Festival Sefardí has a history of music, poetry and culture

By Sara Atencio-Gonzales, The Paper. – Festival Sefardí will return May 21 through 24 with four days of music, scholarship, workshops and cultural reflection centered on the often overlooked history of Sephardic Jews in the Southwest.

Now in its 17th year, the annual festival organized by Casa Sefarad is the only event of its kind in New Mexico dedicated to celebrating the heritage and experiences of Sephardic Jews, many of whom trace their ancestry to Conversos and crypto-Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition and settled in the region centuries ago.

For organizer Hershel Weiss, the festival is about more than history. It is also about identity, community and understanding the cultural complexity that defines New Mexico.

“It’s important because we need to learn about each other’s cultures and celebrate them together in this land where so many cultures have met and clashed,” says Weiss. “I think we need to understand who we are and embrace the full complexity of ourselves.”

The roots of Sephardic culture in New Mexico date back to the late 16th century, when Jewish families fleeing persecution in Spain and Portugal arrived in the Americas. Many concealed their religious identity to escape violence and discrimination during the Inquisition. Their descendants – often referred to today as Conversos, Anusim, crypto-Jews or Hidden Jews – became woven into the cultural fabric of Northern New Mexico and the broader Southwest.

Weiss explains that preserving and acknowledging that history remains essential.

“It’s important that we not allow a culture to be erased by antisemitism or any culture to be erased by any kind of forms of domination and brutality,” says Weiss.

This year’s festival theme, “A Tapestry of New Mexico Identity,” reflects that emphasis on layered histories and multicultural expression. The weekend’s programming blends religious ceremony, live music, academic discussion, visual art and experiential workshops designed to encourage conversation and personal reflection.

Among the highlights is a performance by The Sephardic Borderlands Ensemble, whose music combines traditional Sephardic Jewish hymns with New Mexican and Borderlands rhythms and styles. The ensemble will perform during a Shavuot morning ceremony (marking a Jewish holiday which happens to fall between May 21 and 23 this year) and will later headline the festival’s closing concert.

“We have an amazing live band called The Sephardic Borderlands ensemble who will be playing live during a morning ceremony and singing the prayers in Hebrew in a musical flavor that is specific to this Borderlands region,” says Weiss.

Festival attendees can also expect lectures and panel discussions examining the intersections of race, caste, ancestry and belonging in New Mexico. Folklorist Enrique Lamadrid will present a lecture on the caste system and its contemporary impact, while Camilla Bustamante and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb will lead a discussion on diaspora and querencia (the Spanish concept of feeling “safe at home”).

The festival will also feature hands-on workshops focused on healing, storytelling and identity exploration. One workshop Weiss said he is particularly excited about is “Multitudes Within: An Embodied Inquiry Into the Paradox of Identity,” led by Evie Vigil and Blanca Stacy Villalobos of Song Dog Relations.

“It will be an experimental kind of situation where Evie Vigil and Blanca Stacy Villalobos are actually creating this workshop to enable people to explore and embrace all their identities,” says Weiss. “I like how kind of cutting edge that is.”

Other festival events include “Fragments of Ritual and Memory,” an art exhibition curated by Janelle Worthington Cardenas that explores the resilience and healing connected to conflicting Nuevo Mexicano ancestry. Visitors can also attend an interactive ritual performance featuring Spanish translations of Indigenous poets by Sandra Marroquín-Evans and Sarah Hogland-Gurulé, along with the first staged presentation of Ramón Flores’ play-in-progress The Merchants of Santa Fe, which examines the Inquisition in New Mexico.

Weiss says the festival intentionally leaves room for participants to process emotions and connect with one another throughout the weekend.

“We really want to build connections between people,” says Weiss. “We want it for people who may feel alone or maybe just discovering these identities, for them to have time to interact with each other.”

Although education is a major component of the festival, Weiss emphasizes that the event’s larger goal is unity and human connection.

“The goal is always unity among all people,” says Weiss. “I hope that they leave the festival with some personal connections.”

Weiss adds that Festival Sefardí offers something audiences are unlikely to find anywhere else.

“People should know they have a really incredible opportunity to have an experience that they’re not going to find anywhere else,” says Weiss.

Festival Sefardí 2026 runs May 21 through 24 at Congregation Nahalat Shalom (3606 Rio Grande Blvd NW). Tickets, schedules and registration information for workshops and events are available through the Festival Sefardí 2026 website. (nahalatshalom.org)