Mexilachian y Appalachiano Music and Dance
Charlottesville, VA
Photo courtesy of artist
Lua Project is a Charlottesville-based ensemble led by Mexican-American vocalist, songwriter, dancer, and cultural organizer Estela Díaz Knott. Raised in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley by a mother from Chihuahua, Mexico, and a father whose family has lived in the region for generations, Estela explores the cultural and musical crossroads of her family heritage. The ensemble describes this evolving musical tradition as “Appalachiano.”
Lua Project’s Mellon Foundation-supported recording, Los Appalachianos, brings Appalachian fiddle traditions into conversation with Mexican regional styles, Colombian puya, Andean huayno, and other musical traditions connected through the Atlantic Basin. Developed from oral histories collected with immigrant families in the Shenandoah Valley, the project transforms stories of migration, family, work, and belonging into original songs.
Dance is an essential part of Lua Project’s musical language. Estela draws on Appalachian and Latin American percussive traditions—including Mexican zapateado and Peruvian zapateo, Appalachian clogging, and sean-nós dance—to explore the rhythmic relationships between cultures. Her feet become another percussion instrument, creating an energetic conversation with the ensemble’s fiddle, bass, jarana, requinto, accordion, and percussion.
The group’s ongoing Los Appalachianos project has expanded into Mapping Music, Mapping Memory: The Los Appalachianos Interactive Digital Experience, a Virginia Humanities-supported multimedia Story Map project exploring the histories and stories behind the songs. Lua Project is also part of the Virginia Commission for the Arts touring roster.
For this Virginia Folklife Area performance, Estela is joined by Lua Project core members David Berzonsky, Luna Berzonsky, Christen Hubbard, and Matty Metcalfe, along with special guests, the sean-nós dancer Fiona Balestrieri and baile folklorico dancer Liz Castellanos. Together they create dynamic, beautiful music and dance that celebrates Appalachia as an evolving cultural landscape—one shaped by many histories, many traditions, and the people who continue to make it their own.