Week XIII: Las Mexicanas

Las Jilgeurillas

Las Mexicanas: Cantantes / Hermanas  / Bravías

Last year we had two weeks for all this--so what follows is a lot of material. As pointed out, you'll find particular singers to engage with now--and many starting points for beyond the class!
For now, we'll look at your concluding project next week (May 1),  but you'll have the songs to continue with in the week leading up to our final evening--la fiesta en el 8 de Mayo...

DOWNLOADS:
Elvira Ríos:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/1mlb0patuooa47b8fnk7

Las Hermanas Padilla, Las Jilguerillas
https://berkeley.box.com/s/d5r734k7ejl44c563dtphttps://berkeley.box.com/s/d5r734k7ejl44c563dtp

READING: Best approach this week is to use online sources (wiki or wiki in Spanish) to look into biographies of the musicians. Follow your own lead.

YOUTUBE: The following songs are all a treasure--todas un tesoro--but a lot for the short time remaining in the semester. So I pass them on to you as future starting points, and because I've myself enjoyed them greatly during the years. For the next two weeks,  let me suggest this approach: listen to the first song or two for each set (each artist, each duo), then go back, listen to more from the set(s) you like in particular--and use this as a way to concentrate for your project. Start with the downloads above, then make your way through the YouTube selections, many with film clips!

Cantantes de Época Anterior: Elvira Ríos (download), Toña la Negra, Hermanas Águila (singing in the early 1930s) and Lucha Reyes.

Cantantes de Tiempos más Recién: Las Hermanas Padilla, Las Jilguerillas  (download), and the you tube selections below (from Las Hermanas Huerta to contemporary Lila Downs)

There's a lineage here, which you should know about: the early singers like Toña la Negra and Elvira Ríos (wonderful) and Las Hermanas Águila (often with songs by Agustin Lara). The cross-over figure to the "bravía" ranchera tradition is Lucha Reyes, late 1930s. I've included film clip from La Tequilera, 1941--same period,  although note that the actress is someone other than Lucha Reyes. Then come the ranchera singers en sí--Lola Beltran, Lucha Villa, Amalia Mendoza (la Tariácuri) and later, Yolanda del Río. Chavela Vargas sienda la reina...
Y por supuesto, las hermanas--sister duos like Las Hermanas Padilla and Las Jilguerillas (download), Las Hermanas Huerta (wonderful) and others. Be sure to listen to las Hermanas Huertas'  version of the song, Atotonilco.

And then more recent (and contemporary) artists like Lila Downs and Linda Ronstadt. Each with fascinating stories--Lila Downs comes in part from raíces zapotecas oaxaqueñas. And Linda Ronstadt, her Anglo surname notwithstanding, grew up in a Mexican family de este lado. Her landmark album, Canciones de mi padre (1987) was a huge success--and put the kinds of songs we're doing into the American listening mainstream. (A story worth looking into!) So, take up what you find most compelling, follow your own lead... Todas buenas...

Some of the film/video clips show faces of the audience--these moments are telling. ¡Qué se den cuenta!

Note on YouTube: occasionally songs are removed for copyright reasons. Someone invariably posts them again--so simply make a new search, with artist + song title. Often the icon image will tell you whether you have the same version. As for ads--well, mute them out--or download the songs onto your own music hard drive (audio or video) to eliminate.

Época anterior:

Toña la Negra (1912-1982):
TOÑA, LA NEGRA = SANTA (AGUSTÍN LARA) - YouTube
TOÑA, LA NEGRA - NOCHE CRIOLLA - YouTube  (tango)
SACA LA MANO-MAMBO- TOÑA LA NEGRA y ROSA CARMIÑA - YouTube  (FILM clip)

Elvira Ríos (1917-1987):
YouTube - Elvira Rios En mi soledad  FILM
YouTube - ELVIRA RIOS-REGALO DE VIAJE-TV MÉXICO  FILM
ELVIRA RIOS - VERDAD AMARGA - YouTube

