|
|
 |
|
"My Way To Show Baton Rouge I'm Here": Latino Music and Dance in Baton Rouge
By Dominic Bordelon
Introduction / Latin American Music: Popular Contemporary Genres
Status of Latin American Music in the Baton Rouge Area / Mestizo / Julio & César
La Rumba Buena / The Latin Four
Traditional Mexican Dance: Irma Farfán Cobb / Festival Latino / Conclusion
Status of Latin American Music In The Baton Rouge Area
Few Latino musicians are active in the Baton Rouge Latino community. Though many know how to play an instrument to some degree, few keep in practice or play regularly because jobs in the construction industry, which employs a large number of Latinos in the area, are very demanding, leaving little free time for activities such as music. In the Baton Rouge area, a Mexican band called Mestizo is the only currently active band in 2009.
A few other groups and artists who are Latino, play Latino music, and/or perform for the Latino community in Baton Rouge, but they live in LaPlace, Kenner, Metairie, and elsewhere in the greater New Orleans area. Examples of these are the groups Julio & César, La Rumba Buena, and the Latin Four. Their Baton Rouge audiences are often largely non-Latino, except when they perform for private parties. This seems to be the case because the bands are performing in Tex-Mex-style American restaurants, and there are few appropriate venues among the Latino restaurants and other businesses. One exception to this is the Latin Club, a night club with a relatively large dance floor, whose music is provided by DJs and touring international bands; however, local groups do not perform there. Another exception to this is Ahuua's Mexican Restaurant on Jones Creek Road, where the group Mestizo regularly performs.
Mestizo, a Mexican band based in Baton Rouge regularly plays at Ahuua's Mexican Restaurant. Photo: Dominic Bordelon. |
Mestizo
Mestizo, Baton Rouge's first Mexican band, started playing together in December 2008. The name of the band refers to mixed race or heritage, similar to English "creole." This is an apt name: Mestizo percussionist Lucas Gonzaga, in reference to the band members' origins, has said, "Por eso fue el nombre de Mestizo. Porque nos reunimos de varios estados." ("That's why it was the name 'Mestizo.' Because we came together from various states.") True to their diverse origins and their name, the band plays a mixture of genres from all over Mexico, such as ranchera, corrido, charanga, duranguense, and cumbia (originally a Colombian form, now popular in Mexico and throughout Latin America).
Mestizo has five members: Juan, organizer and vocalist; Marcos, guitarist; Arturo, keyboardist; Lucas, percussionist, and another percussionist. The band carries a strong beat, made for dancing, with the upbeats accented by the guitar. Smooth vocals trade off with the keyboard, which plays riffs and trills synthesized to sound like accordions, saxophones, flutes, or trumpets, depending on the song.
If Mestizo's music is made for dancing, then it is put to good use. Their audience is mostly Mexicans and Hondurans well-versed in the songs that the band plays. Though all of the music they play is Mexican, there are plenty of people of other nationalities who enjoy the music and dance to it as well. Recently, they are focusing more on duranguense, which is a genre originating in Durango, Mexico. It is a fast style, and Lucas says, "tiene bastante sabor la música" ("the music has a lot of flavor"). He adds that, importantly, "en una fiesta, la duranguense anima a la gente." ("at a party, duranguense livens people up.") The band plays regularly at Ahuua's Restaurant in Baton Rouge and many private parties. Ahuua's is a restaurant with primarily Latino patronage, but it receives some non-Latino customers, which broadens Mestizo's audience outside of the Spanish-speaking community.
The band's repertoire consists of probably two hundred songs, but they are aiming for around a thousand. The canons of the band's various genres are large, and the musicians want to be able to play what people request. This is difficult because it requires a great amount of learning and practice. Besides the classics, Lucas says, "tenemos que estar al día con la música" ("we have to be up-to-date with the music"); they are always trying to learn the songs they hear on the radio. In particular, corridos are a popular genre for requests, and the canon is very large. Additionally, Lucas notes that band members set high standards for themselves and constantly strive to improve.
