Tag Archives: music

Wedding Fiesta: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

Posted on Sunday, January 5, 2020 | 2 comments

Mucha Fiesta! I knew it would be BIG when two giant tents went up three days ago beyond the tall concrete walls that separate my neighbors from me. I steeled myself for a really BIG party. I even thought I should high tail it to the city for the night to escape the sound of music.

I knew it would be LOUD. I wasn’t sure how loud. And, since I had been up since 5 a.m. to say goodbye to my sister and brother, I thought earplugs would block out the sound by the time I went to bed, early. WRONG.

There are no photos of this wedding fiesta. Only the SOUND OF MUSIC. Here, in this video, just mere feet from my bedroom window. This is what its like living in the village of endless fiestas. Sooner or later, they come to your back door.

Now, a word about weddings. They go on for three days. This is the tradition. There’s the party. Then, the after-party (that’s today, Sunday, and the music started at 11:30 a.m.). And, the clean-up crew party hearty on the third day. Usually there is barbecue beef or pork, plenty of tortillas, beer and of course, mezcal. And, always leftovers.

The music for this one started around 2 p.m. and went until 2 a.m. or so …. It probably wasn’t interrupted by the earthquake that shook my bed at around 11 p.m. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t sleeping, and the quake wasn’t as strong the music.

Another word about weddings. There is the civil wedding, the legal wedding performed by a justice of the peace, and recognized by the state. Then, there is a church wedding. Church weddings can cost $50,000 USD or more, and that’s why many young couples wait for the church wedding until they can afford it. Some never have one.

The one next door was a church wedding. They have been married for years and have children, but the church wedding is icing on the cake. To have children at the wedding altar in church is a common practice here. If children are young, they are sometimes baptized during the wedding ceremony, too. Since the priest comes from another village, there can be several weddings in one day, as was the case yesterday.

I could hear the Jarabe del Valle and firecrackers echoing throughout the village from more than one fiesta site.

In the morning at around 10:30 a.m. a village band led the procession of bride and groom from home to church. We could tell when the ceremony ended because the cohetes (firecrackers) shot up in a trail of smoke from the church courtyard about a mile away.

Rosca de Reyes topped with candied fruits, stuffed with plastic Baby Jesus

Tomorrow is Day of the Three Kings. I’m certain all the markets are filled with Rosca de Reyes today. The fiestas continue. We roll from one to the next, with weddings, baptisms, funerals, birthdays and anniversaries in between. Fiestas are part of the culture and tradition of Oaxaca life. Let’s celebrate!

2 Comments

Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged culture, fiestas, Mexico, music, Oaxaca, Teotitlan del Valle, traditions, weddings

Afro-Mexicans on Oaxaca’s Costa Chica, Museum of Afro-Mestizo Culture

Posted on Friday, February 1, 2019 | 5 comments

Mexico is a true melting pot. Her people are a fusion of ethnicities, races, and cultures originating from Asia, Europe, and Africa mingling with America’s First Peoples. The Spanish brought slaves from the Philippines and China, while Portuguese traders imported forced labor from Africa to work Mexico’s sugar cane fields and cattle ranches when indigenous people couldn’t survive disease.

Mexican President Vicente Guerrero, Afro-Mexican roots and abolitionist

A very important, and heretofore unacknowledged part of Mexican history, is the slave experience in Mexico and the development of communities on the Oaxaca-Guerrero coast formed by people who escaped from the Veracruz cane fields. The Museo de las Culturas Afromestizas — the Afro-Mestizo Museum — in Cuajiniculapa, Guerrero, just across the Oaxaca border, gives voice to those who helped shape Mexican identity and honors their historic role.

Read here to learn more about Afro-Mexicans.

Spanish-speaking museum guide explains mural significance

Africans built thatch-roofed houses, a reminder of home

Our Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour group stops here on our five-hour return trip to Puerto Escondido from Ometepec. Knowing all of Oaxaca and her roots is important to us. We learn about and understand the contributions of Afro-Mexicans to Mexico’s music, dance, dress, and cuisine.

Read New Yorker magazine essay about Afro-Mexican life on the Costa Chica.

Slaves escaped to Oaxaca-Guerrero coast from Veracruz, introduced Devil Dance

Please send me an email if you are interested in traveling here in 2020. I will only offer this study tour if there are 6 people making a $500 reservation deposit to guarantee we will hold the trip. Likely dates are January 10-20, 2020.

