (and catchy!) Latin music genres in the Silver City Museum Courtyard, 302 West Broadway Street on Thursday, May 17 at noon.

Chuy Martinez has performed and spoken all over New Mexico. The program he is sharing with us is about the rich, decades-long exchange musical ideas between the Americas: the ballad, from Spain and Mexico; the cumbia, of Caribbean African and Indian roots; and nueva cancion (new song), a music of social struggle influenced by U.S. labor and protest songs.
 
Martinez puts the songs and rhythms in historical context, but they also have personal context. Martinez learned to play guitar while working as a migrant farmworker in California, a job he started at age 12, fleeing an abusive foster home. He joined the United Farm Workers Union at 16, working rallies in many states as an organizer and musician. Today, outside of his musical life, Martinez lives in Albuquerque and works as Old Town manager/curator for Albuquerque's Cultural Services Department/Community Events. He is also well-known as the host of Lo Maduro de la Cultura, a popular public-access TV show on the arts.
 
This program is funded by the New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is open to the public and you are invited to bring your brown bag lunch along. The presentation is free, though a $5 donation is suggested, to support further museum activities.
 
The Silver City Museum creates opportunities for residents and visitors to explore, understand, and celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of southwestern New Mexico by collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting the region's unique history. For more information, please contact the museum at (575) 538-5921, info@silvercitymuseum.org, or go to the museum's website. www.silvercitymuseum.org.