The Birth & Formation
      Maestros Del Folklor Mexicano was born of a legacy which started in 1920's Oakland, CA.  Although the MDFM was officially formed by Artistic Director Erika Marie Lopez  in October of 2004, our roots run deep; it's conception and formation began in 1911 when Dominga Velasco's mother brought the remainder of her family to the USA due to civil unrest in Mexico.  Dominguita's passion to enrich others and to unify Mexicanos through their culture began  in 1920 when she and her family relocated from El Paso, Texas to Oakland, California.  In a Post from Sunday, June 27, 2004, Laura Counts from the Oakland Tribune wrote, "As a young woman, Velasco remembers organizing a a pageant of Mexican dance and music to show off her culture.  That became a long life passion and she organized and danced in numerous cultural events over the years". "Velasco is now considered to be a great-grandmother of Latino activism in Oakland" (Counts, 2004).  Through her efforts she has brought to light an appreciation of our culture and ignited her passion in others to explore their culture but most of all she ignited and became the center stone of a family legacy which has been passed down for four generations.  In particular she ignited a passion in the heart of her grandaughter, then, Josephine Montoya.
         Josie was born and raised in Oakland, California.  She stayed and watched as tne neighborhood would come and gather to talk about community events in Dominga's restaurants.  Dominguita began to take Josie for dance training in San Francisco with Graciela Tapia, a former dancer with Amalia Hernandez.  She began to teach ballet folklorico, while attending San Jose State, with the alum rock union school district in a project to educate Chicanos and Mexicanos of their roots as an intervention to stop the violence between these groups.  Once she married and became Josephine Lopez she relocated with her family to Hatward, California.  Here, community leaders heard of her background and asked if she could begin teaching for community events.  What began as a small community event for St. Clements church grew to a teaching career with the hayward unified school district and ended with her own company Ballet Folkllorico Alegria del Bahia.  The same passion which started with Dominguita was ignited within her granddaughter who then passed the passion of culture and dance to her own daughter Erika Marie Lopez.    
          Erika Marie Lopez was born in Oakland, California.  She heard the music of the Mariachi and the rythmic pounding of zapateados as a baby in her mother's ballet folklorico classes.  At the age of three Josie decided to enroll Erika in one of her classes at St. Clements in hayward, Erika was born into the culture and was fed the life that is dance.  Although Erika was also enrolled in ballet classes with the Oakland ballet and studied many other genres of dance, Ballet folklorico was kept at the center of her dance training and passion.  At the age of thirteen Josie felt that her daughter was ready to begin teaching and there is where the passion was ignited to educate others of the appreciation and the love of this beautiful art form.  Erika began her teaching career with Ballet Folklorico Alegria de la Bahia and a few years later with the Union City Unified School District.  She then took a hiatus from teaching to strictly pursue performance and took classes with such Professors such as Rafael Zamarripa and advised by such persons such as Elena Robles.  She performed with Companies such as Alika de Nayar, Los Lupenos, and Ballet Folklorico Mexicano.   About a few years later she began to teach as well as choreograph within other dance companies and several school districts throughout the bay area until the official formation of Maestros del Folklor Mexicano where she is the Artistic Director and her mother Josephine is the General Director along with her father Adrian Lopez.  Erika Marie Lopez, great grand daughter of Dominguita Velasco, has taken this legacy and created an organization with a philosophy, a belief to nurture all styles of expression for Mexican Folk Movement and bring it forth to the public.           
(Clockwise from top right) Dominguita, Josie, Rosemarie (dominguita's daughter) and Dominguita's mother all sitting at the Enchilida.
Dominga "Dominguita" Velasco