New downtown San Jose event celebrates Latin American art, culture

Editor’s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school students who report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.

For some people, art is pointless paintings and lines. For the Latin American community, however art is an important way to represent their culture.

One of the best examples of this was seen at the Wepa Fest in downtown San Jose. On June 13, dozens of community members, artists, musicians and small business owners gathered to celebrate Puerto Rican and Caribbean culture, music, art and food.

Wepa is a Spanish expression used to describe excitement or happiness. The free event was organized by two downtown San Jose arts organizations, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) and San Jose Jazz.

MACLA explores Chicano and Latino history through performing and visual arts. MACLA’s mission is to make Latinx artists, culture and community visible through art.

Leyla Carleo, executive assistant at MACLA, said the organization wants to fulfill its mission by hosting big events like Wepa. She said it is important to highlight the Latin American community, especially since its members are facing a lot of discrimination and hard times.

“What we like to do is bring our Latin American community together,” Carleo said. “It is essential for people to be more connected when the tensions are high. Our culture brings a lot of joy and passion.”

Chicano and Latinx communities are known for using art to express themselves. In light of this, MACLA offered different types of performances at Wepa that explored those communities.

“Chicano” refers to people of Mexican descent who were born in the United States, while “Latinx” is a gender-neutral term used to describe Latin Americans.

Natalia Torres, a staff member at MACLA, said the goal of the organization is to spread creativity and a love of art.

“We want people to see our space and get artists the recognition they deserve,” she said. “We want to show art to the people.”

Music is also essential in Latin American culture, and many musical groups participated in the Wepa event. One of these was Latin Rhythm Boys, an energetic band formed by brothers Earl and Henry Miranda Jr.

“My favorite part of the event is seeing the community happy and everyone excited to have a good time,” Earl said.

Augie Dones, a Puerto Rican artist known for his clothing brand Definition, sold his art at the Wepa festival. Dones said his art, as well the event, is a way to connect with his culture and city.

“I’ve been to a lot of art shows,” he said. “I used to paint live at festivals. Wepa has some great art shows … just all communities. This is my heritage, this is my town.”

A woman who goes by Mama Rocs and owns a Puerto-Rican and Caribbean catering business of the same name praised MACLA and the festival.

“It’s my culture, and most of the time the representation is Mexican or Salvadoran,” she said. “But this is a space for our Latino American community and I love the music, the representation. This is awesome. We should expand this to our other Latino American communities.”

MACLA member Erika Palafox Reyes said the organization wants to make Latin artists more recognizable and to make the community feel more together.

“We don’t have a lot of spaces that represent our Latino artists. We just want to create a space for our local and both emerging and established artists.” she said.“We provide these events to connect our communities and it is just so important.”

Irma Gallo, a Wepa Fest attendee, said she enjoyed the event.

“Everyone comes together, everything in general is amazing,” Gallo said. “We are a strong community.”

Angelique Alvarez Martinez is a member of the class of 2026 at San Jose High School.