- Coming up on One Detroit, we'll have a destination Detroit story about preserving the community's Latino history.

Plus, we'll talk with Detroit-based musician Xiao Dong Wei about her upcoming appearance in the Concert of Colors neighborhood series.

And we'll close the show with a performance by Moroccan musician, Hassan Hakmoun.

It's all coming up next on One Detroit.

- [Narrator 1] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities, and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator 1] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(bright music) - Hello, I'm Zosette Guir.

Just ahead on One Detroit, internationally known musician Xiao Dong Wei reflects on her career as a master of the Chinese two-string violin known as the erhu, and we'll have a performance by Hassan Hakmoun from this year's Concert of Colors.

But first up, National Hispanic Heritage Month began September 15th.

It's a time to highlight the history, traditions, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans.

Our Destination Detroit documentary includes a segment on how Mexican-Americans helped shape the city, and it looks at efforts to preserve the stories of Latino families.

Take a look.

(bright music) - So all my aunts and uncles, most of them lived here in Detroit, in Southwest Detroit.

Some though did live in Saginaw, some were in Chicago, but the majority of the family is from Detroit.

My mother's family is from Zacatecas, Mexico.

- [Zosette] Corktown, the original Irish enclave, not far from downtown Detroit.

It's here you'll find Michigan Central.

Lest we forget other people who've been part of this neighborhood's history, like the Latino families who made this their destination in Detroit.

- So, we have been here for a very long time, but yet our history has never been documented in the way that other communities have documented their history.

The African-American community proudly has documented their community, and that's a huge part of Detroit.

The Arab-American community has documented their history.

- [Zosette] This gathering hosted by the Voces Oral History Project.

Voces, that's Spanish for voices.

- But a comprehensive collection of these stories has yet to be done, and this committee came together to invite you here tonight because that's what we're going to do.

(audience applauding) - You know, this neighborhood has been revitalized many times over by new families coming in.

They're new transplants, you can call them, they come in.

They don't know any of this.

And I think they'll be more than interested, everyone across the board, to learn about us and our stories.

- We have to tell our own story, That's why I'm really proud of the work that the Voces committee is interested in doing.

- [Zosette] Filmmaker Len Radjewski-Fraga used some audio recordings from the 1970s to help figure out how his family came to Michigan.

Well, the Mexican Revolution was going on in 1919.

- [Valeriano] Two times they want to hang me and you know they get on your nerve.

- [Man Off Camera] How come they want to hang you?

- [Valeriano] That's the way they used to do it, because they want money, and I didn't got it.

- Back in Mexico, my grandfather was a vaquero, was basically a ranch hand cowboy.

- [Valeriano] You see, your Mama, or your grandma lived on different farm than me.

But we know each other since we were kids.

- I knew of my two uncles that had recorded my grandparents telling their own story, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish.

That changed everything.

(singing in Spanish) - [Zosette] From that came "Michoacan to Michigan," a documentary first produced in 1994, Fraga taught high school video production back then.

- From the very start, it's always been a family project.

- [Zosette] The Mexican state of Michoacan lies west of Mexico City.

Now there's an updated version of the film, edited by Len's cousin's daughter, Julie Brazen.

They're fascinated with the family lore.

The Fragas made it to Texas, but what really happened when they were busted flat in San Antonio waiting for a train?

- As they were walking down the street, this Mexican approached them, Mexican-American.

- [Valeriano] You want to go to Michigan?

And I thought he told me if I want to go to Michoacan.

- Dad though that they were saying Michoacan, and at that point as much suffering as they'd been through and disappointment, he was ready to go back.

- The people there told him that Michigan, you can make a lot of money there.

They had been there before.

- [Valeriano] We had 16 trains cars full of people, and I didn't have one nickel in my pocket for San Antonio, Texas to Michigan, to.

(speaking foreign language) Saginaw, one nickel.

- [Zosette] In Saginaw, Fraga's grandfather picked sugar beets, the family barely getting by.

They moved to North Branch in Michigan's thumb for several years and had more children.

- As their children got older, they were looking for work, and the place to go was Detroit.

- [Zosette] The family, six generations now.

Fraga's dive into the Mexican side of his family history has even affected how he says his name.

- Since I've been using more Spanish and visits to Mexico, I say Fraga, and most of the family here say Fraga, the Americanized version.

And I know sometimes they look at me and they go, "Ah, who does he think he is?"

- [Zosette] Fraga's also done some research on the Polish side of his family, still working on the traditional pronunciation of that name.

