La Canción del COVID - Carmencristina Moreno for ACTA

August 19, 2021

Some refer to singer/composer Carmencristina Moreno as the “first lady of Chicanx song.” This legendary performer and longtime resident of the San Joaquin Valley grew up performing with her parents, Luis and Carmen Moreno, known as the popular Dueto de Los Moreno in the 1940s. Canción ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico drawing on rural traditional music which dates before the years of the Mexican Revolution and became a symbol of Mexican national identity.

Carmencristina Moreno was awarded the highest national recognition for a traditional artist, the National Heritage Award by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2003 for her contributions as a Mexican American singer, composer and teacher.

Part of ACTAvando Contra COVID, a program of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA). ACTA produced new works in Spanish and Mixtec in music, poetry and theater by four beloved Latinx artists and ensembles in the San Joaquin Valley. These new pieces all animate public health messaging for the prevention of COVID-19 in the valley, a region which has experienced both high level of infection and low vaccination rates during the pandemic.

ACTA's program is one of 14 public art projects organized by the CA Governor's Office and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Listen to the original song "La Canción del COVID" here.

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