From Agriculture to Dance: Indigenous Mesoamerican Culture in Marion County

Farmworkers, most of them from Mexico and Central America, are vital to Oregon’s economy. They harvest the berries, grapes, cherries, onions, hops, and potatoes that are mainstays of agriculture in our state. Many Mexicans began coming to Oregon from the 1940s onward as part of the U.S. government’s Bracero Program, which was an agricultural guest worker program. Originally started to help bring in harvests during WWII, the program continued into the 1960s, assisting many Mexican families in developing ties throughout the Southwest and West Coast of the United States.

After the bracero program ended, many families continued to come to the United States, and some began settling in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. From the 1960s onward, Latinos in Oregon have created their own community festivals, programs, and non-profits to support and further their goals. The Woodburn Fiesta Mexicana, one of the big Latino festivals in the state, started in 1963 and has continued to grow, bringing thousands of people to Woodburn to celebrate Mexican culture. When it began, Woodburn had just over 3,000 people, which in the 2020s has swelled to 26,000. At this point, more than 60% of the inhabitants of Woodburn identify as Hispanic or Latino.

Anahuac Farm in Turner

The Capaces Leadership Institute is an essential non-profit organization in Woodburn, providing “educational and leadership development programming to over 2,500 Latin/e/o/a/x, immigrant, Indigena, Afrodescendiente, and farmworker children, youth, adults, and elders in rural and urban communities of the Mid-Willamette Valley (Marion, Polk, Yamhill). This region is home to over 120,000 people from our communities (approximately 20% of Oregon’s total Latino population).” Along with the Oregon Farmworkers’ Movement, Capaces has helped lead the fundraising to buy the land for the Anahuac Farm.

Located just southwest of Salem, in Turner, Oregon, the Anahuac Farm, purchased in 2022, is a certified organic farm and community gathering site for people of all ages to learn about the traditions and knowledge of Indigenous peoples in Mexico. Anahuac means Mesoamerican, or relating to the people of Mexico, Central America, and the Southwestern United States. As they write, “Our mission is to support our community of Indigenous peoples of America to reclaim our ancestral culture, traditions, knowledge and values and restore sacred relationships with all life and Mother Earth for generations to come.” The Anahuac Farm is a working farm, and people are invited to volunteer to help harvest during different moments in the year when different crops are ripe. This ties into the value of Tequitl, a Nahuatl word meaning to work for the benefit of the community. 

In addition to being a farm, Anahuac Farm offers classes and workshops in Indigenous agriculture, cooking, cultural traditions, and Indigenous languages. Within the agricultural traditions of the farm, there is a focus on the milpa, the trinity of maize, beans, and squash that sustained Mesoamerican people for thousands of years. The group at Anahuac also works in tandem with other Indigenous agricultural workers – they recently joined the group at the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde to help harvest tarweed, an important ancestral crop for people native to the Willamette Valley.

Anahuac also offers periodic community herb distributions, so that people have access to culturally important herbs and medicines they are unable to grow themselves and have trouble finding in stores. Summer programs, called “Semillas del Futuro” or “Seeds of the Future” at Anahuac, are designed for teenagers in the community. This past summer, students explored Indigenous textile traditions and dances, taught by members of the Anahuac community, and visited the Chachalu Tribal Cultural Center on the Grande Ronde Reservation.

Community Dance Groups Celebrate Aztec Culture

Woodburn is also home to the Grupo Ritual Azteca Huitzilopochtli, a community dance group “dedicated to teaching Indigenous Aztec culture and traditions through dance, music and the arts.” Participants of all ages learn traditional Aztec dances, and the group performs regularly throughout the region, from outdoor festivals to formal performances at performing arts theaters. “Most presentations include music, quick introductions to Nahuatl (indigenous language), dancing, and interactive teaching with the audience.” All of the performances feature live music, including multiple drums, rattles, and flutes.

The group runs an after-school program for elementary school children at Washington Elementary in Woodburn. As part of a collaboration between the school district and Huitzilopochtli, students in Kindergarten through fifth grade can stay after school and learn about Indigenous instruments and dancing from the instructors at Huitzilopochtli. Students perform regularly during the year for parents and classmates. The regular members of Huitzilopochtli practice at the school gym weekly for their many performances. Although not in Marion County, Huehca Omeyocan is another small Aztec dance group, located in McMinnville. The presence of both groups shows the increasing interest in learning and preserving Indigenous Mesoamerican dances for the communities in which they exist.

The Anahuac Farm and the Aztec dance groups demonstrate the growing interest among Latino people in the Willamette Valley in reconnecting with their Indigenous traditions. Even though they identify as Mexican, or Guatemalan, or El Salvadoran, these immigrants and their children also identify as Indigenous, and want to explore more fully what that means. Attending a dance performance or helping at the community harvest is a great way to learn more about these ancient traditions and cultures.