Brenda M. Romero is an associate professor on the musicology faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles (focusing on indigenous and Hispano traditions of New Mexico) and B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees in music theory and composition at the University of New Mexico. She frequently gives lecture/recitals on the older folk music of New Mexico and southern Colorado, about which she has published various articles.
The oldest Latino communities in New Mexico and Colorado are comprised of descendants of the first permanent Spanish settlers, who arrived in 1598 led by Juan de Oñate. Among themselves, many refer to the old culture by the term manito, which is short for hermanito or "younger brother." This is a term with a complicated political and social history, but it can be said to represent the spirit of caring for one another in its contemporary application. Both New Mexico and Colorado have many political and cultural activists who often refer to themselves as Chicanos and Chicanas (with "o" being the Spanish male word ending and "a" the female ending). This term issues from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and reflects cultural pride in both indigenous and European cultural roots. The term is politically specific, however, to those whose ancestry in the Southwest predates 1848, when Mexico lost this region to the United States.
This older culture is primarily located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, but a strong representation is found in all of the cities from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Denver, Colorado. The majority its members work in blue-collar jobs, although many have professional careers. Many of the manitos now living in Colorado can trace their presence in the state to a grandparent who came from New Mexico to find work, primarily in the mines. A strong sense of identification with New Mexican rural culture still permeates many Coloradoans. An identifiable musical culture that includes some songs from the colonial era is still evident in the region, although that culture has largely declined since the 1950s.
Surprisingly, a number of ritual genres that use very old music have survived and continue to be maintained, even when the secular folksongs are not. Those genres in clude the alabado religous lament, the Matachines Dance, and Comanches captive commemoration ceremonies. Various groups also preserve the old baile, or dance music, including pan-European dances like the
waltz (vals), schottishe (chotis), the polka, and others.
In addition to the manito culture, both states are home to numerous Mexican immigrants, many of whom came to the United States during the bracero work program of the middle part of this century. A steady influx of Mexican immigrants who meet critical needs for cheap labor in the United States has resulted in large urban communities with strong ties to Mexico. Denver is one such community. A much smaller number of Latinos from all of Latin America are found throughout New Mexico and Colorado, although only the Mexican community is identifiable as such. A small enclave of Peruvians holds itself together in Denver through a Peruvian club that sponsors soccer meets. Altogether, Latinos represent approximately 15—20 percent of the 2.5 million people who live in the Denver metro area, which includes six counties.
Where music is concerned, Latinos fall into distinct categories of taste publics that sometimes have national associations, and several clubs cater to the different musical tastes. Additionally, live music is often a feature of the best Latino restaurants in the larger cities.
Mariachi music (of Mexican origin) is the most popular Latino music in the region and is associated with communal celebrations. The Latin dance band is also popular, typically playing old and new favorites, including various "oldies" in English from the 1950s as well as rancheras and other popular dance tunes in Spanish, mostly from Mexico. Many regional musicians write songs and are good performers as well. Finally, vernacular church music, utilizing folk and popular Latin instrumentations, is ubiquitous in both Catholic and Protestant contexts.
HISTORY
New Mexico and Colorado exemplify the coexistence of Latino populations with distinct national and political identities. This coexistence is reflected in a variety of Latino taste cultures in which music may have cultural or political associations. In this way, the region is much like Latin America in general, although the immigrant status of many Mexicans in the Southwest is a source of conflict for the mainstream culture and to a small degree for those manitos who pride themselves in their Spanish, rather than Mexican, ancestry.
The old music of this region (not indigenous) is very Spanish in character, using medieval poetic forms such as the romance, décima, and copla, which are Spanish survivals throughoul Lalin America. The John Donald Robb Archives of Southwestern Music at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is the largest archival depository of the old folk music; it houses various collections, including J. D. Robb's. Among the songs archived are many obscure forms and genres, such as the indita, an interesting syncretism of Spanish and indigenous musical elements from the nineteenth century. The ethnomusicologists Cipriano Vigil and Brenda M. Romero perform the old songs in limited contexts, including at the Denver Chile Harvest Festival and other regional venues.