In addition to these difficulties, the band struggles to make enough time to practice and play. They all work around 56 hours per week in construction, so it is hard enough to play gigs, much less get the necessary practice. This is the primary reason that there are so few publicly known musicians in Baton Rouge's Latino community--many know how to play, but few have the time to do so, or to practice, because they are employed in occupations that demand many hours per week. Lucas did not find any musicians he could play with his first two years here, and the band Mestizo did not start playing together until December 2008. The band's original plan was to be somewhat larger, with horns, but no available musicians could be found. Also, the band's practice space presents challenges since they practice in a cramped trailer. Despite these daunting obstacles of repertoire and time, the band pushes on with their music. According to Lucas, "Tenemos el gusto, porque nos gusta, eso nos inspira" ("We play because we have a liking for it. We like to play; that is what inspires us.")
Mestizo also finds that the English language is a barrier for them. In everyday life, it limits their activities and ability to communicate; Lucas has said that although he works with many English-speakers, he cannot communicate with them. The band has played at events where no one spoke Spanish. About English, Lucas has said, "Es algo que tenemos que agarrarlo, porque es muy importante tenerlo" ("It's something that we have to get a hold of, because it's very important to have it.") Despite its complexity, he is learning it "poco a poco" (little by little).
As the Baton Rouge area's first Mexican band--and more broadly its first Latino band--the group "has a responsibility" to play well, according to Lucas; "tenemos una responsibilidad. . . . tienes que presentarte bien" ("You have to present yourself well.") Since the band is still young, Lucas says that they don't yet have a distinct sound, and "para eso, les damos trabajo mucho, bastante en el grupo, para poder agarrar nuestro propio estilo" ("for that, we're working a lot, quite a bit in the group, to be able to get into our own style.") After doing this, and expanding their repertoire, the band may pursue original songs.
While the band may not consider their performances unique, they certainly have audience appeal, even outside of the Latino community. Lucas tells this story:
Un Cinco de Mayo, en un restaurante. . . estábamos muy nerviosos, porque había puro americano. . . tocando el rock bastante bien. Y nosotros, tocando música mexicana. . . nos sentíamos muy nerviosos, muy, muy nerviosos. Estamos al punto de ya no tocar. Pero estábamos tocando la canción de aquí "Jambalaya". . . [una versión] durangüense. . . . y bailó la gente más con nosotros que con el grupo de rock. (One Cinco de Mayo, in a restaurant. . . we were very nervous, because it was all American. . . [with a rock band] playing pretty well. And us, playing Mexican music. . . we felt very nervous, very, very nervous. We were at the point where we weren't going to play. But we were playing the song from here, "Jambalaya". . . [a] durangüense [version]. . . . And the people danced more with us than with the rock group.)
Clearly Mestizo has potential to play outside the Spanish-speaking community as well, and they may find some success in other venues in the future.
As a band playing diverse genres, having a broad appeal throughout the community, Mestizo can impart many meanings in their music. Lucas has said, "La música puede significar muchas cosas. Significa la alegría, significa a veces el dolor de un amor, significa que estás enamorado." ("The music can mean many things. It means happiness, sometimes it means heartbreak, it means that you're in love.") Most importantly, though, the music reminds its listeners, and its performers, of home: "Nos hace sentir que estamos allá." ("It makes us feel like we're there.")
Julio & César
Julio and César Herrera are brothers who have played guitar together for many years. Originally from Guatemala, they arrived in the United States as young men in 1967. Residents of Kenner, they perform in a variety of venues across southeast Louisiana: restaurants, clubs, private parties, concert halls, and charity events, including Baton Rouge. As skilled musicians established in the area for a long time, they have developed a following that knows them by their unique sound: deft, complex melodies produced on rich nylon-string classical guitars. César, the older brother, sings and plays the accompanying parts of the music, while Julio plays the lead. César's son Andrew, a bassist, plays with them, and the brothers hire other musicians as needed. They have had a band as large as twelve before, which included horns. However, Julio and César are always, in César's words, "the basics" of the band.
