Music: The Heart of Mexican Culture

MEXICO LINDO Y QUERIDO. "My beautiful, beloved Mexico" goes the famous ballad. More than words to a song, it is also an expression of a rich, proud and complex culture. Being Mexican is much more than a matter of nationality; it means having roots in a stunning cultural tapestry, a heritage that includes, food, attitude, pride and, perhaps above all, music. In ancient Mexico, artists and musicians were considered to be close to the gods. Maybe that's why today Mexicans so revere their music and legendary musicians with such respect and deep affection. So, this month of Mexican pride, we pay tribute to beloved, beautiful Mexico through it's music and song.

MARIACHI IS MUCH MORE than a musical genre; it is the cultural essence of Mexico and its people. Mariachi has become a symbol of national identity, unique and recognized around the world as an authentic expression of Mexico's popular culture.

A celebration of Mexican Independence would be incomplete without the presence of a mariachi band. Mariachis are the musicians you see in restaurants or strolling the streets and plazas in their silver-studded charro outfits and wide brimmed hats, playing a popular repertoire of songs that speak of romance, love and joy or betrayal, death and despair. The mariachi originated in the state of Jalisco sometime during the 19th century. But the origin of the word mariachi is less certain. The most commonly proposed theory is that it derives from the French word for wedding - marriage - because wealthy families would hire a large group of musicians to play on such occasions.

After Independence, bands of musicians were often hired by the wealthy owners of the haciendas, where they could earn much more than the average campesino. With the Revolution, those comfortable gigs came to an end and the mariachis became itinerant musicians wandering from town to town. They sang corridos, topical songs about revolutionary heroes and enemies, deeds and misdeeds, a kind of bush telegraph, carrying news from one place to another.

Mariachis, still itinerant, strolling musicians for hire, became part of the Mexican urban landscape. For a few coins they would serenade your girlfriend or sing an ode to Pancho Villa. It was affordable entertainment for the masses. As the nation changed, so did the music, incorporating new influences, such as waltzes and polkas, even new instruments, such as the trumpet.

The Mariachi paradigm, as we know it today, came into being with the advent of mass media in Mexico: radio, television and especially the movies. The great composer José Alfredo Jiménez is perhaps the man most responsible for the style, the mood and the ethos of mariachi.

RANCHERAS

Jiménez's ranchera songs and bolero ballads comprise a huge percentage of the popular mariachi repertoire. His music and style were also adopted by many of his contemporaries and the recording and movie stars who followed him: Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante, Miguel Aceves Mejía, Lola Beltrán, Javier Solís and, of course, Vicente Fernandez.

The world of José Alfredo evokes the subculture of the bars, cantinas, and cabarets; a world populated by women of the night and despairing men, drowning the pain of love lost, and love betrayed in a shot glass of tequila. And the charro, the Mexican cowboy, hard-drinking, honest and forthright, sitting high in the saddle, he always won the girl.

This style and mood was etched into the popular consciousness by the film noir movies of what is referred to now as the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema.

Many of today's generation of pop stars feel they have to do a mariachi-style ranchera disc as validation, such is the music's importance in the national popular culture

NORTEÑA

When German, Czech, and Bohemian immigrants settled in northern Mexico in the 19th century, they brought with them a taste for beer, the polka, and the button accordion. When the polka and the accordion mated with ranchera music, with the addition of a 12-string guitar, norteño music was born. The music keeps evolving and today's bands usually include a drum set and a saxophone or a keyboard. Los Tigres del Norte is one of the biggest norteña bands.

[los-tigres-del-norte] Northern Mexico is also famous for its corridos - ballads that tell the stories of bandits, unhappy lovers, and political events. Like the Spanish ballads from which the form derives (even to maintaining the 8-syllable line) the corrido was the medium of communication before the advent of radio and TV. For a while it seemed to be moribund, but in the last few decades it has enjoyed a stunning but disturbing revival in the form of the narcocorrido. The Tigres del Norte was one of the first bands to promote the narcocorrido, and today it is popular among young people all over the country.

BANDA

Banda is a brass-based form of traditional Mexican music that is very popular today and is often heard in Puerto Escondido. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias and boleros. A typical banda is made up of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The most notable is the tambora, a type of bass drum with a head made from an animal hide. Bandas generally contain between 10 and 20 members. They usually have a lead singer and a second, and sometimes a third, voice, and the songs often feature duets. La Banda el Recodo, Banda Machos, and Banda Maguey are among the most famous groups.