Close up of Oaxaca’s famous Danza de Los Diablos Devil Dance, a Guelaguetza favorite

Meaning of the Danza de los Diablos.

Portuguese slave ship, tragedy of human bondage

Read Culture Trip article about Afro-Mexican origins and pride.

We also see through the dioramas and explanation from our museum guide that institutionalized slavery has left its mark on Mexico just as it has in the United States. The colonizers, be they British or Spanish, used forced human labor to advance their economic and social agendas. Hundreds of years later, isolation, poverty, lack of education and health care, has left its mark, making this region among the most impoverished in Mexico.

Enslaved blacks in American South sought freedom in Mexico, perhaps a reason for the Mexican-American War?

The marimba, an African import along with slavery

There is a movement to give Afro-Mexicans the federal recognition and support they deserve that will help improve quality of life and economic opportunity.

I stepped up onto the hollow wood box to learn the dance of the region. I’m writing from Morelia, Michoacan, left my Costa Chica notebook at home, and will add the name of our thoughtful guide later.

African slaves employed in Mexico’s sugar cane field, silver mines, cattle ranches

In storage, the Son Jorocho musical style with stringed instrument brought from Africa

A must-read is Afro-Mexicans Exist, So We Must Stop Referring to Mexico as a Mestizo Nation by Shanna Collins. This offers important insight into how embedded African roots are in Mexican life and culture. Her argument is that the term Mestizo completely ignores how the role of slaves influenced modern Mexico.

Contemporary graphic art interprets African experience in Mexico

The small museum, just off coastal route MEX 200, is a testimony to the history of enslavement and courage. It opens our eyes and hearts, gives us perspective and enriches our travel experience.

Museum mural gives life to Afro-Mexican experience

5 Comments

Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged Afro-Mestizo, Afro-Mexican, black ancestry, Cuajiniculapa, dance, Mexico, Museo de las Cultural Afromestizas, music, Slavery, textile study tour

Lila Downs Concert Is Mini-Guelaguetza Extravaganza

Posted on Sunday, July 29, 2018 | 6 comments

How could each Lila Downs Concert be better then those that came before? The Best Ever is what I heard people say who have gone to many in the past. I don’t know, but Lila Downs knows how to dazzle a crowd.

Grammy Award Winner Lila Downs

The Guelaguetza Stadium on the Cerro Fortin in Oaxaca city was full on Friday night, July 27. We got there early to be sure to beat the crowds and that gave us a chance to settle into our seats and audience oggle.

Our diverse group from Israel, South Africa, Italy, Mexico and USA

Love this tapete — handwoven sarape

I was lucky enough to be invited to join a group of friends at the last moment. They had an extra ticket and offered it to me. Thank you, Patrice and Neal! Seems that to snag a primo seat means standing in line all night and someone they know did that for them. I was happy to pay the premium.

Lila loves wearing indigenous dress (traje) from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec!

Beribboned and twirling figures with hand-woven hats

I had some serious doubts about whether my shout out for tickets would yield results. I was not successful finding online tickets via Ticketmaster. Nothing materialized and I gave up … until a few days before!

Whirling dervish cowboy dancer devils

We were in the third row, far left of center, behind the mixing station staff. Not great for photos, but a fabulous spot for listening and watching Lila’s husband Paul Cohen on his badass sax. Even Lila made her way over on occasion. I did my best to get photos, but the strobes and movement of dancers made the conditions very challenging.

Little girl Flor de Piña dancers

In the row behind me, he sang every word along with her

I think what was fantastic about this concert is that Lila brought us her incredible traditional play list, the oldies but goodies. Everyone around us sang along. AND, the performance was built around the dancing and costuming of the annual Guelaguetza event held on the last two Mondays in July at the same venue.

Tlacolula de Matamoros Delegation

Benito Juarez, iconic Zapotec president of the Republic: respect human rights

With Lila’s singing mastery, great musicians and representative delegations invited from Tlacolula de Matamoros from the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec from the Sierra Mixe, Juchitan women from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, girls from the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca near Veracruz giving us the Pineapple Dance, and groups that are masked, twirling and whirling, the show couldn’t have been better.

