I adore latin music. As a professional musician, I play flamenco guitar, and love styles of music from the Iberian peninsula. I also love music from South America and the Caribbean, and I play some of that, too. Much of the music I listen to has Spanish or Portuguese lyrics. You could say that I’m a total latin music and culture geek.

As such, I always particularly look forward to the music (and of course, the food) at latin festivals and events. Some culture is an added bonus. My wife and I attended the Syracuse Latino Festival last Saturday. I was immediately struck by a couple things.

One was how great the band was. It was playing son, which is a traditional style that I’ve never seen in our area before. It’s like a salsa band, but with the guitar-like tres instead of a piano. A real treat! The next thing that struck me was that people were just standing there, motionless, with faces ranging from blank to almost sullen. True, a few people were enthusiastically dancing to this highly energetic music, but it looked as though over 95 percent of the audience was pretty bored. I also had the feeling, odd in such a big crowd, that I was invading a private party.

I recalled a previous Latino Festival, where killer salsa and merengue bands followed each other in succession. Absolutely exciting, top professional caliber, and we couldn’t sit still, yet people just stood there as if asleep. Totally amazing.

The other thing is that although this is billed as a Latin Festival, it seems like, well, exclusively a Boricua/Puerto Rico festival. I’m delighted that my Boricuan friends have their own festival, the music and food are great. But I can’t help missing seeing representation from other countries. I suppose it depends on how you define “latin”. Even if you’re just talking about Latin America, that’s a huge area with a LOT of countries, whose cuisine, culture, and music I would want to enjoy. For instance, there’s gigantic Mexico with their own highly advanced cuisines and musics, and of course there’s enormous Brazil, which has tremendous musical culture, and where they speak Portuguese. And if you include Europe, you have the very significant traditions of Spain and Portugal. And many, many more.

It’s possible that Puerto Rico is the only country with significant numbers in the area, and that would explain much of it. But I know that there are many people in town from the Dominican Republic, and it wouldn’t hurt to see more of their culture too. I saw in the news that there were some events put on by people of other countries, but I didn’t see any of it. Why not just call it the Puerto Rican Festival? I daresay that’s what it really is, and that’s what Rochester already calls their festival.

Maybe there are politics at work. If they’re getting funding based on the fest being diverse and inclusive, my naming suggestion obviously won’t work. Also, I’m always surprised at the animosity that many Latin Americans, including my friends, feel towards other Latin Americans. I really shouldn’t be – disliking people of other countries is a time-honored tradition – but the common language may have given me the naive impression that Latin-Americans have more in common than they actually do.

Next year, despite the prospect of even more phenomenal music, I’m sorry to say that I think we’ll sit it out. It feels weird walking in on someone’s private party, no matter how large it is. Despite my misgivings, I wish them the best.