The traditions of Veracruz have long moved through ports, rivers, and roads—geographies shaped by circulation and exchange. In California’s Central Valley, this movement continues not only through migration but through music, dance, and collaborative cultural practice. Here, Veracruz is not remembered from afar but reimagined in community gatherings, workshops, and performances where improvisation, resistance, and joy take center stage.

At the heart of this story is son jarocho, a participatory musical form from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Built on call-and-response lyrics, percussive dancing on a tarima, and stringed instruments—like the jarana, requinto, and leona—son jarocho is both expressive and communal. In son jarocho, music, dance, and song are inseparable—inviting improvisation, dialogue, and presence in settings rooted in social connection, cultural memory, and collective rhythm.

In the Central Valley, this form has become a cultural meeting ground for artists, educators, and families seeking to reconnect with ancestral knowledge while addressing the realities of migrant life. Los Fresnanitos, a collective based in Fresno, exemplifies this creative resurgence. Formed by artists and educators from diverse disciplines—including painting, folkloric dance, science, and poetry—the group engages son jarocho as living heritage music able to express social consciousness. For them, son is a form of cultural work: it opens space for improvisation, inquiry, and cross-generational exchange.  

The fandango, the social context of son jarocho, involves circles of learning and affirmation, where children, elders, and newcomers are all invited to participate. On the tarima—the wooden platform that transforms dance into percussion—footwork becomes storytelling, and collective movement becomes a way of knowing. In these moments, tradition is not re-enacted but re-formed.

One of the group’s members, Xóchitl Morales, embodies this fusion of tradition and transformation. A multi-instrumentalist, educator, and poet, Morales grew up in a family of mariachi musicians with roots in Veracruz. Their creative work bridges multiple traditions—mariachi, son jarocho, spoken word, and experimental composition—to reflect on labor, identity, and justice in the Cental Valley. As both a performer and a teacher, she carries forward her family’s legacy while carving out new forms of expression that speak to their generation and community.

Through rhythm and resonance, through teaching and collective authorship, Veracruz traditions in the Central Valley remind us that culture survives because people gather, sing, dance, teach, and keep showing up—with instruments in hand and verses on their tongues. In this way, son jarocho becomes a way to belong, reflect, and imagine something better together.