Hermanas Aguila (1930s):
LAS HERMANAS AGUILA - "FAROLITO" DE: AGUSTIN LARA - YouTube
HERMANAS ÁGUILA, AMARGURA - YouTube

Lucha Reyes (1906-1944):
Lucha Reyes - La Tequilera - YouTube  FILM. La cantante no es Lucha Reyes, pero viene del mismo período.
LUCHA REYES, LA TEQUILERA (1941) - YouTube Aquí Lucha Reyes misma canta (site de Solitariodark)

Tiempos más recién:

Las Hermanas Huerta:
Hermanas Huerta - Atotonilco - YouTube  FILM
LAS HERMANAS HUERTA Y DONNEÑOS-Tres Balas - YouTube

Las Jilguerillas:
LAGRIMAS LLORO, LAS JILGUERILLAS.wmv - YouTube
dueto las jilguerillas y dueto las palomas mix - YouTube
Cuatro Milpas-Las Jilguerillas - YouTube
las jilguerillas "enganosa y cobarde" - YouTube

Lola Beltran:
LOLA BELTRAN, PALOMA NEGRA - YouTube
Lola Beltran en Bellas Artes -SUFRIENDO A SOLAS-, 1990..VOB - YouTube  FILM
Cucurrucucú Paloma - Lola Beltrán & Pedro Vargas, Lucha ... - YouTube
Lola Beltrán -CUCURRUCUCU PALOMA- , 1975. - YouTube
Lola Beltrán -LA BORRACHITA- , 1981. - YouTube   FILM

Lucha Villa:
LUCHA VILLA, LAS DOS CARAS DEL DESTINO (1960) - YouTube

Amalia Mendoza (La Tariácuri)
AMALIA MENDOZA "LA TARIACURI", ECHAME A MI LA CULPA (1958) - YouTube
AMALIA MENDOZA "LA TARIACURI" AMARGA NAVIDAD - YouTube  (FILM)

Yolanda del Río:
Yolanda del Río - Se me olvido otra vez - YouTube

Chavela Vargas
No soy de aqui - Chavela Vargas y la Negra Chagra - YouTube  (les va a interesar, esta versión de chavela!)
Chavela Vargas - Volver, volver - YouTube

 _____

Lila Downs:
YouTube - Lila Downs canta Paloma negra
Lila Downs - La Cama de Piedra - YouTube +
Lila Downs -EL VENADITO-Oct-1999-..mpg - YouTube

Linda Ronstadt:  la versión de video ya no esta publicada

linda ronstadt - la barca de guaymas lp - YouTube (la versión de video ya no esta publicada)

PEDRO INFANTE - LA BARCA DE GUAYMAS - YouTube  (a comparar)
Pedro infante - amorcito corazon - YouTube (a comparar)
Linda Ronstadt - Canciones de mi padre -El adios del soldado - YouTube

_____

There are also many  CORRIDOS in which las mujeres tienen papel central: La Adelita (corrido revolucionario), Rosita Alvirez (corrido de antes). We won't have time this term to do the corrdidos justice--they could be a whole course--but you may explore as you like. Kory sang Rosita Alvirez to me as one of her favorites...

Week 12: Cuatro Milpas / El Desterrado

Diego Rivera, El Maíz (Civilización huasteca), Palacio Nacional, DF

READING: Octavio Paz, El laberinto de la soledad, "De la Independencia a la Revolución, pps. 128-162. We left don Ocavio a few weeks back (with the Cuco Sánchez project). Read the chapter here and you'll have another central portion of his thinking about Me´xico... I'll make comments on this in class.

CANCIONES:  Cuatro Milpas is  song from the 1920's, reflecting all the changes of those years just after the Revolucíon, with the shift from "campo a ciudad." While that's not the direct reference, the feelings for the country way of living are made beautifully clear. Ya la tienen en el cancionero.
Autor: Belisario de Jesús García de la Garza.