Traditional Hispanic Dance Music
Ken Keppeler comes from several generations of Southwesterners and has a B.A. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Jeanie McLerie is from New Jersey but has spent most of her life in the West. She has been a professional musician since 1963, mostly in the traditional music field. Both Keppeler and McLerie have spent more than twenty years researching Cajun music, traditional New Mexican Hispanic and Anglo dance and music, and the double violin music of the Tohono O'Odham people of southern Arizona. They also play this type of music themselves in their band, Bayou Seco, which performs at schools, libraries, museums, and other venues in the United States and Europe.
Cleofes Ortiz and Antonia Apodaca are two traditional musicians from the mountains of northern New Mexico. Their music reaches back 400 years in New Mexico and consists of tunes played for group dances that hark back to the circle, line, and group dances popular in Europe up through the seventeenth century, many of which reached New Mexico with the earliest colonists coming up the Chihuahua Trail from Mexico City in the late 1590s. Some of these early dances were La Cuna, La Cadena, El Vals de Los Paños, El Vals de La Escoba, La Camilla and Las Cuadrillas. By the early nineteenth century, couple dances such as the waltz, polka, schottische (chotis), and varsouviana developed in Europe and reached New Mexico.
The survival of many of the earlier forms of group dances in New Mexcio was made possible by the local habit of adding the new couple dances as the second part of the old dances; for example, La Cadena is danced in a circle during the "A" part of the tune and in couples during the "B" part. The dances and music were also influenced by environment and the native peoples. La Indita is an example which is danced in the style of the local Native Americans and was danced in
a number of communities in a very somber fashion, indicating a possible religious/symbolic connection, maybe with the matachines dances of the smaller mestizo (genizero) towns and pueblos.
As the area opened to the influx of the Americanos from the east, the already existing dances were influenced by Irish, Italian, Creek, and other types of music. Many of the Irish/English dance tunes were used as the music for the final cotillo (cotillion) of the cuadrillas, which were already similar to the American square dances. These cotillos were usually in 4 time while the cuadrillas were usually in 6 time, though now many people use polkas for the cuadrillas. As the mountains of the area became less isolated in the 1930s and 1940s, people started to learn from the radio and from recordings. Unfortunately there were never any 78-rpm recordings made of the older music (often referred to as Spanish Colonial Music), and so the younger generations learned the newer country and norteño/Mexican music they heard on the radio and the older music—unavailable on disc or on the radio—started to die out. This brings up the importance of Cleofes Ortiz and Antonia Apodaca. They both grew up playing and learning the music and dances from the older generation and continued to play them.
Cleofes Ortiz was born near Bernal, New Mexico, in 1910. He started to learn to play when he was nine years old, playing first on a hand-made instrument, until one of his brothers bought him a real violin. His main influence was his much older cousin, Emiliano Ortiz, who taught Sr. Ortiz many of his tunes. He also learned from other well-known violinists in the area such as Librado Leyba, Alejandro Flores, and Gregorio Ruiz. He said he would go to a dance and pick one tune he really liked and whistle it all the way home and then learn it on his violin. Sr. Ortiz quit playing in the 1950s and started again in the 1980s after raising a family of nine children doing farm-work and building stone houses. Although he picked up a few newer tunes by ear from the radio, the large majority of his approximately seventy-five-tune repertoire consisted of the older traditional dance tunes. Jeanie and I were fortunate to work with Sr. Ortiz from 1984 up until his death on March 17, 1996. We still play his tunes and teach the dances here in New Mexico and in other parts of the world.
Antonia Apodaca was born in 1923 in Rociada, New Mexico, in the house in which she lives to this day. Her parents, Jose Damacio Martinez and Rafaelita Suazo Martinez, were both musicians, and both came from families of musicians in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Her father played guitar, violin, and accordion, and her mother played guitar and accordion. At this time the accordion was very seldom seen in this part of New Mexico, violin and guitar being
the main instruments for the dances. Antonia Apodaca's paternal grandfather also played accordion. They played mostly for small community functions such as saints' days, weddings, and christenings as well as in local dance halls and in people's homes.
