Get out those maracas and dance your way to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the annual JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival

Expect the traditional- and more. Yes, the festival has mariachi music, classic mambo and Afro-Cuban jazz. But there's also a modern dance work commissioned for the event, an open-mike poetry night and a performance by an alt-rock band with a cello.

Now in its ninth year, the festival (through Aug.7 at Queens Theatre in the Park), also Features film, theater and art that represent all manifestations of Latino culture, festival director Claudia Norman says.
It began as a way to reach out to the rapidly growing

Hispanic American community in New York City, which now numbers 22 million people. But Norman, an avid explorer of cultures herself, says it has grown to include anyone who is curious about the culture, Latino or not.

Tin happy that I'm creating something where people can feel what I feel about other cultures and have a platform where people can get together," she says.

Tonight at 8, that get-together is driven by a rock beat. On tap for rock en Espanol are Queens-based Karimbo, which calls its mix of funk rock, jazz and soul seasoned with Carib bean rhythms "funky rumba," and Contramano, which means "against the flow" the band with the cello.

Contramano is made up of two Argentines and a Spaniard who met through Craigslist.org almost three years ago. The trio, which just released its first CD, sings about searching for a place to fit in when you feel you don't belong.

Cellist and lyricist Pablo Cubarle says nothing com pares to the feeling he gets when he's performing. "It's expressing yourself that's so rewarding. That's the moment where everything takes off."

Teenagers and parents alike will be singing along next Saturday, when Illapu takes the stage for two shows at 7 and 10 p.m. The Chilean rock superstars were "the voice of hope and freedom" during Chile's 1970s human rights struggle, Norman says.

"iSofrito!" wraps things up next Sunday by taking audiences on a journey to the Caribbean via music and storytelling. Led by poet and public radio commentator David Gonzalez, the show gets its name from the ingredients used as a base in Cuban cooking, including tomatoes, green peppers, onions and cilantro. Sofrito is "a metaphor in this show because you're mixing wonderful ingredients," says Gonzalez, who jokes that he's from La Rupublica del Bronx. He says he took the best of his Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage to form his own traditions and values, and he encourages audience members to find their flavor as well.

"In the song 'Sofrito' there's a line," he says. "Put it all together in your combination. Rock the world with your life's sensation."

The two performances feature Larry Harlow, father of the explosive brass sound in contemporary salsa, and Yomo Toro, sometimes called the "Jimi Hendrix of the cuatro" (a guitar from Puerto Rico). The first at 2 p.m., is free and kid- friendly. A "sexier" performance, "iSofrito Caliente!" follows at 7 p.m.

Other highlights include: Tomorrow. Students of the Mariachi Academy of New York play classic rancheras; p.m., free. Vivos, an Ecuadorian sketch-comedy group, performs at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Sunday. Joseito Mateo, the Dominican Republic's "king of merengue," plays at 7 p-m. Wednesday. Poets can sign up to join emcee Alba Sanchez for open mike night, 8 p.m.; free. Also at 8, the Dario Vaccaro Dance Project presents "Tiempo," a piece that explores the human perception of time.

WHEN&WHEN The JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival; through Aug. 7 at Queens Theatre in the Park at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Prices range from free to $35; www.latinofestival.org or 718-760-0064.