▶ "Cuatro Milpas" - YouTube
 
A parallel song (also in the cancionero) would be "El desterrado," which fits thematically with the beginnings of the ranchera (here, "por el amor de esa mujer" is definitely situated in the countryside--but in a place that's been left behind. The reasons why? We could invent many--they depend on the listener--and the song (by extension) applies to more recent times as well.

Here's the version by David Zaízar:  "El Desterrado" Hnos. Zaizar - YouTube

DOWNLOAD (SUPPLEMENT): Aquí tienen un cd entero de los Hnos. Zaízar. This is a supplemental selection to give you a wider sense of their repertory:

https://berkeley.box.com/s/z1xoi1a8ts9ue5reehs2


PROJECT: The key word for the week is MILPA--the corn field--which figures throughout the  history of México, both before and after the conquest. (Vean también: Las tres hermanas: el maíz, el frijol y la calabaza.) Milpa suggests images from the past--along with images from today, as well as a way of understanding how the land and the culture of México inter-relate.

______

And in that regard, let me share with you--as a supplement to the notion of MILPA--something that Valdemar Díaz put together for last years class. The videos (and the people portrayed) offer a beautiful contrast to the recordings above:

About maíz and milpa

I would like to share with my fellows in Mexican songs and places this documentary (see below). It is divided in four parts, I do not why. The fragmentation does not affect its continuity. Although it is a significative lost the lack of credits. Naturally, I share the position and intentionality of the producers and I learn from the voices of the women and men interviewed. They remind me my childhood and my immersion in socioenvironmetal issues when I became older, not so far from the region where the documentary was shot, the Mixteca (yap, the same region of the song "Tierra del sol", the place where I have seen the most beautiful sky, beside the sunsets in Cuernavaca and the Bay Area).

Yonder the personal detour, there are few things that I would like to comment. First, the documentary is in Spanish, with some subtitles in the same language when the voices speak mixteco. As you will hear, the Spanish is their second language. I admire the bilingual skill that they have to transmit emotions, critical thought and world-view. In this sense they are poets, real poets.

Second, I think the documentary is a corn cob (mazorca) itself, a colorful one, showing the integrated and different faces of the maíz (note the name in mixteco and hear it in the opening song, maíz is a Spaniard-Taino word, as cannibal, caribe, cacique and others, as maguey and tuna capsuladelengua.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/ecos-tainos/).

Next, note that they say "maíz criollo" (indigenous maize), this is a fundamental point to remember at the end of the documentary. Maíces criollos are the result of hundreds or even thoundsans of years of human selection of seeds, for this reason indigenous and peasant communities have varieties that adequate to a large range of environmental conditions, maíces of rapid growth, maíces for the valleys or mountain insides, etcetera. The point is that maíz criollo is the result of seeds and not a Frankenstein between a seed and a bacteria as transgenic corn is.

Finally, I think that they do not say milpa, although it is clear that think in its terms, as an agroecological food system that combines grasses with plants that help to fix nitrogen in the soil (Some of you with bio-ecology interests maybe would like this chapter http://www.culturaspopulareseindigenas.gob.mx/pdf/cap2_maiz.pdf) and provides a balanced diet to the household.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=921GWU7KTNs&sns=em
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib4vSy-LWhQ&sns=em
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib4vSy-LWhQ&sns=em
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEUyLmmfXhU&sns=em

Week 11: Trío Los Panchos / Sin Tí

Trío Los Panchos (conjunto original, 1940s)

Trío Los Panchos  / Sin Tí


DOWNLOAD: No  separate Trío Los Panchos download. Listen to the YouTube versions instead, links below.

READING: "La vida es un sueño," by Ry Cooder (from his book, Los Angeles Stories), available as pdf in box. Be sure to read early in the week so that the story can percolate in your imagination!

The setting is Los Angeles, the year 1950. A beautiful rendition of "place" at a specific moment in  time--vis a vis a song... Ry Cooder is best known as a musician, but here he's made himself into a (very good!) short story writer, in the the LA noir tradition. I'll be curious what you think...!  As you'll see, the main character is a "trío man"--and the song that weaves through is--of course--Sin tí...