- Radjewski, I believe.

I've got to do better about the pronunciation.

Went to Poland and found a little town where the name came from.

You know, the American culture now is, I'm half Mexican, my kids are quarter, my grandkids are an eighth.

I mean, and unless you keep those stories and themes alive, they're easily lost.

If my uncles could do it with reel-to-reel recorders, I mean, all of you should be doing.

The power of these things compared to those early cameras.

But the first thing is you got to do it now.

- [Zosette] Now an imperative.

When people die, histories can die too.

- We were motivated in a way to form this group, bosses, because of the work of one of the musicians, Cesar Pena, who said, "I need to make a documentary about all these fantastic musicians that came out of Southwest Detroit and Delray."

But unfortunately, he passed away.

- [Zosette] Back when, Cesar Pena toured with famed bluesman, Albert King.

Pena died in 2022.

Meanwhile, Aaron Barndollar and Ozzy Rivera had already been posting interviews on YouTube done years ago, like one on musician Frank Panchito Lozano, who'd been performing since the 1940s.

- This must be you here, Panchito, in the background.

- Yeah, I'm right there.

- [Zosette] Lozano, horn player, band leader, and the first Mexican-American principal in Detroit public schools died in 2014.

Now cameras gather oral histories again.

- He knew everybody.

- [Zosette] Including Barndollar's uncle.

- My grandfather had a farm and my dad did not like working on the farm.

And he come to Detroit, and he got a job dishwashing.

And he started out as a dishwasher and worked his way up to be the head chef of the Fort Shelby Hotel.

- He was the Mexican Gordon Ramsey, never went to culinary school, but he could do anything in the kitchen.

- [Zosette] With the oral histories coming in, Maurizio Dominguez edits an interview with Deacon Raul Feliciano of the Detroit Archdiocese, and Catholic activist Beatriz Esquivel Ramos.

- The people had that church built.

The people built that little chapel.

- [Zosette] They're talking about the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church of Southwest Detroit that dates back to the early 1920s.

- Yeah, the first Mexican national parish in the Midwest.

So not just Michigan, just Midwest overall.

- Those people set for a priest in Mexico because there were no Spanish priesting priests.

- I think that just speaks to the core of why it's so important to do this project, because stories like this, that if there's no documentation available and if there's no way for people to find out about it, then how are they going to know?

- [Zosette] With endeavors like this come limitations.

So many more people to talk to, but there's only so much funding, and people who have the time to collect these stories.

- I'm only one guy, I can only record, edit so much.

So we're officially planning what's it going to look like to expand, to grow this team and to bring more people from the community who can help with the archiving, the recording, the interviewing, everything.

- We're just scratching the surface.

This Latino community has been here since 1918.

- We hope that what we're doing with the Mexican-American culture is an impetus for other groups to say, "Hey, what about me?

What about the Polish or the Germans, or the Irish," whatever.

As the deeper you dive into history, the more you realize all the groups that have contributed to who we are in Michigan.

Unless you tell your own story, not too many people are going to tell it for you.

And that's history.

The victories tell the story, right?

(bright music) - And you can see the entire Destination Detroit documentary at detroitpbs.org/destinationdetro, or on the PBS app.

Let's turn now to Detroit based composer and musician Xiao Dong Wei.

She's the headliner at the next performance in the Concert of Colors neighborhood series on Saturday, September 26th, at the Detroit Shipping Company.

One Detroit's Chris Jordan sat down with Xiao, who is a master of the Chinese two string violin known as the erhu.

They talked about her career, latest musical work, and the Concert of Colors.

- You know, bluegrass.

(bright instrumental music) - [Chris] Xiao Dong Wei, composer, musician, and master of the erhu, the Chinese two-stringed violin.

Detroit has been her home for over two decades, during which time she has become a fixture of the city's music scene.

- I started study erhu when I was five-years-old, and when I was 11, I got into the Central Conservatory of Music, the affiliated middle school in Beijing.

So I moved to Beijing when I was 11-years-old, and my major study was the erhu, the two-string Chinese violin, and the minor piano.

So in that same campus I stayed for 10 years.

And after that, I start working for the motion picture orchestra in Beijing.

And another four years later I moved to the US.

("Where East Meets West") - What originally brought you to Detroit?

- When I first come to the US, I actually landed in Hawaii, and then I went to Los Angeles, spent some times there, and Las Vegas.

And at that time I had the choice to stay in either in LA or Detroit, and I choose Detroit because Detroit is such a powerhouse for music, global music.