Julio and César Herrera from Guatemala regularly perform in Baton Rouge at La Caretta Restaurant with Andrew Herrera, César's son. Photo: Dominic Bordelon. |
Their repertoire consists of a broad variety of music from Latin America, Spain, the United States, and Italy. César sings in Spanish, English, and Italian. The genre closest to their hearts is Guatemalan folk music, but since they realize that many audiences do not share that interest, they play salsa, merengue (a Caribbean style), boleros (romantic ballads), samba, flamenco, and country western. César says, "We try to play whatever the people like." No matter what they play, though, they infuse it with their own style; their performance of "Hotel California," for instance, is no straight cover. It has a distinctly Spanish flavor, accented by Julio's rapid guitar picking. "We try to put our own style," says César.
That style is influenced by Guatemalan folk music, which prominently features marimbas (wooden xylophone-type instruments). One characteristic of such instruments is that they cannot produce long, sustained notes; the tone quickly fades away after the bar is struck. Therefore a player must strike a bar repeatedly if they want a longer note, similar to a drum roll effect. César has observed that "Julio plays the guitar like he's playing a marimba." Julio imitates that effect with a technique called tremolo on stringed instruments, the rapid, repeated picking of a string.
"Julio Herrera plays guitar like the marimba. Photo: Dominic Bordelon. |
If Julio is imitating the marimba when he plays, it is not merely because he overheard it at some performance as a child. His and César's father was a marimba player, and in fact their whole family was influential in their development as musicians: Julio said, "We have relatives that are very talented in music and the arts. So they gave us the lift . . . to learn the music. We started playing marimba. In the house we had marimbas, guitars, drums, you name it." Schools and hospitals called the family to perform, and their mother was a dancer with a good ear for music. César tells this story with a laugh: "When we were practicing a song and we would have a bad note, she said, 'Hey! ¡Óyeme! (Listen to me!) That note, I don't like it. Wrong chord.' So we'd correct it. Then she'd say, 'That's better.' So she helped us a lot." Their fondness and love for their mother is expressed in their instrumental song "Angelina de Huehuetenango," which shares its name with their album.
Huehuetenango is the name of Julio and César's hometown, which they left as young men. Julio describes it as "full of culture." The town was a Mayan settlement before the arrival of Spanish conquistadores, and the ruins of it are still there. For the Herrera brothers, it is important that they never forget their origins, and that they serve as proud representatives of Huehuetenango: César has said, "The songs we're working on, they have been putting the name of the town high in other countries." In 2007, Huehuetenango recognized Julio and César for their artistry, bestowing plaques and medals and giving them a hero's welcome. They played to a packed theater of about 5000 people, by their estimate. Julio has said, "That's a really good feeling, to have your hometown give you a standing ovation. . . . We have received many awards, . . . but that one really touched our hearts."
Julio and César have produced an album, Angelina de Huehuetenango, recorded in 1997. Besides the original title composition, the album shows off a variety of styles, including driving, flamenco-infused pieces such as "Mi Barca," soulful love songs such as "Candado" and "Sabrá Dios," a samba called "Samba Di Magie," and the popular "Malagueña." The performers are comfortable both with and without vocals. "Spanish Eyes," which César sings in English, is probably best known as an Elvis Presley song, but here it features Julio's deft movements on guitar and a prominent marimba. Since "Angelina de Huehuetenango", the Herrera brothers have composed more original songs, and they would like to make another album. "Angelina," César says, is already over 10 years old, so "when we go back next year, we need to bring another one, with a few songs from Guatemala, for them to know we are thinking about them."
Julio and César are well-known in the New Orleans area. Mayor Marc Morial granted them a key to the city, they have played at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and they play numerous shows for charity. Within the Latin music community, and perhaps the music community as a whole, they are very highly regarded. Though they will always be Guatemalan, César says, "We feel like we belong here now." They have travelled to many cities in the United States, but none of them has the feeling of warmth that New Orleans does. For their next album, Julio has said that they would like to mix the traditional music of Guatemala with that of Louisiana, and "let's see what happens." César says that a song his father composed is appropriate for the Dixieland style. Julio makes the following promise: "As long as we live, we will keep trying to perform, trying to bring more culture, and cooperate for the enlargement of the culture of Louisiana. . . . We're going to leave something here."
Next - La Rumba Buena / The Latin Four
Dominic Bordelon is a graduate student at Louisiana State University. He did this research as part of the New Populations Project in 2009.
|
