The Los Cabos municipal government will hold its annual Ethnic and Afro-Mexican Cultural Encounter on April 16 at 5 p.m. in Plaza León Cota Collins in downtown Cabo San Lucas. The free Cabo San Lucas cultural event will feature wind band performances, chinelos dancers, a photographic exhibition, and food and art vendors from indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities across the municipality.
Leonardo Jiménez Castrejón, head of the Municipal Institute for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Affairs, announced the event as a space for celebrating the cultural diversity within Los Cabos. Communities will share traditions, music, dance, cuisine, and art. Entry is free and open to the public.
Mexico Recognized Afro-Mexican Identity Only in 2020
Mexico’s 2020 national census was the first to include Afro-Mexican as a category for self-identification. That census, conducted by INEGI (Mexico’s national statistics agency), counted roughly 2.6 million people who identified as Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant. That figure represented about 2% of the national population. The constitutional reform that formally recognized Afro-Mexican communities as part of the national composition passed in August 2019, making Mexico one of the last Latin American countries to do so.
Baja California Sur has its own, lesser-known Afro-Mexican roots. During the colonial period, enslaved Africans were brought to the peninsula to work in pearl diving and mining operations. The town of El Triunfo, about 45 kilometers north of San José del Cabo, was a silver mining hub where African-descended laborers formed part of the workforce in the 18th and 19th centuries. Over generations, these communities blended with indigenous and mestizo populations, but cultural markers persisted in regional music, food, and oral traditions.
The indigenous population in Los Cabos grew sharply over the past three decades, driven largely by migration from mainland Mexico. Workers from Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chiapas relocated to the resort corridor seeking jobs in construction, hospitality, and domestic service. The 2020 census recorded over 25,000 indigenous language speakers in Baja California Sur, with Mixtec, Zapotec, and Náhuatl among the most common. Many of these speakers settled in colonias on the outskirts of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, forming tight-knit community networks that maintain ties to their home states.
A 15-Year-Old Cabo San Lucas Cultural Event With Growing Reach
This year marks the event’s continuation under a format the municipality has maintained since at least 2012. The Municipal Institute for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Affairs coordinates the gathering annually alongside ICA, the state’s culture and arts institute. The event takes place at Plaza León Cota Collins, a public square in central Cabo San Lucas near the intersection of Boulevard Lázaro Cárdenas and Calle Zaragoza.
The chinelos performance is one of the event’s signature draws. Chinelos are masked dancers from the Morelos and Tlaxcala traditions who perform during Carnival and cultural festivals. Their tall, plumed headdresses and flowing velvet robes are among the most recognizable folk dance costumes in Mexico. Seeing them in Cabo San Lucas, thousands of kilometers from their region of origin, reflects how migration has transplanted mainland traditions to the peninsula.
Wind band music, or banda de viento, is another centerpiece. These brass and percussion ensembles are rooted in Oaxacan and Guerrero traditions. In Los Cabos, bandas de viento play at community celebrations, quinceañeras, and patron saint festivals in working-class neighborhoods. The April 16 event brings these performances into a public downtown setting.
The photographic exhibition will display portraits of indigenous and Afro-Mexican residents of the municipality. Previous editions of the event have used this format to document community members and their cultural practices, creating a visual record that counters the resort imagery typically associated with Los Cabos.
Free Entry at Plaza León Cota Collins Starting at 5 P.M.
The event begins at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16. Plaza León Cota Collins sits in the walkable downtown core of Cabo San Lucas. Food vendors will sell traditional dishes from participating indigenous communities, and artisans will offer handmade crafts and artwork for purchase. No tickets or registration are required.
For residents who have lived in Los Cabos for years without encountering these communities’ traditions, the event offers a concrete point of contact. The colonias where indigenous and Afro-Mexican families live, such as Santa Rosa, Las Palmas, and Caribe Bajo, are often invisible to the tourism economy. This gathering brings those communities into the civic center.
The next edition of the event is expected in April 2027, pending municipal planning. This story was reported by the Los Cabos municipal government website.