Pablo Aslan to Perform at Arts Festival

The Lubbock Arts Alliance will welcome jazz-tango musician

Pablo Aslan to the 45th Annual Lubbock Arts Festival on Sunday, April 16, 2023, at 2 p.m., at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theatre, 1501 Mac Davis Lane. Argentine-born musician and producer Pablo Aslan is recognized internationally as one of the leading figures in contemporary tango. He performs as leader of his own ensembles, Pablo Aslan Trio, Avantango and Mashish, and with a variety of artists and ensembles.

His discography includes Piaz- zolla in Brooklyn (2011), and Tango Grill (2009). The latter earned him nominations for a Latin Grammy and a Grammy award. The album Contrabajo (2018) features him as a bass soloist accompanied by a string quartet in an eclectic and personal mix of Latin American music.

He is an active researcher and educator and has produced programs for Lincoln Center Institute, Carnegie Hall, and Arts Connection. Tickets are $15 and available from SelectASeatLubbock.com, 806-770-2000.

Benito Juárez Day Observed March 21st

Annually in Mexico, the nation celebrates Benito Juárez's birthday on March 21st.

Juárez was an important Mexican liberal during the time of the U.S.-Mexican War, and emerged as one of the nation’s most important figures in the Nineteenth Century. A Zapotec Indian from Oaxaca, Juárez was born into a peasant family in 1806. By 1831, Juárez was a lawyer and an active liberal politician at the city and state level. When Valentín Gomez Farias became president of Mexico in 1846, Juárez went to Congress and supported a wave of liberal reforms designed to bolster Mexico’s efforts in the U.S.-Mexican War, but that eventually failed and triggered a conservative revolt.

As the war wound down, Juárez returned to Oaxaca as governor, advocated a protracted guerilla war against the United States, opposed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and refused to grant General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna asylum when his government collapsed. In 1853, the dictator returned to exact his revenge, and Juárez fled to New Orleans.

He returned to Mexico in 1855, and became the nation’s president two years later. From 1857 to 1872, Juárez successfully defended his government against Conservative opponents in the War of the Reform, and defended his nation against the French-back monarchists under Emperor Maximillian I. He emerged as one of the truly great men of Mexican history, and died in office from a heart attack in 1872.