Origins
The group was formed back in 1996 when a small circle of friends, all of them Venezuelan immigrants, decided to revive the Venezuelan tradition of going door-to-door singing Christmas Carols to their neighbours. That’s how this amateur musical group started playing different rhythms of the Venezuela’s Christmas musical repertoire.
First Public Presentation
The first time Los Parranderos “dared” to go public was during the Christmas season of 1997. That year, Los Parranderos were invited to participate in the Granville Island Annual Christmas Fair. The cheer was welcomed by all and they have been invited to participate in the same event every year since.
This event is now known as the Yuletide Traditions at Granville Island
About Our Name
This term is close in meaning to the expression “The Party Goers” and refers to happiness, life and good disposition to enjoy life.
Los Parranderos Today
Today, the group consists of over 20 active participants and is under the direction of Maria Luces, who assumed that role due to her participation in several choirs back in Venezuela for over 18 years. Maria’s dedication and patience has resulted in a collective musical effort, shaping this group of amateur musicians.The group starts its yearly performances in November and continues all through the Christmas season, having multiple shows in Granville Island, Grouse Mountain, schools, churches, restaurants, senior houses, and malls around the Greater Vancouver area.
Los Parranderos are not musicians, but “happy people with musical homesickness” that are thrilled to share their rhythms and enthusiasm with Vancouver and its guests.
Achievements
There are a few things that we are very proud of. In no particular order:
- We keep being invited to participate at the Annual Yuletide Traditions event at Granville Island. Seeing as this is the place where we started off, it is very nice to have the opportunity to perform at our very own ‘annual homecoming’
- We have been featured on Global TV’s “Global Village” segment. See video clip here
- We have been invited to perform numerous times at the local radio station segment “Latino Soy”
- We have grown to have over 20 active members, from our initial 5 and we now integrate over 8 instruments to our music from our initial 3 instruments. Our repertoire has over 40 songs listed from an original 10 songs.
- We gave birth to the idea of a year-round latin choir and some of our members founded “Fusion Latina” – Vancouver’s Latin American Choir