The Fiesta de San Juan, celebrated annually by the Oaxacan migrant community in Arvin, California, is a living expression of Indigenous resilience and cultural survival. Rooted in traditions from San Juan Mixtepec and neighboring communities like Agua Blanca, this gathering honors San Juan Bautista while reaffirming ties of language, music, and identity across generations and geographies.

More than a religious celebration, the Fiesta serves as a vital act of community-making, where chilenas, brass bands, traditional foods, and Mixteco language revive ancestral lifeways displaced by migration. Music remains central: groups like Los Llaneros de Agua Blanca, led by Juan Martín and Pedro Ramírez, preserve the danceable rhythms of the chilena, while the Banda de la Juventud de la Región de la Montaña, under the leadership of Jesús Mateo and Rogelio Olivera, offer mañanitas in honor of the patron saint.

Community leaders like Victoriano Salazar and cultural advocates such as Natalia Bautista Chávez reflect on the meaning of these celebrations, emphasizing the importance of language preservation, intergenerational connection, and the ongoing work of sustaining Indigenous identity in diaspora. Their voices, alongside the music and traditions they nurture, reveal how the Fiesta de San Juan is not only a memory of home, but a continuing practice of cultural affirmation and collective hope in the San Joaquin Valley.