When Sra. Apodaca was thirteen years old she decided to learn the accordion and, not being allowed to touch her parents' accordion, she recovered an old one from the trash that had a hole in the bellows. She stuck paper and rags in the hole to try to play but, of course, these al I blew out when she worked the bellows. Her solution was to stick her "skinny knee" into the hole, which allowed her to figure out how to play "My Darling Clementine." Her parents overheard her and at first were furious because they though she had the new accordion, but they were happy and tearful to find that she had learned on the old broken one. The next day they went into Las Vegas, New Mexico, to get her a new accordion. She had to promise to enter the accordion contest in distant Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the La Fonda Hotel only seven months in the future. She entered against all of the adults and won first place and the fifty-dollar prize, which was used to buy much-needed groceries for the family.
When she was eighteen she met a fiddler from Mora, New Mexico, named Maximilian Apodaca, who asked to play with her parents' band. Within two months they were married. In 1943 they went to Wyoming to top beets, finally moving there full-time in 1949. They lived and played in Wyoming for dances and local events for both the Hispanic and the cowboy communities and learned how to change the old polkas and waltzes into a western rhythm when they played for the Anglos. In 1979 they returned to Rociada and moved into the house that Antonia was born in. They started playing locally and ended up becoming known all over New Mexico for playing the old music.
In December 1987, Max died. Antonia quit playing for a year until Jeanie and Sr. Ortiz visited her and convinced her to continue to play. She also composes many songs herself about her life in New Mexico, which she has added to her repertoire of older traditional songs. Besides her old style of accordion playing she is a very accomplished guitarist. She has continued to play, often with Ken and Jeanie, and has performed with them and Cleofes Ortiz at the Smithsonian Folk-life Festival in 1992 as well as at many venues in the western United States. Both Sr. Ortiz and Sra. Apodaca have cassette tapes available from Bayou Seco, P.O. Box 1393, Silver City, NM 88061, (E-mail: bayouseco@aol.com).
Another New Mexican artist of interest is Cipriano Vigil, who writes plays some of the old tunes on the violin and writes songs about his life growing up in the Rio Abajo area of New Mexico. Also noteworthy is Johnny Whalen, who plays guitar and sings many of the old corridos of the border area where he grew up cowboying on the famous Hooker Ranch in Arizona.
Bibliography
Robb, John Donald. (1980). Hispanic Folk Music of New Mexico and the Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
White, Peter, and Weigle, Marta. (1988). The Lore of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie
Much of the contemporary popular music of this area is very influenced by the old music, although Mexican artists and styles predominate, as do popular Afro-Latin beats such as salsa and cumbia. Rock music of the 1950s is still very popular among Latino dance bands of the region, in part because of its association with Ritchie Valens (Ricardo Valenzuela), a Los Angeles rocker who died in a plane crash in 1959. Finally, Latin jazz is increasingly heard in some Denver clubs, and some popular artists, such as the New Mexican Roberto Griego, are tending towards a Latin jazz sound. Young Latinos of the region listen to the Barrio Boys, Lino Santiago, Jocylin Enriques, and others who perform Latin house, a techno-rap hybrid of Latin beats like salsa or cumbia and house (mixed electronic deejay music), although no notable artists of the genres have yet surfaced in New Mexico or Colorado.
MUSIC
The alabado is a lament that echoes Arab-style laments, a result of the Moorish occupation of Spain for 800 years prior to the Spanish conquest of the New World. Alabados are associated with a church cofradia (confraternity) called Los Hermanos Penitentes de Nuestro Jesus el Nazareno, or the Penitential Brotherhood in Christ, the Nazarene (among other names used to refer to them). Often referred to simply as the Penitentes (the penitents) or Los Hermanos Brothers), the participants dedicate their lives to the discipline of meditating on the sufferings of Christ. The alabado graphically depicts biblical descriptions of the suffering endured by Christ and the consequent torment of Mary, his mother. The forms are strophic and often responsorial, where a single male sings the first line and a male chorus joins him on the last three. The songs are unaccompanied except in between verses, where it is common to hear a whistle flute (pito) playing a sad arabesque melody. Today alabados are heard at funerals and during Holy Week.
