After a year off, Chiringa returns Thursday for Lifting Up Latinx Night, a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Silver Moon Brewing.

For many years, Chiringa has been one of Bend’s best-loved bands, thanks to their vibrant brand of Latin-flavored pop, rock and dance music. More than a few memorable local parties have been soundtracked by vocalist/guitarist Shireen Amini and her crew.

For the past year or so, however, things have been quiet in the Chiringa camp, for a variety of reasons. That quiet will end Thursday, when the band emerges to play Lifting Up Latinx Night, a Cinco de Mayo celebration. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Vámonos Outside, a local group that aims to connect, engage and inspire Latinx families and community into the outdoors.

Fans of the band and dance aficionados in general should be there, because there’s no telling when another Chiringa show will materialize in Central Oregon. And those who attend will hear a mix of classic and modern Latin covers, selections from the band’s “Familia” album,” a few traditional Mexican songs and some unreleased originals, according to Amini.

GO! magazine recently caught up with Amini to talk about Chiringa and celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Here’s an excerpt of that conversation, edited for space and clarity.

GO!: It’s been a year since Chiringa played a show. What have you all been up to?

Shireen Amini: I have been focused on the release of my new solo album “Break Myself Free,” touring the album and road-tripping, and transitioning to my new home in Portland. The pandemic has posed many challenges in all this, but a solo venture was an important shift in orientation for me to grow as an artist in new ways.

My bandmates have formed new projects like a Django-inspired jazz quartet called Swing 44 and a jazz rhythm collective. Some bandmates have just been surviving, so they’ve had to take a break from music except for maybe memorizing the “Encanto” soundtrack with kids. A couple of us have continued to teach music online and in-person. (Chiringa’s lineup includes Amini, vocalist Heather Fossmo, drummer Matthew Williams, percussionist Johnny Riordan-Oak, Tom Freedman on bass/trumpet and Jon Harnum on keyboards/trumpet.)

GO!: Why come back now?

SA: Well, considering the band was on standby while I was focusing on my other project, it was a matter of when I finally had the capacity to refocus some energy on Chiringa. Things were settling down in my world and Cinco de Mayo has historically been one of our biggest shows of the year. It felt like a ritualistic and worthy occasion to get us together to play again.

GO!: After a yearlong break from the band, has your perspective on Chiringa and its place in the world changed at all? If so, how so?

SA: Actually, it has. In some ways, I’ve had to do a lot of reckoning with the way Chiringa, a band with a Latin identity, operates in a white-dominant culture, what aspects of it are accomplishing something meaningful and what aspects are stagnating amidst a lot of cultural unrest and racial awakening in this country. And at the same time, I see the incredible value we offer by simply bringing joy. This is a vital and fundamental role we get to play in people’s lives. It’s hard to argue with joy.

GO!: As noted on the event page on the Silver Moon website, celebrating Cinco de Mayo is complicated. Acknowledging all of that, why should people come to the show?

SA: Thank you for asking this question! First and foremost, people should come because we are doing our best to not ignore the complicated reality of this holiday but rather educate and model a new way of holding it well. This is partly why we are calling this Lifting Up Latinx Night, because while Cinco has often been exploited and even been an occasion to disrespect Mexican culture, the truth is it also has been a moment to celebrate Latinx culture in the U.S. We literally formed as a band for a Cinco de Mayo event back in 2012 and neither myself nor any of my bandmates are Mexican. I am Puerto Rican, however, and having my position be one that can facilitate solidarity in the Latinx community has felt important.

That all said, it’s hard to celebrate when a people is still largely oppressed in this country. So we are raising funds for a local organization called Vámonos Outside. If supporting our Latinx community, an opportunity to celebrate respectfully and getting a good dose of joy isn’t enough, people should come because I now live in Portland and a Chiringa show in Bend will become a rare occasion, not to be missed!

What: Chiringa at Lifting Up Latinx Night, with DJ Jah Yogi playing an all-Latin playlist

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Silver Moon Brewing, 24 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend

Cost: $15 (a portion of proceeds will be donated to Vámonos Outside)

Contact: silvermoonbrewing.com.