From recreation programs to after-school sports, the Oswaldo A.B. Cantu Pan American Recreation Center and Neighborhood Park rarely goes quiet. But every Tuesday evening in July, the hillside springs to life with a rich tradition of multi-generational culture and community in the changing landscape of East Austin.
The park’s 67th annual Pan Am Summer Hillside Concert Series kicked off on July 8, serving as a long-standing symbolic showcase of music and culture for East Austin’s Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano and Latino communities. In collaboration with the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, the family neighborhood tradition provides free musical performances by local musicians, community resources, local food trucks and children’s art activities.
As the longest-running free concert series in Austin, the event draws significant meaning from its location, said Olivia Tamzarian, the cultural center’s marketing representative. With the recreation center providing services and activities to East Austin since 1942, the series began after the Hillside Theater opened in 1958. East Austin artist Raul Valdez added murals depicting Mexican American history to the stage in 1978…