
Martha Gonzalez, associate professor of Chicanx-Latinx studies, and her Grammy Award-winning band, Quetzal, were in Mission Local. Quetzal has helped keep the son jarocho musical traditionwhich involves complex footwork, call and response, and topical commentaryalive in Los Angeles. A lot of people see opportunities to quickly be on stage, sometimes even before theyre ready, in my opinion, Gonzalez says. Thats a misrepresentation of how important this music is and what it means. Its meant to connect people to this practice in the context of a community.