La Bandera, the Mexican Flag, iconic and powerful revolutionary image

Lila Downs and Paul Cohen have a strong commitment to social justice issues in Oaxaca and Mexico. Her songs tell the struggle of poverty, lack of education and health care, discrimination, disenfranchisement, pain and tears, hopes and dreams. Together, they have been a powerful voice for human rights.

Lila sings La Llorona and the audience goes crazy

Artist woodcut projected as stage backdrop to band

The dynamic visual backdrop to the stage were photos and video of migrant farm workers, artist woodcuts of peasant life, the work of artisans and craftspeople, marching soldiers with bayonet rifles, heroic President of Independence Benito Juarez, a Zapotec from Oaxaca.

Sax and trumpet with lots of marimba band back up

Saxaphonist Paul Cohen takes a break to enjoy the Flor de Piña dancers

The fun was mixed with the message that we cannot be complacent about politics and world events. Half the seats in the audience were available to adoring fans for free.

The Grand Finale included everyone on stage

Guns at the border — NO

6 Comments

Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexico, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Travel & Tourism

Tagged concert, guelaguetza, Lila Downs, Mexico, music, Oaxaca, Paul Cohen

Oaxaca Classical Guitar House Concert with Naeim Rahmani: You Are Invited

Posted on Monday, December 14, 2015 | 2 comments

Classical Guitar Concert with Naeim Rahmani Sunday, December 20, 5:00-6:00 p.m. at El Diablo y La Sandia B&B Boca del Monte, Callejon Boca del Monte #121, near Tinoco y Palacios and Allende, suggested minimum donation 50 pesos per person

Please share widely throughout Oaxaca.

Naeim Rahmani is an Iranian classical guitarist who recently graduated with a Master’s degree in classical guitar performance from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, where he studied with renowned guitarist Rene Izquierdo.

He is an active performer and performs regularly throughout the United States and around the world. In the summer of 2014, Naeim performed a series of concerts in the north of Spain along the route of the Camino Santiago. Camino Artes sponsored the concerts, all held in local cathedrals. The organization was created by Mexican luthier Federico Sheppard and supported by the town of Carrión de los Condes.

Most recently Naeim was a prizewinner in several competitions, including the 2015 Northwest Guitar Festival and Competition, the 2015 San Francisco Bay Guitar Competition and the 2015 University of Louisville Guitar Festival and Competition.

His program is mostly classical music.

Naeim contacted me to help him secure performance venues in Oaxaca just before I left for California to be with our mom at end of life. Music has always been an important part of our mother’s legacy, so I was happy to help.

I put the word out and gratefully, Maria Crespo, owner of El Diablo y La Sandia B&B generously offered to host this concert. No reservations necessary. First come, first seated. Space limited.

This will be his only concert in Oaxaca this year! Please come and support him.

Here is a sample of Naeim’s recent performance: http://youtu.be/jiq02LazYyw

2 Comments

Posted in Music, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Travel & Tourism

Tagged classical guitar, concert, El Diablo y la Sandia Boca del Monte, Mexico, music, Naeim Rahmani, Oaxaca, Rene Izquierdo, University of Wisconsin

Klezmer Music in Puebla, Mexico: Who-da Thunk It

Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2014 | 3 comments

We are wandering around the Saturday flea market at Plazuela de los Sapos in Puebla, Mexico, in and out of aisles filled with rusted iron butcher hooks, old painted pottery, antique furniture, glitzy glam rhinestone jewelry in dazzling day-glow colors, brass hand bells new and old, religious relics, doll heads, ancient detritus of Tia Maria’s kitchen cupboard.

Then I hear it. The sounds of a band draw me to them. I can’t quite name the music although it sounds familiar. We stand around listening. Put money in the violen case. And, ask, what kind of music is this. Oh, it’s klezmer, says the percussionist.

Here is what we found: Tate Klezmer Band.

Is anyone in the group Jewish? I ask, knowing that Mexico has a history of Conversos, hidden Jews, who came from Spain during the inquisition, forced to convert to Catholicism and kept their religious practices secret. No, she says. We play it because we love it. It’s lively and makes us feel happy, like dancing. It’s the music of weddings, she says, and they continue to play.

All are students in the music conservatory. I want to invite them to Oaxaca to play at my next party!