The first Latin American Folklore Festival was held at Exchange Place on Sunday. According to the promotional material, representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru will participate in showcasing their culture through food, music, performances, crafts and clothing.
I found the well intentioned event a tad lackluster, but it was the first one so it might be a case of having to crawl before you can walk. It wasn’t very well attended. There were only a couple of tables of any sort of knick knacks from South & Central America. This Folklore Festival needs more Folk Art!
The oppressive Katyan Massacre memorial at Exchange Place tends to dampen any Fiesta Atmosphere. It is appropriate to memorialize this awful war crime, where in 1940, 21,768 Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war were murdered by the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police; but good lord, this metal dying soldier with a bayonet sticking out of his back is gruesome. The sculpture tries for heartbreak but ends up horrific. Not only is it huge, scary and creepy, but the location—centralized in Jersey City’s Financial District, juxtaposed against the grandeur of the Manhattan Skyline—is damn unsettling. However, maybe this violent image is indirectly fitting for this piece of Jersey City real estate. On February 25, 1643, The Director General of New Amsterdam, Willem Kieft, ordered soldiers to go across the Hudson to what is now Exchange Place where they killed 120 Native Americans from the Leni Lennape tribe in their sleep, including women and children. In the days after 9-11, Exchange Place was a major staging ground and I went there often, watching the thick columns of smoke billow up from where the Twin Towers used to be while waiting for the survivors that were never found. I don’t avoid Exchange Place, but I admit I don’t like it very much.
I did have fun. The food was good. There were tables with Pork—they roasted the whole pig and had Porky’s cooked head on display—as well as chicken, corn, beans, and tamales. I had a Bolivian Empanada, a dumpling food item with pork, peas and corn encased in fried corn meal flour. Delicious!
Maybe the representatives from other nations arrived after I left, but during my time there in the early afternoon, there was a Bolivian-Centric feel to the activities. The event was co-sponsored by the Centro de Residente Bolivianos en New Jersey. A Bolivian mariachi band kicked it on stage for a bit. They were a rousing bunch. Very sweet young girls wore colorful traditional Bolivian garb. Everyone was friendly. The Festival was the first public appearance of Miss Bolivia New Jersey 2009-2010, Adriana Marañon. Her beauty and smile went a long way in making the inaugural Latin American Folklore Festival memorable.
I found the well intentioned event a tad lackluster, but it was the first one so it might be a case of having to crawl before you can walk. It wasn’t very well attended. There were only a couple of tables of any sort of knick knacks from South & Central America. This Folklore Festival needs more Folk Art!
The oppressive Katyan Massacre memorial at Exchange Place tends to dampen any Fiesta Atmosphere. It is appropriate to memorialize this awful war crime, where in 1940, 21,768 Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war were murdered by the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police; but good lord, this metal dying soldier with a bayonet sticking out of his back is gruesome. The sculpture tries for heartbreak but ends up horrific. Not only is it huge, scary and creepy, but the location—centralized in Jersey City’s Financial District, juxtaposed against the grandeur of the Manhattan Skyline—is damn unsettling. However, maybe this violent image is indirectly fitting for this piece of Jersey City real estate. On February 25, 1643, The Director General of New Amsterdam, Willem Kieft, ordered soldiers to go across the Hudson to what is now Exchange Place where they killed 120 Native Americans from the Leni Lennape tribe in their sleep, including women and children. In the days after 9-11, Exchange Place was a major staging ground and I went there often, watching the thick columns of smoke billow up from where the Twin Towers used to be while waiting for the survivors that were never found. I don’t avoid Exchange Place, but I admit I don’t like it very much.
I did have fun. The food was good. There were tables with Pork—they roasted the whole pig and had Porky’s cooked head on display—as well as chicken, corn, beans, and tamales. I had a Bolivian Empanada, a dumpling food item with pork, peas and corn encased in fried corn meal flour. Delicious!
Maybe the representatives from other nations arrived after I left, but during my time there in the early afternoon, there was a Bolivian-Centric feel to the activities. The event was co-sponsored by the Centro de Residente Bolivianos en New Jersey. A Bolivian mariachi band kicked it on stage for a bit. They were a rousing bunch. Very sweet young girls wore colorful traditional Bolivian garb. Everyone was friendly. The Festival was the first public appearance of Miss Bolivia New Jersey 2009-2010, Adriana Marañon. Her beauty and smile went a long way in making the inaugural Latin American Folklore Festival memorable.
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