{"id":2327870,"date":"2026-03-14T12:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2327870"},"modified":"2026-03-14T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:06:09","slug":"npr-style-concerts-bring-mexican-music-to-new-castle-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/npr-style-concerts-bring-mexican-music-to-new-castle-market\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR-style concerts bring Mexican music to New Castle market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><strong>Why Should Delaware Care?\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>A series of Tiny Desk Concert-inspired musical acts in a small Mexican grocery store in New Castle is platforming up-and-coming artists while opening Delaware\u2019s music scene to regional Mexican music<em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The bananas set the tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The bristling pi\u00f1atas then join the chorus overhead. Next, the humming of the produce fridges follows.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#111111;color:#fff\" id=\"id_288\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-default has-dark-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1c3017d689dae3d976992aca07f8bbfa\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-651e6f64 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-89bd94378fb0cbf6b9ffcbaa2010d6e6\" id=\"h-make-sense-of-the-decisions-shaping-delaware\" style=\"font-size:26px\"><strong>Make sense of the decisions shaping Delaware.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-21871c0f77b0266c1828203345e3201e\">Know what&#8217;s happening today, so you know what to do tomorrow. Get our free newsletter delivered right to your inbox \u2013 six days a week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Then, Carlos Mayo-Jimenez breaks through with his guitar. And Jesus Manuel Beltran Mendez finally joins the symphony with his voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wilmington-based band <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ilusion_.official\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ilusi\u00f3n<\/a> is playing a gig \u2014 inside a Mexican market nestled off of U.S. Route 13 in New Castle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rows of tomatoes, tortillas and papayas serve as their backdrop. Customers stocking up on their weekly groceries serve as their audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the vein of NPR\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/series\/tiny-desk-concerts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tiny Desk Concerts<\/a>, Jos\u00e9 Luis Aguilar Garcia created his own monthly series of <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/1225372245762300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cMercadito Concerts\u201d<\/a> inside his family\u2019s grocery store, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fiestafreshmarket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fiesta Fresh Market &amp; Carniceria<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aguilar Garcia, the 28-year-old owner of the Wilmington-based independent music label <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vpsmusic.com\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">VPS Music<\/a>, said he hoped the project would spotlight up-and-coming, independent artists while also bringing more business to the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And by bringing more Mexican culture to Delaware, Aguilar Garcia said he hopes people will feel a little bit more at home when they come to the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-fresh-take-on-tiny-desk\"><strong>A \u2018fresh\u2019 take on Tiny Desk<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Aguilar Garcia first got the idea in 2023 when he attended a Tiny Desk Concert in Washington, D.C., for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AynDvSkZ8og?si=NY1SdZITb8GByBg6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DannyLux<\/a>, one of the artists his label represented. Then in 2024, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@dariellcano\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dariell Cano<\/a> \u2014 a Mexican-American artist whom VPS also represented \u2014 was briefly staying in Delaware, and Aguilar Garcia asked him to stop by the shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DannyLux: Tiny Desk Concert\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AynDvSkZ8og?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>With an extra employee vest lying around, Aguilar Garcia asked Cano to put it on and pretend he worked at the market for a social media post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s when it sort of clicked,\u201d Aguilar Garcia said. \u201cWhat if we start doing live concerts?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The series took off from there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Delaware\u2019s central position along the Northeast Corridor could work as an incentive for bands traveling between shows in Philadelphia and New York City during their tours, Aguilar Garcia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In May 2025, Julio C\u00e9sar, a regional Mexican musician, was traveling as a supporting act with singer-songwriter Ivan Cornejo in a nationwide arena tour. The tour was set to have a concert in New York City before traveling to Florida for their next stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aguilar Garcia reached out to C\u00e9sar\u2019s management and asked if they could stop by the market on their way down to Florida. C\u00e9sar <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/1394298311707366\">agreed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F1394298311707366%2F&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=267&amp;t=0\" width=\"267\" height=\"591\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Nearly 60 people streamed into the quaint market to watch C\u00e9sar\u2019s free concert, Aguilar Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really cool just to open up the scene over here in the East Coast,\u201d Carlos Mayo-Jimenez, a member of Ilusi\u00f3n, said about the Mercadito Concert series. \u201cIt\u2019s a really great starting point, in general, for the moment that we\u2019re trying to start here.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-concerts-sprout-from-family-business\"><strong>Concerts sprout from family business<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Back inside the market, Ilusi\u00f3n is playing their newest song, \u201cColores,\u201d as they continue their set. The song <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fVSw6Nk7pnI&amp;list=RDfVSw6Nk7pnI&amp;start_radio=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">premiered<\/a> Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wires snake from Ilusi\u00f3n\u2019s microphones to the control center that Aguilar Garcia set up near the entrance of the store, near the Coca-Cola cans. Aguilar Garcia periodically checks the focus of the video behind the camera.<\/p>\n<p>Aguilar Garcia \u2014 a native of Puebla, Mexico \u2014 co-owns the market with his sister and dad. Aguilar Garcia\u2019s father worked at the New Castle Farmers Market down the road for roughly 20 years before establishing his first grocery shop in Carneys Point Township, N.J., in 2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Fiesta Fresh Market &amp; Carniceria in New Castle then opened in May 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aguilar Garcia hopes brands may soon sponsor the series of Mercadito Concerts to help keep them going. For now, Ilusi\u00f3n\u2019s strums and singing taper off, and the atmosphere returns to everyday-market sounds \u2014 refrigerators humming, shopping cart wheels turning and bags crinkling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then the next song begins.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup  newspack-lightbox-no-border    \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_631\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8d2fbfef5c5a7b64937d6f61090898bc\" id=\"h-\"\/>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull newspack-pattern donation__style-3 has-white-color has-spotlight-indigo-background-color has-text-color has-background\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3402ace7458f35daef511c436ef25d38\" id=\"h-stories-like-this-are-made-possible-by-readers-like-you\"><strong>Stories like this are made possible by readers like you.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ff23ad50f207f9c5207e257dc06f6e22\">Spotlight Delaware is an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering how decisions at every level of government affect Delawareans. Your gift helps us report on the issues that matter most and keeps our work free and accessible for all.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/embed\/support-the-local-journalism-initiative-of-delaware?language=en\" name=\"donorbox\" allowpaymentrequest=\"allowpaymentrequest\" seamless=\"seamless\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"900px\" width=\"100%\" style=\"max-width: 500px; min-width: 250px; max-height:none!important\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Read more from Spotlight Delaware<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spotlightdelaware.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Should Delaware Care?\u00a0A series of Tiny Desk Concert-inspired musical acts in a small Mexican grocery store in New Castle is platforming up-and-coming artists while opening Delaware\u2019s music scene to regional Mexican music.\u00a0 The bananas set the tone.\u00a0 The bristling pi\u00f1atas then join the chorus overhead. Next, the humming of the produce fridges follows.\u00a0 Make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2327871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[451106,345404,451107,451108,305078,451109,451110],"class_list":["post-2327870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-mercadito-concerts","tag-mexican-music","tag-new-castle","tag-npr","tag-small-business","tag-tiny-desk-concerts","tag-vps-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NPR-style-concerts-bring-Mexican-music-to-New-Castle-market.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2327870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327873,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327870\/revisions\/2327873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2327871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2327870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2327870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2327870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}