Who: Miguel de Alonso of Bend is an artist and musician from Mexico whose musical knowledge ranges from Latin America to the Middle East. This weekend, he’ll perform at a Peña Cultural, a gathering in which artists and the public interact and celebrate artistic expression, being hosted by At Liberty Arts Collective housed in the Liberty Theater.

The event also features Northern California fine artist Alejandro Salazar, whose selected works are on exhibit there through Feb. 28. Also on hand will be poet Alberto Moreno. When not inking verse, Moreno serves as the chair for the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs and executive director of the Oregon Latino Health Coalition. Finally, dancer Xeina Ccallo, who hails from the highlands of Peru and now attends school in Bend, will round out the event.

“At Liberty is thrilled to bring the tradition of a Peña Cultural to Bend,” Jenny Green, a partner in At Liberty, said in the press release announcing Saturday’s event. “Highlighting the artistic contributions of the many Latino Americans living in the United States while helping raise funds for and increase awareness of the Latino Community Association of Central Oregon is a great honor for At Liberty and we hope a gift to our community.”

Admission is free, with donations to the Latino Community Association suggested, and starts at 4 p.m. Saturday at At Liberty, 849 NW Wall St., in downtown Bend. Contact: atlibertyarts.com.

Q: How did you become involved in the event?

A: Jenny Green had this ongoing exposition with Alejandro, but he had in mind to do something more, like expand and have one day for Latino arts. So she reached out to me and the Latino Community Association trying to put something together. I’ve been helping to make connections with people and define the program. For that, we are using this concept of the Latino Peña. “Peña” is a Hispanic word. I don’t really know how the word came to have a cultural meaning, but it is something we use a lot in Spain and all of Latin America to denote a group of people that get together to share their knowledge about specifics. So maybe bullfighting … or football. Not scholars, like academic scholars, but people who really know what they are talking about. From there, it became a social gathering. That’s what we are trying to imitate. A social gathering when you have artists, mainly musicians and poets, but also painters or actors. They sit in close contact with the people. That’s the idea, that you can interact with them in an informal setting and have questions (answered).

Q: Who do you hope will show up at this event?

A: I know Alejandro, the painter, is very interested in attracting the Latinos here in the area. I don’t think (that) will be very successful because many of them work (on Saturdays) … so Saturday afternoon they will be working, and I don’t think we will have many Latinos. But we are trying, through the Latino Community Association, to engage them. I think in Bend there is a huge community of bilingual people, or not even bilingual, but they support a lot the Latino Community Association, and they’re sympathetic with this culture. … And then there’s the people that usually come to the events at the At Liberty Arts. So I have no idea (laughs).

Q: Is there anything else that you would like people to know?

A: Yes. We are going to try and have a discussion about identity and the role that the arts plays on trying to explore this topic. Identity’s a complex topic that involves both an intellectual comprehension of that, but also a more artistic vision of how human beings are formed by a multilayer of identities, if you want. We are going to try to explore these from the music point of view, from the arts and also from poetry in an open discussion with us and using art examples that we will have there.

Q: Do you think you’ll do more of these down the line?

A: We were very lucky with Jenny trying to have this. She has put a lot of time, effort, resources, money for this to happen. It would be a dream to have more of these … maybe twice a year, or at least once a year. I don’t know if that will become a good partnership for the future, but I will certainly support any initiative like this.

— David Jasper, The Bulletin