The Matachines Dance, introduced by the Spanish, is a pantomimed ritual dance drama accompanied by violin and guitar in the manito towns and settings. The dance is also performed in various indigenous pueblos (villages) and is the only indigenous ceremony of the region that utilizes instruments of European origin, often played in the pueblos by manitos. The dance drama lasts around forty-five minutes, during which time a double file of eight to twelve matachines dancers, a monarca (monarch), a lone female malinche, and various abuelos (grandfathers) enact a series of complicated choreographies to repeating sones (song and dance pieces). The melodies used are recognizably matachines tunes, although each little town or pueblo that performs the dance has its own set of variants. The same melodic and rhythmic cells are heard in many of the Mexican matachines village repertoires in central Mexico, which also derive from a Spanish repertoire that was itself quite old when it was transplanted in the New World during the early colonial era.
To the manitos the drama traditionally represented the Catholicization of the infidel—that is, the Moors and Turks in the Old World and indigenous peoples in the New World. Today its aspect as a ritual of spiritual obligation is emphasized, and in many cases dancing represents fulfilling a promise. So it is in the indigenous pueblos, where the dance is associated with Catholic saints' days, although it is strongly reinterpreted to conform to local formats.
Various communities were initially founded specifically for genízuros, groups of people with varying degrees of Indian ancestry, who had adopted Catholicism and the Spanish language and supported the Spanish government. In various locations throughout New Mexico where this was the case, a type of Comanche celebration has been preserved, which, in the town of Abiquiu, includes enactments of the old practices among Spanish and Indians alike of taking captives for slaves.
While these dance ceremonies incorporate various elements of humor, including demanding money ransoms for those "captured," the dances are performed seriously as an offering on particular saint and other holy day celebrations. Comanches dances are characterized by the use of a beaded headband and feathers and red Indian-style dress worn by both men and women, which likens them to dance groups in the border area further south (who do not sing, however). The songs that accompany the Comanches dancing are sung almost entirely Indian-style in vocables (nonlexical musical words, such as ana hey ana hey ana he yo), sometimes alternating with some very old Spanish verses, and are accompanied by a drum or drums played with a single mallet.
In some areas it was once the tradition for the Comanches to capture those children who had misbehaved during the year and then ransom them to their families in return for the promise to host a fiesta during the coming year. Comanche (or Comanchito) traditions continue to commemorate genizaro status, reflecting pride in an indigenous heritage rooted in strong, fierce, and resistant groups.
The old baile, or dance music, of this region is performed on one or more violins and guitars, a basic instrumentation that can be expanded to include a drum or bass. Skilled fiddlers of the old music are now mostly aged and part of a dying generation. Few young people continue to learn the old dances on the violin and guitar, and when they do, they are usually part of a family of musicians, notably the Roberto Martinez family in Albuquerque and the Filberto Trujillo family in Denver. Members of the Agustine Pena family of southern Colorado also perform many of the old songs with the instrumentation of the popular dance band and using the accordion but not the violin. Singing is a regular part of many of the old songs, but a large repertoire of cuadrilles, contradanzas, waltzes, polkas, and other dance genres rely entirely on instrumental accompaniment. Many of these are group dances and are featured in local cultural celebrations, although they are not usually seen except on a contractual basis.
MARIACHI
This music developed in Mexico and represents a syncretism, or merging, of European, indigenous, and African musical elements. There are various theories about the origins of the word, which was often spelled "mariache" around the time it first appeared. Some suggest that the earliest ensembles (of which there were many) took their name from the tree whose wood was used to make the instruments, but this, like other theories, is subject to strong debate. The oldest known reference to the term was found by
the Mexican anthropologist Jesús Jaúregui as the name of a ranch in a document dated 1832. The mariachi eventually became more of an urban phenomenon, a result of accompanying Mexican presidential candidates on their campaign tours. An outfit usually given to foremen on large Mexican ranches was adopted as the mariachi's symbol of status and was eventually adorned with fancy buttons along side seams, a tradition borrowed from traditional Spanish dance costumes. With the inclusion of mariachis in Mexican films of the 1930s (much like the singing cowboy idea in the United States), the mariachi costume seen today was established.