BOLEROS

A sad love song, mostly concerning betrayal, with a 4/4 beat - a bolero ranchero. The lyrics are broken by musical interludes. The melody line is called the requinto and is performed on a small guitar also called a requinto. A larger guitar and maracas round out the traditional bolero trio. But boleros rancheros are also played by mariachi. It is one of the most popular Mexican music genres, and Pedro Infante and Javier Solis are among its most noted interpreters.

SONES

Son is a mixture of indigenous, Spanish and African music with a complicated 6/8 tempo. Son jarocho is a traditional musical style of Vera Cruz. Lyrics include humorous verses, which sometimes still reflect life in colonial and 19th century Mexico. Son jarocho is often played on the jarana (a small ukulele-like instrument) and features a verbal exchange (humorous or offensive) between two singers. The most famous son jarocho is La Bamba.

HUAPANGO

Huapango or son Huasteco is the music of the Huastecan people of the Gulf Coast. It dates back to the 17th century with the fusion of European instrumentation with native music. It features the zapoteado - the rapid, syncopated footwork of dancers on a wooden platform - and falsetto singing. The Huastecan trio includes the quinta huapanguera (a large guitar of 5 or 8 strings) and the jarana to carry the complicated rhythm and a violin for the melody. Nowadays it has been incorporated into the Mariachi songbook (without the dancing or the traditional instruments and with a Caribbean influence). But there is a revival of the Huapango trio and dancers, and Huastecan musicians perform to an international audience.

Isthmus son is the music heard in Juchitán and Tehuantepec. It has a 3/4 beat similar to the waltz. It differs from other varieties of son in that it is usually sung in the Zapotec language (although there are compositions in Spanish) and its lyrics tend to be more romantic than ribald. It is the music played at weddings and feasts. Llorona and Sandunga are the most well known sons from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

CHILENA

The son of the Costa Chica is called the chilena and actually is distantly related to the cueca, the national dance of Chile. The Chilean fleet stopped in Acapulco in 1822 and the cueca may have been introduced at that time. What is certain is that today's Chilena includes elements of all the musical traditions of the Guerrero and Oaxaca coast. It is the music of the Mixtecos and the Amusgos, the Chatinos, the African-Mexicans and the mestizos. In the 1950s it became the music of all Mexicans thanks to the compositions of Álvaro Carrillo, who was also a renowned composer of boleros.

JARABE TAPATIO

The Mexican Hat Dance is called the jarabe tapatío in Mexico where it has become the national dance. The term jarabe refers to a dance and tapatío means something from Guadalajara. The melody was composed in the 19th century in Guadalajara by Jesús González Rubio and the dance was choreographed by Felipe López around 1920 to celebrate the successful end of the Mexican Revolution. The male dancer always dresses in the costume of the Jalisco horseman, while the woman wears the embroidered shawl and bright, sequined skirt of the China Poblana.

DANZÓN

Danzón is an elegant but spirited ballroom dance that is most associated with Veracruz, where it was brought from Cuba by refugees from the Cuban War of Independence at the beginning of the 20th century. The Cubans had learned it from French plantation owners fleeing the 1791 slave revolt in Haiti. It's a rhythmic dance and after every refrain, the music stops so the women can fan themselves and the men can wipe their foreheads with their white handkerchiefs. Danzón reached its height of popularity in Mexico in the 1950s, but it is still danced in the main plaza in Veracruz, as well as the Zócalo in Oaxaca.

MUSIC: Some of the Legends

Agustín Lara's career spanned nearly 70 years. In that time, he penned over 600 compositions and gained himself an international reputation as one of Mexico's most prolific and dearly loved musicians. The skinny, unattractive scar-faced man, affectionately known to his fans as "Flaco de Oro", had women swooning at his feet and national leaders offering him accolades only reserved for " living national treasures". Such was the power of this musician-poet who wrote such timeless, moving compositions as "Granada", "Veracruz" and "Maria Bonita."

[chavela-vargas] Lola Beltrán is considered one of the most successful ranchera artists of all time. She gave concerts before world leaders, was the first ranchera singer to perform at the Palace of Fine Arts and appeared in dozens of films and was a major TV star.

Costa Rican - Mexican singer Chavela Vargas was born in 1919. In her youth, she dressed as a man, smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and was known for her characteristic red poncho. She was close to many prominent artists and intellectuals of her time. Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz aspera de la ternura", the bitter voice of tenderness. She is featured in many of Almodovar's films.

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