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Jesús Jáuregui publishes "El mariachi" three centuries of musical history
Reforma - By Jorge Ricardo Nicolas - Translation by Eduardo Rincón Gallardo
Mexico City.- In Mexico there are over 30,000 mariachi musicians whose tradition dates back to the XVIII century. And it was not until 2007 that the first treaty on its development was published, now that some “mariacheros” have quit using their hats because they get stuck in cars doors.
 "Also because musicians no longer come from the country and are not used to using them. The hat dates from horseback times and it is now something cumbersome when they play in enclosed areas. Sometimes the harp also stays locked up in the closet” said researcher Jesús Jaúregui (Teocaltiche, Jalisco, 1949), whose book “El mariachi”. Musical symbol of Mexico, is presented as the genre’s first anthropological approach including over 300 pictures.
Back in 1960 the University of California started to do academic research and offer courses on the mariachi, while in Mexico there is not an educational institution with programs on the subject.
"There is some kind of abandonment on the part of anthropological and etno-musicological research as the mariachi is seen as something so close and part of the daily life, that Mexican intellectuals observe it with contempt, seeing it as something popular, belonging to the lower classes and not authentic, as the modern variation of the mariachi was designed to be spread as something rural and promoted from the city” adds the researcher from the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History)
Jáuregui has carried this investigation for the past 25 years, published by the INAH and the CNCA (National Council for Culture and the Arts)among other publishing companies, in an effort to unveil the myths about the origin of the mariachi. With this study we advance in the comprehension of the mixed races of Mexico.
"I can boast about having obtained all the articles and academic essays, unedited theses, magazines, symposiums’ records, compilations, documentaries, theme books and works that dedicate a chapter or a fragment” he wrote in his book .
Jáuregui makes a distinction between the traditional mariachi and the modern one. The former being present in Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Zacatecas, using string instruments and being the means to “communicate with what is sacred, to play for the saints and to vigil the dead, mainly children”; while the modern mariachi is present throughout Mexico.
Jáuregui concentrates on explaining how the modern mariachi became a symbol of what is Mexican in and outside the country, starting during the regime of President Lázaro Cárdenas, when it retook the figure of the “Charro” and the trumpet became an added feature.
Contrary to the song, the mariachi is not from Cocula, says Jáuregui. We should look for its origin in Nayarit, since the battles leading to the independence of Mexico brought the inhabitants of Cuyutlán and other localities from the mountains of Nayarit to form a town on a land called Rosamorada and then formed groups of traditional mariachis with Cora and Tecualme Indians.
 With the migration of musicians to Mexico City came the idea of bringing the “country’s mythical ambiance” back to life while simultaneously strengthening a concept of national unity at the end of the Mexican revolution.
To this effect, he explains, the image of the “Charro” was retaken, already known as the masculine symbol of what is Mexican from the mid XIX century.
"Even Maximillian designed his charro suits when he became the Emperor of Mexico", he assured.
In 1934, Lázaro Cárdenas became president of Mexico and invited the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, adding to the acceptance of the genre.
"The Mariachi Vargas arrived without a trumpet until, in 1940, the national radio station XEW suggested putting in a trumpet to generate another job and it became the most representative instrument of the mariachi” he stated.
The modern mariachi achieved its peak with singer-actor Jorge Negrete, the first singing charro, who studied at the German School of Mexico City and learned to ride and handling a gun at the Military School.
"He was the elite’s baritone and at the beginning he was reluctant to sing with a mariachi".
Even faced with the competition of northern style music, there is not another genre that identifies what is Mexican so well as the mariachi does.
Source: www.presidencia.gob.mx/ |
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