Hilos Culturales presents annual awards

Photo courtesy of Hilos Culturales Enrique Ortiz received the 2018 Premio Hilos Culturales Award. Photo courtesy of Hilos Culturales Val Sena, and his wife, Evageline, accept the 2018 Premio Hilos Culturales Award in Denver.

ALAMOSA – The 2018 Premio Hilos Culturales has recently been awarded to performing artists from Golden, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their combined contributions to the folklore of the Upper Río Grande Region include a family music tradition, violin music performances and instruction in regional southwest and mariachi music, liturgical choir membership and storytelling theater. Enrique “Henry” Ortiz, born in San José, NM, “with music in his heart,” a self-taught musician who could play any instrument, became a composer and director of the family band Henry Ortiz and the J-J's. A highly regarded musician with Santa Fe musical groups, Ortiz performed throughout the region with The Tornados, The Highlanders, Los Sueños and Trio Típiqueño, before forming his family band, Henry Ortiz and the J-J's. A twenty-year radio celebrity in Española and Santa Fe combined with ownership of KIVA Records in Santa Fe added to his career as a musical composer and recorder of over sixty lyrical songs and instrumentals. His signature recording, 'Valse de la Grama' helped launch the family band's popularity which has evolved into its third generation of musicians. The award presentation was held at the Casanova Restaurant in Pecos. Award recipient, Dr. Evangeline Roybal-Sena, Golden, is an Adams State University alumna. Her San Luis Valley roots led her to a career in education including teaching and school administration in Pueblo, Denver and Adams County Public School Districts. She was recognized as storyteller-folklorist. In 2005 she joined the Jeffco Spellbinders as a classroom storyteller, eventually leading to her development of a living history story impersonating María Josefa Jaramillo, the third wife of Kit Carson. Roybal-Sena has told the story in Chautauqua style at many venues throughout Colorado, including student scholarship fundraising events. The recipients of the Premio Hilos Culturales include Val Sena, also an alumnus of Adams State University who began playing violin in junior high school and continued playing periodically in high school and college. His involvement in church choirs (St. Catherine and St. Cajetan) in the Denver metro area led to his membership in Mariachi de Colores, under the direction of Dan Silva, and later joining Mariachi Alegre directed by Skelly García. Sena was instrumental in teaching violin for El Mariachi Juveníl at Bryant Webster Middle School in Denver, and offering music classes for the mariachi violin program at Adams City High School. In addition, he provided music/dance workshops at Centennial High School for Pueblo Public School teachers for Hilos Culturales initiatives, and was a musician at the Fort Garland Museum Fandango. Sena's musical presentations include the Albuquerque Mariachi Festival, the Air Force Academy and Adams State. The Colorado Premio Awards were presented to the Sena couple at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center in Denver.