La Onda Comes To SMA - music

La Onda (The Wave) was an artistic movement created in Mexico by artists and intellectuals as part of the worldwide waves of the counterculture of the late 1960s. The movement quickly grew and included all art forms, with its followers called "onderos", "macizos" or "hipitecas". La Onda encompassed artistic productions in the worlds of cinema, literature, visual arts and music, and strongly addressed social issues of the time such as women's rights, ecology, spirituality, artistic freedom, open drug use and democracy in a country tightly ruled by the PRI. According to Mexican intellectual Carlos Monsiváis, La Onda was "a new spirit, the repudiation of convention and prejudice, the creation of a new morality, the challenging of proper morals, the expansion of consciousness, the systematic revision and critique of the values offered by the West as sacred and perfect."

So now, in 2020, fifty years later, the spirit of La Onda lives on in San Miguel, in the form of a new music and art collective which honors the movement by taking its name : La Onda. In its upcoming San Miguel engagements, La Onda will electrify audiences with the revolutionary music of that historic period : Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc.. In the U.S the movement was referred to as the Woodstock Nation, in Mexico it was called La Onda. The original Woodstock Festival was actuall called a Music & Art Festival. Every performance of La Onda, in San Miguel, in December, intends to be a mini-Music and Art Festival, a Happening.

The core band features Poncho Medina on mindbending guitar, and vocals (think Carlos Santana meets Jimi Hendrix). And, in a rare local appearance, German Arroyo, of La Gusana Ciega fame, on drums, for the December 1, before leaving San Miguel to tour Mexico. In addition, there will be a select group of virtuoso San Miguel musicians joining the La Onda jam fests (names to be announced prior to each show). Live painting, performance poetry, and dancers, may also be included, as appropriate to the venue. The current schedule of shows includes Nov 29 at McCarthy's, Dec 1 at Dila's, Dec 4 at Don Lupe, Dec 6& 20 at Paprika. A minimum donation of 100 pesos is recommended, as the pandemic has left musicians with next to no income. In addition, because of the pandemic venues have very limited capacity, so make your reservations early if you want to insure you are admitted.

Rest assured, La Onda, and the host venues, will be taking ALL available preventative measures to prevent the spread of the Covid virus, including : mandatory masks, outdoor dining, indoor distancing and organic misting.