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Songs of Passion: The Music of Mexican Americans
| Article
# : |
19831 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1991 |
4,523 Words |
| Author
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George H. Lewis
George H. Lewis is professor of sociology at the University of
the Pacific. He has a longstanding interest in popular culture
and has written extensively on the topic. |
Battered drums and old guitars
Singing songs of passion,
It's the truth they're lookin' for,
Something they must keep alive.
Los Lobos, "Will the Wolf Survive?"
Tomorrow, the traditional annual parade will wind its way downtown: There will be music, and later, dancing. But tonight is a time of preparation, of anticipation. In the economically depressed southern part of town, local musicians and dancers rehearse in the empty hall of the Centro Social Mexicano, and the echoing sounds of acoustic guitars and the jarana (the dancers' revelry) play musical tag in the evening air. Meanwhile, at the Civic Auditorium, Los Hurricanes del Norte rip ear-crashing chords from electric guitars while dancers, colored lights, and artificial fog swirl and curl around the stage. And in the well-to-do northern part of town, party goers stroll on the brick and marble patios of exclusive and protected houses, enjoying the warm evening air, sipping margaritas, nibbling finger-sized pork burritos, and listening to a strolling mariachi band playing "La Paloma."
These are the sights and sounds of Stockton, in the heart of California's agriculturally rich Great Central Valley, as the City's Mexican-American community prepares for Cinco de Mayo (May 5), the traditional day of celebration. But although these Mexican popular musics--and their audiences--seem remarkably diverse, each musical branch derives from a common trunk, itself a bewildering mixture of historic and ethnic ingredients, forms, and styles that forms the backbone of the musical heritage and culture of Mexican Americans today.
Musical roots from three continents
Ethnomusicologists generally agree that Mexican-American musical forms derive from three separate traditions: the music and dance of the Aztec, Olmec, and Maya, the great Indian civilizations of Mexico; European musical traditions introduced during and after the Spanish conquest nearly five hundred years ago; and the West African traditions of the slaves brought to Mexico by the Spanish.
Subsequently, beginning in the 1800s, Mexican music was also very heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban song and dance types, especially the habanera, danzon, and bolero that moved, with commerce and travel, across the Gulf and the
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