The Texas Folklore Society, a partner of Tarleton State University, is celebrating the publication of Fiestas in Laredo: Matachines, Quinceañeras, and George Washington's Birthday by Norma E. Cantú. 
Told from an insider’s perspective and blending memoir, ethnography, and folkloristic analysis, Cantú continues decades of scholarship on the Texas-Mexico Borderlands in Fiestas in Laredo. In this book, Cantú embodies the dual roles of a trained academic and a community scholar, providing a depth of knowledge about Laredo that would be nearly impossible for an outsider to achieve.
This book examines three distinct forms of fiesta as they take place in the border city: Cantú first discusses Laredo’s Matachines troupe, who perform dances blending Spanish and Indigenous traditions as part of Catholic observances. Next she looks at quinceañeras, the coming-of-age tradition observed by Latino and Latin American families for a girl’s fifteenth birthday. Finally she examines Laredo’s celebration of George Washington’s birthday—a month-long celebration with a distinct Borderlands flavor.
Cantú’s concept of sentipensante (thinking/feeling) folkloristics—drawing on the concept of sentipensante pedagogy developed Laura Rendón—allows for the blending of intellectual knowledge with the emotional component of lived experience. Her analysis is heavily influenced by Gloria Anzaldúa and her concept of nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaning “a quality of being in between.”
Fiestas in Laredo builds on the Texas Folklore Society’s long tradition of documenting the lore of the Texas-Mexico border—a tradition that dates to our very first publication in 1916, which features a variation of the corrido “Adelita” collected in Laredo. This latest TFS extra book is a fitting continuation of a legacy begun more than one hundred years ago.
Norma E. Cantú is the Murchison Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Trinity University, a lifetime member of the Texas Folklore Society, and a past president of the American Folklore Society. She was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and raised in Laredo in Webb County, Texas, and attended public schools there. She is the author of Cabañuelas, and editor (with Olga Nájera-Ramírez) of Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change, and (with Olga Nájera-Ramírez and Brenda Romero) Dancing across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos.