La Música Callejera Pt. 11 .............. En el viaje del norte

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

La Música Callejera - En el viaje del norte

...35) The trip home was a round the clock bus marathon from Nicaragua all the way around the Gulf coast of Mexico and the US South to Florida. I could usually stretch out across the seats to sleep late at night, but northbound traffic was constantly stopped and searched by the policía, presumably at the behest of the US government for illegal drugs or migrant workers from Central America hoping to find work in the North. They just checked my passport and let me drift back off without much idea of where I was in space and time. I barely laid my feet on solid ground for several days and only one musician came on board with a song in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe leading me to think I was probably somewhere in southern Mexico.

Próxima estación: La casa

FIN

La Música Callejera Pt. 10 ....Nicaragua

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

NICARAGUA
I got an impromptu Sandinista tour in León, a rebel stronghold during the war to overthrow the Samoza regime. By this time, Washington dollars had defeated the Sandinistas politically where Washington bullets could not. But pride in the Revolution remained visible in murals, sculptures, and the voices of people who were formerly rebels or supported them as an opposition party.

...33) Around the time I got to Masaya, a beautiful town where men played small marimbas rested on their laps in cafes, I realized I was pretty low on funds and I had to decide which way to go: Head back north overland by bus with enough cash to stop and rest at a few cheap hotels; or go east toward the Caribbean port of Bluefields, in hopes I might be able to catch a freighter for the short trip by sea back to the USA in exchange for some work. Being naive and reckless I headed for the coast. The trip was worthwhile for the chance to take the sparse, bumpy Nic 7 from Managua through the forest. My last hotel room was infested with wood spiders big enough to span the palm of my hand, not that I picked any up, and exhaustion insured that I slept fine. The people changed from mestizo to mostly African speaking a pidgin English as you near the Caribbean. Of course there were no ships leaving for the US anytime soon, and even if there were, they wouldn't allow some stupid gringo kid on board. 34) So after a few days I started on the very long bus ride home, catching a few more recordings along the way....

¡Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai! me enamoró Nicaragua....

La Música Callejera - Nicaragua

Última estación: En autobús pa'l norte

La Música Callejera Pt. 9 .............. .....El Salvador

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

SAN SALVADOR
...32) The capital city dominated by sounds of traffic with musicians and market vendors struggling to be heard over the techno din of an electronic horn and light show. It seems like every brightly airbrushed bus and taxi is screaming for attention with horns like party noisemakers that blip and beep different tones and notes....

La Música Callejera - El Salvador

Próxima estación: Nicaragua

La Música Callejera Pt. 8 ...Guatemala

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

GUATEMALA

...28) A marimba band of two boys, their father, and grandfather in the Parque Central of Quetzaltenango on market day. 29) A school marching band.  The bass drummers swinging the sticks on ropes around their wrists in fancy style. 30) A song at the Fiesta of San Miguel for masked dancers dressed as conquistadors and toros. 31) Quiche music at the shrine of San Miguel....

La Música Callejera - Guatemala

Próxima estación: El Salvador

La Música Callejera Pt. 7 ... Oaxaca

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

OAXACA
...Oaxaca was a special part of this trip to say the least.  People, culture, food, music, landscape and all were wonderful of course, but I missed this girl in San Francisco that I left on uncertain terms. After two-months corresponding via fax machine and finding letters waiting for me lista de correos in every town I stopped, we reunited at the Oaxaca airport and spent two weeks together that left me all starry-eyed.  ...23) El año se la va by a guitarist in a restaurant on the zocalo in the capital. 24) Two guitarists outside a museum. 25) Trumpet and drum players in the market. 26) A Catholic funeral procession outside the Zapotec ruins in Mitla. 27) Back in the capital, mariachis in full charro regalia play a song for and me and my girl....

...A year and a half later, we had our wedding in SF....  and Solamente una vez was our song.

La Música Callejera - Oaxaca

Próxima estación: Guatemala

La Música Callejera Pt. 6 .............. Estado de Puebla

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

CHOLULA
...20) Rockets explode, vendors hawk squeaky toys, and the congregation of La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Remedios sings María madre mía.  The bells toll as the procession descends from the 16th Century church that the Spanish built on top of the 2300 year-old ruins of Tlachihualtepetl, the world's largest pyramid.
La Música Callejera - Cholula

CUERNAVACA
21) A blind couple plays Las gaviotas and another song in the zócalo.
La Música Callejera - Cuernavaca

ACATLÁN
22) An off-duty mariachi sings for some very wasted friends as they talk to this gringo and sing along.  He plays professionally in Cuernavaca on weekends....
La Música Callejera - Acatlán

Próxima estación: Oaxaca

La Música Callejera Pt. 5 - Puebla

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

PUEBLA

...On the busy commercial streets, wherever money flows in the capital of Puebla there are musicians on every block trying to scrape by. 15) A family strolling, papá with trumpet, mamá with tambourine, and niños collecting tips.  16) A melody on guitar and mandolin by an elderly blind couple.  17) Down the street a saxophonist and drummer play a staccato danzón.  18) Still farther on sits a blind man playing maraca with his sighted wife playing guitar.  19) And yet another blind woman stands in the doorway of a stone building singing from her heart as people walk by her. Not realizing I had stopped to listen, she laughs as I thank her....

