Ricardo Caté performs in comedy night as part of annual Native Fest
Professional comedian Ricardo Caté takes the stage for his stand-up routine.
Comedy night of the annual Native Fest was hosted July 22 at the Ziibiwing Center for its 10th year.
As part of the celebration, comedian and cartoonist for the Santa Fe New Mexican daily, Ricardo Caté, performed stand-up at the event.
Native Fest is a part of the tribe’s homecoming week. Each year on comedy night, a youth and elder comedy contest is held for the public. A professional comedian is also brought in to perform.
Tribal observer Joseph Sowmick served as host for comedy night, saying the most important part of the events is the opportunity to give back to the community.
“With Native Fest, this is one of the Ziibiwing Center’s signature events,” Sowmick said. “The important thing is to be able to go ahead and have a wonderful night out, and I think any community would love to have something like Native Fest.”
Caté put an emphasis on his family life and first experiences making friends outside of his reservation during his performance. Caté made his first friends by unintentionally pretending to tell time by the sun during football practice during school.
“My dad given me this $3 Timex watch. I treasured it because it was the only thing he had ever given me,” Caté said. “I took the watch and I put it on my shoulder pads. I put the practice jersey over it.
“We are taking a break, and here come six white kids, they are going ‘it is really hot today,’ then someone says, ‘I wonder what time it is.’ So I take a step closer. I go, its 2:32. They all turn and they go ‘how do you know that?’ and one of the kids goes, ‘look, he is Indian, he can tell time by the sun. I had no choice but to say 'yeah.'”
Caté also discussed his career as a cartoonist during his performance, saying after several attempts in 2003, the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican finally looked at his cartoons, and loved them. Over the years, his cartoons became the most popular that were run in the paper.
“Five months ago, most of the readership was over 50, so they wanted to blow up the comics page so people could read (them),” Caté said. “They decided that they were going to get rid of four cartoons. So they had a voting, (with the) 70,000 readers. What happened was my cartoon turned out to be the number one cartoon.”
The rest of the evening’s events featured games for children to take part in, caricature artists, and karaoke.
Native Fest will continue 1 to 3 p.m. on July 23 at the Ziibiwing Center with a book signing with Caté. For more information on Caté visit www.ricardocate.com. His stand-up from Native Fest can be viewed at www.bit.ly/1KlmEwf.
Information on other events happening through the Ziibiwing Center can be found at www.bit.ly/1CR8OPy.
