In just one week, on Friday, September 14th, the curtain rises on La Luna Nueva, Portland’s unique Latino cultural festival!  In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, La Luna Nueva (the new moon) brings you a myriad of artistic voices representing the spectrum of Latino experience from all parts of the world….

Here at Milagro, there’s all sorts of activity buzzing about as we gear up for 16 nights, plus a few days, of performance.  Every day brings a new show (and on our opening weekend we bring you FLAMENCO twice!) and each new show brings a whole new set of variables: different lighting, sound, set, props… So, we’re setting up charts, testing equipment and asking a lot of questions.  Do we have enough chairs, microphones, spotlights? A screen for the video projection?  An Aztec Serpent-Jaguar headdress?  Two low tables?  Does the show have an intermission?  Can we plug 4 microphones into one sound mixer board and then run a cable from that one mixer board to a channel in our house mixer board?  What are the titles of the musicians’ cd’s?  Will we be keeping the café OPEN after some of the shows so that the audience and performers can meet and share a toast to the beauty of Latino art and culture…?

YES!

Except for the part about running one cable channeling four mics into the house mixer board.  Apparently this will fry the house mixer board.

And also, not all the programs will have an intermission.

But aside from that, truly ~ YES is the spirit of La Luna Nueva! Yes, we will present a brand new acrobatic work by Pelú Theatre. Yes, we can listen to 
el maestro Efrain Amador Piñero play medieval songs on the Spanish lute and hear their resonance in the Cuban tres.  Yes, Finland has granted permission for the reading of Maritza Nuñez’ play, La Niña de cera (The Wax Child) about Nobel prize winner poet, Gabriela Mistral, of Chile!

Tradition and innovation, music and dance, poetry and theatre… La Luna Nueva has something to reveal for all eyes…and is keeping the Milagro team on its toes!