Anthony Victoria
For 9.19 KVCR News, I'm Anthony Victoria. This is IE Latino Voices, where we take a look at the people and issues shaping our region across the Inland Empire. Artists and musicians are creating spaces for communities to celebrate their identities and share common stories. In recent years, the Mucho Gusto Fest has helped provide a venue for that through its Art and Music Festival in Riverside. Today, I'm joined by Eddie Valencia to talk about Mucho Gusto and the importance of giving arts and culture in the Inland Empire a platform. Eddie, thanks so much for joining us today.
Eddie Valencia
Thank you for having me.
Anthony Victoria
This event brings together art, culture, and community in one space. For you, why is it important to create something like this for a community? And you know, what do you think it says about the community here in the Inland Empire?
Eddie Valencia
To me, what it says primarily about the IE community is that there's a lot of talent here: musicians, artists, DJs, culture creators, activists, artivists, tons. So I feel like Mucho Gusto was just a place to be able to celebrate it, rather than bring something, necessarily, it's like creating space for something.
Anthony Victoria
And this is important, considering that right now we're in arguably some difficult times. Latino communities are usually talked about in the news in terms of challenges and you know hardships. What does it mean to create something like this where our immigrant communities, Latino communities, could maybe have a sense of celebration or just a space to feel welcome?
Eddie Valencia
You know, I come from first-generation immigrant parents, immigrant siblings. I was born in San Bernardino, but with that being said, I don't disagree that there's tons of challenges within the Latino community. But we're not a monolith, right? We're diverse, really diverse. So, I wanted to celebrate the diversity of not just the Latino community, but of the IE. And I feel like joy sometimes is - we don't think about joy being something necessary, something important, something worth just like getting together for art and music and culture, a place for our kids to come together, intergenerational artists and people that like interesting musics. I feel like just creating a space for that, just for the joy of it, is super important. I know we have difficult times. The ICE raids have been tremendously impactful in our community. Really, just like a disgraceful act, I think, as a part of like the government. But I think that I would rather create a space for us to be able to come together.
Anthony Victoria
Yeah, absolutely. Want to step back a little bit and talk a little bit about yourself. I know before we started the interview, you were talking about your roots here. Can you share with our audiences sort of like where you come from and why you decided to invest in arts and music?
Eddie Valencia
I was born in San Bernardino Community Hospital. I went to Pacific High School. I grew up San Bernardino. In high school, starting shows, was playing drum set in punk bands, just like doing music, doing sports. Then I went to UC Riverside, where I got a degree in psychology and labor studies, but was playing music the entire time and became a DJ at KUCR Radio, the UC Riverside Radio Station. And through that entire experience, being a son of immigrant parents in an immigrant family, not necessarily bilingual household, todo in español, I don't want to say that I am catering towards like Latino community or anything with what I do. It's just like me representing who I am. But along the way of doing all that and throwing a bunch of shows and learning to DJ because of KUCR, getting exposed to different types of Latin musics - skipping a lot of details, Mucho Gusto is where I landed on as like a space for us to be able to listen to cool music that I would hear on tour and I wouldn't see in the IE. So I'm like, let me just create it. Since then, it became a music festival. Long story short.
Anthony Victoria
Absolutely. What can we expect this year?
Eddie Valencia
Well, it's not unlike the other years where they'll be piñata sculptures and different art sculptures, two stages, something like 14 bands. Something that's really cool to me about Mucho Gusto is that there's artists from San Bernardino on the stage, from Riverside on the stage, and they're on the same stage as international artists from like Colombia or Mexico City. And in many ways, it's just like, I want Riverside, I want the IE to be a part of this international conversation. That's like, oh, this festival is not putting the city on the map, but it's like a stop. It's important. So I think you can expect to hear diverse sounds, not just like your traditional sounds, but places where artists that come from traditions can actually do what they want with it, be weird about it, be eclectic, push the boundaries, and not necessarily feel like they have to be Latino or anything like that. Yeah, I have artists from Colombia, Mexico City coming, but they're playing completely different music, they have completely different backgrounds, yet they're both Latino, right? So it's all gonna be there. I'm just really proud that there's a lot of local talent on the stage because the IE's got something to say too.
Anthony Victoria
Absolutely, Eddie. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate you.
Eddie Valencia
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Anthony Victoria
Eddie Valencia is a musician and the founder of the Mucho Gusto Fest. Mucho Gusto Fest is taking place at North Park in the city of Riverside on Saturday, September 19. For more information, visit muchogustofest.com. Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcr.org/ielatinovoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by the generous support from the CIELO Fund at IECF. For KVCR News, I'm Anthony Victoria.
