Fandango de Durham Connects Community, History and Tradition
On a spring weekend in April, the courtyard of the Ávila Center on the outskirts of Durham transforms into a living circle of music, memory and movement. Jarana-wielding musicians gather around a wooden platform, or tarima; dancers answer rhythm with rhythm in a style known as zapateado; and friends and families — some local, others traveling from across North Carolina and beyond — share food, stories and songs late into the night. This is Fandango de Durham, now in its fourth year and, for the first time, supported as a Duke Bass Connections project.
Founded in 2022 by Assistant Professor of Music Sophia Enriquez and Durham-based collaborators, Fandango de Durham centers son jarocho, a centuries-old Afro-Indigenous musical tradition from southern Veracruz, Mexico. What began as a grassroots cultural gathering has grown into a nationally recognized event, drawing participants from outside North Carolina each year while remaining deeply rooted in Durham’s Latino community.
Those ties are central to the project, which brought undergraduate students into the heart of the work. Rather than treating the fandango as a subject of study, students became organizers, researchers and collaborators. They conducted oral history interviews in Spanish, coordinated community outreach, managed logistics, supported local vendors and worked alongside longtime community leaders.
“All of our students are bilingual, and they’re not just learning techniques,” Enriquez explained. “They’re learning how to enter a community respectfully, how to listen, how to build trust. Those are skills they can’t fully develop in a traditional classroom.”
For students, the project offered rare, hands-on experience in bilingual research, ethical storytelling and community-engaged scholarship. Several seniors on the team will graduate having helped organize a major public event, conduct archival interviews and contribute to a professional documentary production — work that extends far beyond the classroom.
Senior Emely Arredondo (T’26) joined the Bass Connections project for her first and final year before graduation. With family roots in the Dominican Republic, she saw the project as both a personal and academic opportunity. “This work allowed me to uplift community voices through oral history and give back in a meaningful way before graduating,” she said.
That work culminates in a short documentary film, drawing on four years of footage and newly recorded oral histories from Durham residents with roots in Veracruz. Produced in collaboration with local partners Iximché Media, the film weaves together music, migration stories and everyday life filmed in kitchens, homes and community spaces.
“The oral histories are about taking up space,” Enriquez said. “They say: I’ve been here for decades. I’ve built a life. I’ve raised a family.
“Some people are surprised to find such a vibrant Latino cultural life here in Durham, and this project shows that North Carolina is not on the margins of these traditions — it’s part of a living, national network. These stories matter.”
The short film premiered at Fandango de Durham before the music began, screened for the very community members whose lives it documents. Students, families and visiting musicians watched together, then moved seamlessly into a community meal before the start of the fandango itself — a powerful moment where archive and living tradition met.
Beyond Duke, the impact is tangible across Durham. Local businesses and food vendors participate without fees, artisans sell their work, and multi-generational participants and audience members connect with cultural practices, some many may not have experienced since migrating. One community member in her late 70s, danced son jarocho for the first time in nearly 30 years after stepping onto the tarima at last year’s fandango.
“This is about using son jarocho as a tool to grow community,” Enriquez said. “It’s not about perfection. It’s about the fact that it’s happening — here, together.”
