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Italian Oral History Institute Los Angeles, California
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I.O.H.I. Italian Oral History Institute

An archive of Italian life in California, built from people's own words.

Past program

Essential Salento

A festival of the culture of the Salento region of Apulia, presented in Los Angeles from the eighteenth to the twenty third of October 1998.

The program

The far south of Italy, brought to Los Angeles

Salento is the heel of Italy, a region of olive groves, dry stone walls and a musical tradition with a strong and unmistakable pulse. Essential Salento gathered its music, dance, food and craft into a festival that ran for several days in Los Angeles.

The program was presented under the auspices of the Consul General of Italy, with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Province of Lecce, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Bringing a regional culture and its institutions together in this way allowed audiences to meet the place, not only its music.

What audiences met

  • Concerts of traditional Salentine music
  • Dance and movement rooted in local ritual
  • Food and the produce of the region
  • Conversation with visiting artists and scholars

Continuing connections

The festival began a relationship with Salentine musicians and researchers that continued in later Institute programs and recordings. Field material connected with the region joined the archive, where it can be studied alongside the traditions of Italians in California.