While Día de Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, focuses on remembering friends and loved ones who have passed on, nonprofit organizations Eden Youth, La Familia and Peers are expanding this focus to include mental health awareness. Their upcoming event, “Cumbia in Hayward: Day of the Dead,” spotlights both the holiday and mental health resources.
Eden Youth advocates comprehensive care for under-resourced communities in South Hayward. Public relations manager Jose Carlos Montesinos says, “Last year, we were brainstorming new ways of how to develop this community and tie it back to mental health awareness. That’s when we thought of having a concert.”
Cumbia, a Latin American-based rhythmic music with influences from Indigenous and African peoples, was an immediate choice. Montesinos says, “For me, cumbia music is my childhood of waking up on a Saturday morning while the house is being cleaned. Cumbia has subtly persisted in popularity and is now becoming mainstream, which really inspired our idea.”
Eden Youth worked on three “Cumbia in Hayward” events in 2023. The first collaborated with Alameda County Behavioral Health’s Latinx Advisory Committee to secure funding for a free event at Veterans Memorial Hall. The second partnered with the City of Hayward as a fiscal sponsor for a People’s Budget Project held at the center in South Hayward. Their third was an annual fundraiser and ticketed affair. Attendees enjoyed dancing, fun family activities, food and a health and wellness resource fair. The latter has benefited not only the community but Eden Youth’s team of promotoras.
Promotoras are Latinx or Hispanic community members provided with training and professional development as frontline workers. Outreach manager Ignacio Neri-Mora began outreach work for the first time in the past year. He shares, “For us to be able to give our promotoras that specific training in their primary language, Spanish, is so important. They know how to engage with this community and gain their trust. They are the face of Eden Youth.”
With promotoras present at the upcoming event, community members can comfortably open up about mental health and grieving. Neri-Mora explains, “In our culture, once loved ones pass away we tend to bury emotions. Not many know how to cope. We want to support them by providing workshops with tools on how to handle grief.”
A promotoras summit will be hosted that morning at the venue, and the promotoras will attend that evening’s event. Montesinos says, “They aren’t expected to work that evening: instead they’re encouraged to enjoy the night while continuing their role as frontline community leaders.” The cumbia event will also feature a community altar, where attendees can place photos of their loved ones. Alongside these resources is another coping tool: music.
Discos Resaca is a cumbia collective of eight to ten members, with a Motown-esque sound, embodying past and modern influences. The collective has many artists, including the powerhouse Meza-Blanco sister vocalists known as Mariposas del Alma and Hip Hop Bay Area Hall of Fame rapper Deuce Eclipse.
Leader and accordion player of Discos Resaca, Ivan Flores, has witnessed firsthand the recent boom in the cumbia scene. He says, “The genre was not commercially viable in California or the U.S., for that matter, but now it’s being welcomed into the mainstream world.” This new demand for cumbia led to the group being featured on commercial radio and even having their songs picked up for movie placements.
Because the members have worked together for two decades, not only have they experienced success, but loss. Mariposas del Alma lost their mother upon joining Discos Resaca, Deuce Eclipse recently lost a close friend, and Flores lost his brother one year ago. Music can be vital in the healing process. Flores says, “A mother came up to us after our festival once, looking distraught, and told us she recently lost her child. Our song let her know that it was okay to grieve and validated her emotions.”
Participating in events like Cumbia in Hayward holds significance for Discos Resaca. Flores adds, “As artists, we feel a responsibility to make difficult things easier to digest through cumbia. We pride ourselves in our songwriting to share personal stories and pieces of our lives—some are happy, some are not, but we try to present it in a way that’s not daunting.”
Eden Youth hopes to receive more funding support from the City of Hayward so that Cumbia in Hayward can be entirely free moving forward. Montesinos says, “There is a big connection between healing and cumbia. I always say there are two types of happiness: surface-level happiness and happiness that makes your heart smile. We want the community to feel like they’re being taken care of.”
As for Neri-Mora, working with the promotoras has been an eye-opening experience. He says, “A community member recently received mentorship and now wants to attend our outreach summit to train as a promotora. I’m happy because I’ve made sure to give them that leverage, space and time to support our community.” With this determined team, Cumbia in Hayward is sure to bring joy to the community for years to come.
Cumbia in Hayward: Day of the Dead
Friday, Nov. 1
5pm – 10pm
Veterans Memorial Hall
22737 Main St, Hayward