 
La Música Callejera - Puebla

Próximas estaciones: Cholula, Cuernavaca, y Acatlán, Puebla

La Música Callejera Pt. 4 - Mexico D.F.

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

MEXICO D.F.

After Zacatecas and Guanajuato, the streets of Mexico City were a swirling vortex of noise and activity.  But curiously, I encountered relatively little music. True, the city is a locus of Rock en Español, and I never made it to Plaza Garibaldi, the Grand Ole Opry of traditional mariachi, but there was a lack of everyday buskers eeking it out on the street.  I'm not sure if there were legal restrictions or practical issues that discouraged musicians.  Or maybe I just didn't make it to the right places.  ...14) I was fortunate to happen upon this rattletrap marimba, drum, and gourd conjunto hauling their instruments on their backs from bar to bar and competing with the sounds of passing traffic.

La Música Callejera - México D.F.

Próxima estación: Puebla

La Música Callejera Pt. 3 - Guanajuato

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

GUANAJUATO
This colonial town is brimming with music on every corner plying the tourists and locals alike.
...8) The bus onloads a guitar trio just long enough to play a bolero or two before the next stop.  9) An elderly blind singer asks, "Un ayudita jovenes...?" 10) An organillero with a hand cranked calliope. 11) A músico playing guitar and harmonica walking the long line of tourists at the mummy museum. He has a little bucket hooked on the tuning keys. [bizarre story here: A 1833 cholera epidemic killed hundreds of people who were hastily buried in the cemetery; a few were even still alive.  A law required the families to pay a tax to keep their relatives in the ground.  If they couldn't pay, the corpses were disinterred and stored in a warehouse.  It was found that many were naturally mummified by minerals in the soil.  When the mummies began attracting tourists, cemetery workers began charging for admission, and eventually El Museo De Las Momias was built.] 12) An old lady belts out Flor morena. 13) La malagueña by a guitar trio accompanied by the cathedral bells working the outdoor cafés and resaurants....

La Música Callejera - Guanajuato

Próxima estación: México DF

La Música Callejera, Pt. 2 - Zacatecas

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995

Read the series introduction here.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

ZACATECAS
...6) Una callejonada de tamboraso clangs through the streets every night with a party in tow. The invited guests wear a little ceramic cup on a cord around their neck that receives regular refills of tequila. The rest of us just tag along for the fun. This party crashes you! Here they're playing the standard El mariachi loco and latest craze La Macarena. 7) This accordionist plays with his wife and children at his side in the evenings. During the day the young boy returns to play alone....

La Música Callejera - Zacatecas

Próxima estación: Guanajuato

La Música Callejera, Pt. 1 - Chihuahua

Street Music of Mexico and Central America
July-October 1995
With a single bag and a handheld tape recorder I stretched my savings out for 4 months traveling second-class, staying in the cheapest rooms, and taking home sounds for souvenirs. Inspired by Alan Lomax recordings, and a tape from the public library called Street Music of Java, I recorded music in the streets, buses, trains, cafés, and zócalos along with all their glorious noise. At the time, it enabled me to be with people and places without having a camera in front of my face. Sometimes I taped discreetly and at others I set the machine on a table and let it run. I edited it down to one tape and made copies for friends and family. Listening to it now brings back memories better than any photo album ever could. I'll post all 90 minutes and liner notes, in parts, by location, until I get to the end of the tape - and the trip.

Dedicated to street musicians making a living peso a peso.

CHIHUAHUA
1) The train took me southbound through the Sonoran Desert, then northeast through the Copper Canyon, open windows on the passenger cars, no light at night except for the lit ends of cigarettes, attached to a long line of freight cars also carrying passengers; migrant workers returning home. Spent one night half-sleeping on a station platform with the metallic roll and crash of coupling boxcars. 2) José the tap dancing harmonica player doing El Rancho Grande. 3) A conjunto of blind men. 4) La banda del carro rojo, a narcocorrido by Los Tigres del Norte, done in an original style. 5) My little friends Luisa and Miguel making a meal of chicharrón y coca-cola....

La Música Callejera - Chihuahua

Próxima estación: Zacatecas