Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy

Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center is committed to the instruction, performance, and production of Mexican American arts. Housed for the past decade in a modest, soon to be expanded storefront in a strip shopping center in San Pablo’s immigrant community, the organization reaches more than 20,000 people per year and provides music and dance classes in traditional and popular Mexican genres to 200 children and young people. Los Cenzontles also researches, performs, and records Mexican roots music and hosts community cultural events. The organization’s dual goals are preservation of cultural tradition and promotion of the Mexican aesthetic within the realm of world music and Americana. It works with traditional artists as well as popular musicians such as Taj Mahal, David Hidalgo, and Linda Ronstadt to meld together new hybrid sounds that reflect and expand upon the traditional Mexican musical heritage.