("Where East Meets West") Music wise, Detroit is cool with the techno, the Motown.

There's so many legends from here.

When I came here, I feel like home and I feel I'm always very warmly welcomed.

I wasn't even sure people going to like the erhu.

I have no idea.

So I just start playing small clubs and coffee houses, and before I know it people start calling me.

("Where East Meets West") And really I found, we always say music is a language, global language, international, no boundaries.

We always say that, but when I really feel that, this also goes into my later exploring different music, what I go is whatever sounds good to my ear.

I don't think about so much of this kind or that kind.

- [Chris] In addition to playing traditional erhu music, Xiao Dong Wei plays an eclectic range of alternative chamber music, classical and jazz, and also plays electrified rock music with her band Madame XD.

(singing in foreign language) - My classical route, I would never give up.

That's always where I came from.

But even when I slip very little, I'm attracted to different kind of music.

And then I got exposed to Beatles and then Led Zeppelin, that's one of my all-time favorite.

And then Bjork are so different, just really opened my eyes.

I play so many instruments, because you have an open mind.

I really don't have, okay, I can't do this, I can't do this.

And I think from my dad, because he's multi-instrumentalist.

So whenever there's instrument, I just can't help it, I just have to try it, you know.

Instruments are like people, different kind of beauty, you got to appreciate it.

Everyone have their special sound that the other one doesn't have.

When I came here, first of all, I was studying, taking a lesson at Wednesday and I saw a advertisement said, "Female musician wanted, a guitar player, singer, or whatever."

I said, whatever, that's me.

So I answered that, and then we started playing bluegrass and we just jammed out and then started going to rock and roll, all that stuff.

And this year, this April 2026, I premiered my first orchestra piece.

I wrote for erhu (indistinct).

For the first time in my life, writing something for the orchestra.

("Hometown Reflections") The Michigan Philharmonica played my piece, and the music director, Nan Washburn.

When they asked me play actually a concert, play other work.

And then I said, "Ooh, I have a piece."

I was working on a piece on my computer.

I put all the brass, the brass session, the violin session.

Oh, that sounds pretty good.

So when they called me for other concert, I said, "I can ask her."

So I asked her, she said, "Yes."

("Hometown Reflections") I'm really happy with it, and I hope to take that piece actually to someplace else besides Detroit because that's a celebration piece and the third movement is really Chinese festival, very festive.

So I hope to play someplace else with that piece.

And since I have so much fun write that piece, I love it so much, so I'm going to continue to write for symphonies.

("Hometown Reflections") - Of course, I want to talk to you about Concert of Colors and you've played the Concert of Colors for many years and you have a great relationship with that festival.

(bright instrumental music) - Like you said, I play in the Concert of Colors so many years, but this year Ishmael passed away.

It's very, very sad.

But we had a very nice celebration of Ishmael in Detroit.

Was well attended, people really miss him.

His spirit will continue to live with the legacy he left behind, and people enjoy this festival.

And now the neighborhood program that Charles Ezra Ferrell is director of, people love it.

It just fill the community, the artists really pour their heart out.

So I'm playing September 26th at Detroit Shipping Company as part of this neighborhood program.

I have a very great pipa player originally from China, now live in North Carolina.

Her name is Min Xiao-Fen.

We're going to play some really traditional Chinese music and then we're going to improvise some.

Then I'm going to rock out with my rock band, Madame XD, with the same stage.

We'll share same stage with taco drum, Japanese drum.

So I'm arranging a piece.

We'll be collaborating.

And I'll have also premiere my new work at this concert.

("Where East Meets West") I just keep going and try new stuff.

My classical continue.

I'm going to do that.

I'm going to really get into jazz and, oh yeah, I do want to, this is it.

I do want to do some hip hop stuff, and I'm glad people enjoy it.

I'm really, really happy.

Because for all my life, I enjoy so much.

I'm just in my little world doing this, and later when I share, I find out, oh, I can make other people happy.

I'm very happy.

I feel blessed.

("Where East Meets West") - We're going to leave you now with a performance by Moroccan artist, Hassan Hakmoun, recorded at this year's Concert of Colors.

You can see more of his performance on Detroit Performs on October 7th.

Enjoy and we'll see you next time.

(instrumental music) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (instrumental music) (instrumental music continues) (instrumental music continues) (instrumental music continues) (instrumental music continues) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) (singing in foreign language continues) - [Narrator 1] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities, and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator 1] Nissan Foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, and viewers like you.

(bright music)