Mariachi music began to be written down early in the century, which limited the range of expression and improvisation it previously enjoyed. Over time more and more emphasis has been placed on the virtuosic performance of this music, which demands of its players rhythmic precision and group coordination on rapid tempos as well as an exhaustive repertoire. The mariachi musician must have a good understanding of various Mexican regional styles, including the Huapango from the Huastec region of northern Veracruz, the son Jalisciense of Jalisco, the son Jarocho of central Veracruz, and many more.
Denver boasts around twenty different mariachi groups. Many of the players are professional mariachis who have performed with famous mariachi groups from California and Mexico at various times in their careers. Some of the musicians travel to teach at mariachi workshops that take place around the United States at different times of the year, for mariachi is enjoying an overwhelming popularity among Mexican Americans and whites alike in this country. Mariachi is equally, if not more, popular in New Mexico than in Colorado, and the rise of mariachi has accompanied the decline of the older musical culture.
One of the best-attended mariachi summer workshops is held in Albuquerque, bringing together teachers from the best mariachis in California and Mexico. Many of the state's high schools now have mariachi ensembles, and a move to establish the same kinds of groups in Colorado has begun. The joyfulness and celebratory nature of mariachi is enough to account for its popularity in the region, but it is also functioning to provide a proud musical tradition as a suitable alternative to the Western classical music emphasis of mainstream society. Many young people in both New Mexico and Colorado attend the mariachi workshops in Albuquerque and elsewhere, finding the music a challenge that brings cultural pride when one is successful in mastering its difficulties.
LATIN DANCE BAND
One of the most popular entertainments among Latinos in general is social dancing, and New Mexico and Colorado are no exception. The dance band was always central to any celebration, and dance bands were always eager to please their audiences. In this tradition are many fine popular artists in the region, although New Mexico boasts all of the famous ones. They include Al Hurricane, Tiny Morrie, Roberto Griego, and Sparx (comprised of Al Hurricane's nieces) as well as others that are less known such as Ivon Ulibarri.
All but the youngest generation of these musicans typically came from humble backgrounds marked by poverty; members of Roberto Griego's own family, for instance, were swindeled out of their landholdings south of Albuquerque by opportunistic whites. Griego's prices now sometimes prevent him from performing in his native state, although he is very popular in Denver and in all of southern Colorado. The magic of their music—what makes these artists famous—is the danceability of their sound as well as the appeal of their composed lyrics, which often reflect on the existence of the manito. Additionally, the dance band is always prepared to perform at least some old favorites, even when the majority of the repertoire is the artist's own.
For many years Ivon Ulibarri was the only female dance band director in the region; she has brought salsa, cumbia, and other Afro-Latin beats to Albuquerque since the 1970s. Incorporating the Afro-Latin drum section, including congas, timbales, giiiros, and shakers of different kinds, Ulibarri's band has provided a link with Latino cultures other than those that predominate in the region. The group Conjunto Colores, comprised of Latinos of various nationalities, has filled this niche in Denver.
During the 1990s whites in Denver, Boulder, and other Colorado towns began to participate in the salsa dance craze that, along with swing, was sweeping the United States. This resulted in one or two salsa nights at many regular dance venues that use a deejay instead of live music, making the event a significant financial gain for the mostly non-Latino proprietors. The participants are often dance aficionados or specialists of varying degrees, and there is usually a teacher in attendance to demonstrate dance techniques and challenge the other dancers. Latinos from everywhere go to the clubs, as do whites.
VERNACULAR CHURCH MUSIC
While Gregorian chant, usually sung by a chorus of nuns or priests, predominated in all of the region's Catholic churches until the 1960s, most Catholic churches with large percentages of Hispanos now have their own chorus and instrumental forces who perform in the vernacular. In Denver, musician Dan Silva led a movement to create a large mariachi church group in the 1960s at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in the northwest part of the city. This led to a local tradition that has spawned various large mariachi groups, although the repertoire may be distinct from the secular sets. In addition to these large groups, many small church groups (often made up of family members) perform. Many of the church musicians are responsible members of the community, seeking a meaningful spiritual expression through the music they play in church. Music in the Latino Protestant churches parallels the discussion here, and in some places seems to take the central role of music in the Black Baptist Church.
