A Grammy-nominated Latina singer will perform at three locations around Santa Barbara County this weekend.
Perla Batalla and her band will be performing this weekend as part of ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara!; it’s a series of performances meant to celebrate the “rich cultural history of Latin America,” according to their website.
She will be playing traditional and contemporary Latin American songs tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
Batalla said these concerts are more than just music; they’re about underserved Latino communities “really having an appreciation for their own culture, music and language, which is Spanish.”
Batalla has been performing for Santa Barbara’s Latino communities for years, singing at schools and other venues.
She said she loves giving many of these kids their very first concert experience and hopes to inspire them to take pride in their heritage.
“I do a lot of bilingual communicating with these kids, and they leave pretty excited about who they are,” Batalla said.
On Sunday, Batalla will also be joined by a special guest: Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara’s first Chicana Poet Laureate.
“We're going to do a collaboration, where I sing a song and then she'll do a poem, sort of as a love letter to Santa Barbara,” Batalla said.
The concert series is a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center and other local organizations.
“The community's doing something nice for these families and saying, ‘Come to this concert for free, and just let your hair down and maybe dance and sing along,” Batalla said. “People are just really grateful.”
You can catch Batalla’s performance tonight at 7 pm at Isla Vista School, tomorrow at Guadalupe City Hall at 7 pm, and Sunday at 6 pm at Santa Barbara’s Marjorie Luke Theatre.
For more details about the ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! concerts happening this weekend, you can visit artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.
