La Peña del SurCo

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La Pena Del Surco

When

6 – 8 p.m., Nov. 14, 2025

Where

A Latin American Folk Music Gathering featuring El SurCo and Grupo Arizona.

RSVP here.

All Ages/All Welcome! Free Event! ADA Accessible

A peña is an informal Latin American folk music gathering. Peñas are found in different forms across Latin America. Peñas are more participatory than a normal concert in that usually more than one musical group performs, group singing often occurs, and frequently community members are invited to share a song informally as part of the event. By design Peñas are intended to be inclusive community events open to music lovers of all ages.

La Peña del SurCo is a cultural initiative led by ethnomusicologist and arts and health researcher Dr. Jennie Gubner and her Argentine/Chilean folk music trio El SurCo. Gubner’s current research interests involve leveraging intercultural participatory music practices to foster and strengthen age-friendly and intergenerational healthy communities. La Peña del SurCo seeks to celebrate folk music traditions from Argentina, Chile and across Latin America while building community through intimate, acoustic, and participatory musical practices. Bottles of water will be provided and Che Cafe Empanadas will be selling Argentine Empanadas! You are also welcome to bring your own drinks!

El SurCo is a musical collective that blends guitars, violin, charango, bombo, and vocal harmonies to bring to life chacareras, cuecas, chamamés, gatos, and other popular and folk stringed music traditions from Argentina, Chile, and surrounding regions. The word surco means groove in Spanish, and references the furrows where seeds are planted in agricultural fields. A musical term with a rural subtext that speaks to the landscape where many of these styles emerged and continue to thrive, El SurCo (or The Southern Collective) transport their listeners into the diverse and vibrant musical ecosystems of the Southern tip of the Americas. El SurCo is composed of Maxi Larrea (guitar, vocals, bombo), Jennie Gubner (violin, vocals, bombo), and Andres Pantoja (guitar, charango, bombo, vocals).

This month, la Peña del SurCo is partnering with the Pima Council on Aging (PCOA) for a special evening of music making and storytelling celebrating cultural heritage as a form of family legacy.
 
Join El SurCo, Tradiciones & other members of our community as we honor the traditions we inherit and pass down across generations and reflect on the value of family cultural heritage in caregiving and in staying connected to those we love.
 
As part of the event, Dr. Gabriela Ocádiz is building a community ofrenda to honor loved ones who have passed. We invite everyone to contribute by bringing photos, flowers, or small mementos of those they wish to remember. Together, we’ll create a shared space of reflection and celebration.
 
Want to add a photo to the ofrenda but can't print it? Email it to Sydney Streightiff (sstreightiff@arizona.edu) by Wednesday, November 12 at 6:00 PM