Flor De Izote Volume 1 (Tour Compilation CD)

On September 15th, 2022, artists from El Salvador embark on a tour of the North Eastern United States with dates scheduled in Washington D.C., New York, and Massachusetts. The tour, put together by Fran Maravilla, a long-time advocate for the music scene in El Salvador, and founder of Nuestro Verano, is aptly named The Flor de Izote Tour after El Salvador’s national flower. And while the name appears to be obvious branding paying homage to their culture, there’s in fact more behind the name Flor de Izote and what it represents in the context of independent music.

One Winter, Fran visited a friend in Washington D.C. Fran had visited family on the East Coast numerous times before, but on this particular trip he had a surprise encounter. One cold morning during a routine walk in the neighborhood of Takoma, Fran noticed a full-grown Flor de Izote tree on a neighbor's front lawn. To Fran, it was like being face to face with a familiar friend, both enduring climate conditions they weren’t accustomed to. Baffled by this unexpected sighting, he starts to take this as a sign. In that moment, the tree was much more than a cool reminder of back home, it represented the millions of Salvadoran people who have been forced to adapt to new environments, to withstand challenging circumstances in defiance, but ultimately always find a way to overcome.

For many artists in El Salvador, favorable outcomes only come to those who are able to reach audiences outside of their home country. With Salvadoran Americans being the fourth-largest Latinx population in the United States, and the largest group of Salvadorans living outside of El Salvador, the USA is the clear first choice to find a potential audience. What The Flor de Izote Tour hopes to accomplish not only for this tour but for future tours, is to bring attention to Salvadoran music by establishing roots in places where familiar faces aren’t uncommon.