by the El Reportero’s news services
Mariachi
UNESCO has officially awarded recognition to Mexican mariachi music as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at a ceremony held over the weekend as part of the 19th International Mariachi Meeting in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara.
Eight child musicians between 5 and 10 years old dressed in mariachi attire accepted the honor at a brief ceremony Sunday in the main square of Guadalajara.
The ceremony was a symbolic effort to encourage younger generations to keep the tradition alive, National Culture and Arts Council, or Conaculta, president Consuelo Saizar said.
“We simply ask you to conserve and preserve this legacy and its traditions,” Saizar told the children.
At the initiative of the Jalisco government, mariachi music was added to UNESCO’S Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the unanimous decision of a committee of experts meeting on the island of Bali.
The award established the guidelines for creating a national committee of experts and government officials who will define the strategies to follow in order to safeguard this music and ensure its dissemination around the world.
Also inaugurated were a library, a Mariachi Academy that will give courses, and an audio collection with 140 musical compositions and 50,000 miscellaneous recordings starting in the year 1910.
Jalisco state was also declared a World Heritage Site in 2001 for its agave landscape and ancient industrial facilities of tequila.
Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno releases new album
Singer-songwriter, Gaby Moreno releases her new album, Postales, (Postcards) her first album entirely in Spanish on Sept. 4. The album will be released in the U.S., Mexico, and Latin America under the label Metamorfosis.
Gaby Moreno has already been praised by international media from her previous albums plus live performances all over the U.S. and Europe.
Gaby Moreno nabbed attention from Latin TríoAmerica while being featured in a duet with latin pop star, Ricardo Arjona in his latest single, Fuiste Tu. Her previous albums took her on an extensive tour around the United States, Canada and Europe and has given her solid recognition as an artist and musician and has been awarded with several international awards throughout her career.
‘Lost’ Alum Jorge García to make appearance on ‘Once Upon a Time’
Widely known for his role on Lost, Jorge García is reportedly headed to fantasy land with the upcoming season of ABC’s Once Upon a Time.
García’s former Lost co-star, Emilie de Ravin, is also on the show and was recently promoted to season regular in the role of Belle from “Beauty and the Beast”.
Once Upon a Time is a fantasy-drama created by Tron: Legacy and Lost writers, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis.
The show centers around a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where she soon learns magic and fairy tales may be real.
Though it has been confirmed García will make an appearance on the show, it remains unclear what character he will play. So far, it appears he will only be in one episode. However, de Ravin’s role was extended, so García’s could see the same.
The second season of Once Upon a Time premieres Sunday, Sept. 30 at 8/7c.
For six seasons, García played Hugo “Hurley” Reyes on Lost, before it came to an end in 2010.
In 2011, García picked up a recurring role on Fox’s Alcatraz, a mid-season replacement for Terra Nova. The show premiered in January of this year. However, despite initially success, the series was ultimately cancelled on May 9, 2012 due to a drop in viewership.
