Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - To celebrate its twenty-first anniversary of promoting Mexican culture and Puerto Vallarta to the world, the Ballet Folklorico Xiutla recently announced a series of activities to commemorate its birthday.

On Monday, July 27th at 6:30 pm, the annual photograph will be taken of the more than 200 members that currently make up the group, in the atrium of the church of Divine Providence in Aurora, where there will also be a Mass of thanksgiving. (The time of the Mass was not announced, due to it being a private ceremony.)

At 8:30 pm, in the courtyard of City Hall in downtown Puerto Vallarta, the Ballet Folklorico Xiutla will perform dances representative of Guerrero, Durango, Yucatan, Chiapas, Veracruz and Jalisco for their families and the general public.

It was on July 27, 1994, in the CECATUR auditorium, that thirty Puerto Vallarta children and youth took the stage for the first time and began a journey that now exceeds two decades.

The genesis of Xiutla is due to the efforts and tenacity of Professor Carlos Enrique Barrios Limón, who decided to live in Puerto Vallarta after a prolific career in dance as a commissioner for the Agency for Promotion of Culture. Thanks to the support of the municipal government, he managed to instill a love of Mexican folklore to children and young people, forming a solid project that has taken root in the heart of Puerto Vallarta.

Knowing that he was forming an institution that would represent Puerto Vallarta, Professor Barrios named the group after the name given to the region upon the arrival of the Spaniards: Xiutla.

The Ballet Folklorico Xiutla has conducted national tours in over fifteen states; seven international routes: through San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, Chicago and other cities in the United States; Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Argentina, La Paz, Bolivia and Santiago in South America; and, in Europe, Xiutla has performed in Paris, France; and through Madrid, Gijon, La Coruna and Barcelona, Spain. Professor Barrios' students have even visited Asia - performing in Beijing and Shanghai in China.

If anything characterizes the Ballet Folklorico Xiutla it is its extensive repertoire, covering all regions of Mexico. The effort has been rewarded many times with national and international awards, among which are: the "Rafael Zamarripa" Gold Medal Award at Fiestas de Octubre, Guadalajara, 1999; "Ambassadors of art and goodwill," Universidad Mesoamericana de Puebla, 2000; the "Vallarta Award in Art" in 2003; the "Premio Emilio Rabasa" from the Cultural Department of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, 2004; "National Dance Award, DGETI, Toluca; and commemorated by the life-size sculpture of the Ballet Folklorico Xiutla dancers designed by American artist Jim Demetro and installed on Puerto Vallarta's Malecon II.

With more than 1,700 performances in its history, the Xiutla Folkloric Ballet is a valuable asset for Puerto Vallarta and the Mexican culture as a whole. And now another year of work and history enforces its motto: "More than 200 children off of the street, because Puerto Vallarta is well worth it."