Read carefully (there's lots of good detail) and make the leap (in your project) from Ry Cooder's story to the world of Trío Los Panchos...

MÚSICA:
Trío Los Panchos ON FILM:  (cantan Sin tí y  Perdida). These two filmed versions will tell you a lot about Trío Los panchos, and their music:
TRIO LOS PANCHOS Sin ti - YouTube
TRIO LOS PANCHOS Perdida - YouTube

Los Panchos / otras selecciones (some on film as well):
Trio los Panchos - Solamente un vez - YouTube
TRIO LOS PANCHOS rayito de luna - YouTube
los panchos..ADIOS MARIQUITA LINDA - YouTube
Trio Los Panchos - Sabor a Mi - YouTube
PIEL CANELA Eydie Gorme Y Trio Los Panchos - 'Piel Canela' - YouTube
TRÍO LOS PANCHOS - CIELITO LINDO - YouTube  (!!!)

And to close, the song from which Ry Cooder took his title. First, the original (and priceless) version by Aresenio Rodriguéz (de Cuba), and  a beautiful versión de México... Lupe y Raul.

▶ Arsenio Rodriguez-La vida es un sueño - YouTube
LUPE Y RAUL - LA VIDA ES UN SUEÑO - YouTube

-Fernando Fernandez-Los Panchitos-Trio Martino- -La Vida es un Sueño- - YouTube


_________

Not part of this week's project, but good to know about: For Ry Cooder's music, follow up with his own recordings, and of course his production of Buena Vista Social Club (in Havana).  There's also his more recent album centered on the story of LA's Chavez Ravine--portrayed in music. Many more of his songs/versions are on YouTube... Here are just a few:
Ry Cooder - Goodnight Irene - YouTube
Ry Cooder with John Lee Hooker - YouTube
Ry Cooder and David Lindley - Jesus On The Mainline - YouTube
Ry Cooder Cancion Mixteca - YouTube, a version I quite recommend!

Week X: Agustín Lara / Farolito

Agustín Lara

 FAROLITO / CALLE / PUERTA

Agustin Lara is a phenomenon--certainly one of Mexico's greatest song writers and performers--and the stories about him are legion. Some of them are even true! Lara (originally from Vera Cruz, according to one version), led a mysterious and adventurous life--in all senses--reflected year-by-year in his songs. Farolito might be the best known, but listen as well to Mujer, and María Bonita (written for María Félix) and Imposible (his very first)... They're all good--and all completely different from the ranchera tradition we've been following. This is another side--otra cara--de México! I'll give you a good selection (from a double cd) which you can edit down into your favorites as a playlist. Contrast with José Alfredo. And what would Don Octavio have to say?

PROJECT: Look into Agustin Lara's life--all the stories--and build your project around them--and la canción romántica in your own life...  Let FAROLITO be your guide...

DOWNLOAD: https://berkeley.box.com/s/xvj6rftnvsydgkvmy0gq

READING: For those who can handle the Spanish, I'll include Yolanda Moreno Rivas' chapter (attached as pdf). READ CAREFULLY. It has good photos, too. Please come to class ready to share the stories with your non-Spanish reading classmates. For our English readers--you can find a lot on line.

VIDEOS: The first two are audio--his original versions. The second two are from films:
AGUSTIN LARA - FAROLITO (PRIMERA VERSION) - YouTube
AGUSTIN LARA - IMPOSIBLE - YouTube
AGUSTÍN LARA - María Bonita - YouTube  FILM. Agustin Lara at the piano--filmed live. There are a few other videos like this, on YouTube if you search carefully.

FILM Bandoneon Tango y el Bolero "Pecadora" Libertad Lamarque - YouTube  Watch Agustin Lara presenting Libertad Lamarque here in the first minute of the video; he then accompanies her as she sings. (Libertad Lamarque was originally from Argentina, but she became very popular in Mexico (where she lived in exile) especially in film. 1930s and '40s. Look for Pedro Infante and Libertad Lamarque together in the film, Ansiedad-- it has a wonderful version of Farolito.)