Lila Downs
Lila Downs Sanchez and her band will be appearing at the Alvaro Carillo Theater in Oaxaca on February 12. It's a benefit for the Casa de Mujer. If you're in town, don't miss it. Photography by Diana Ri...
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Songs about Michoacán
Caminos de Michoacan
(an old ranchera song)
Composer: Bulmaro Bermúde
Click for MP3
Cariñito donde te hallas
Con quién te andarás paseando
Presiento qu...
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Himno nacional Mexicano - the Mexico national anthem
Letra Oficial del
Himno Nacional Mexicano
CORO Mexicanos, al grito de guerra
El acero aprestad y el bridon;
...
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Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio
A riotous image of a storm of people bolting down a wide Mexico City avenue, in the midst of a live Maldita Vecindad rock performance from the back of a moving truck, comprises one of many memorable vi...
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The Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato
Guanajuato is, and has been for a long time, a centre of culture and education. In one way or another, it has always been prosperous, either through the richness of its farmland or its mines. There was...
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Guanajuato's sonic landscape
Sometime during my first month in Guanajuato, the idea floated into my head of writing an article about the sonic landscape of the city. This of course includes a great deal of music, since it resounds...
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Life and music in Guanajuato
The city of Guanajuato is nestled in a sort of steep basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains and spreads up around the center of the basin. Imagine a huge, terraced rice paddy such as we've seen in photos ...
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Xalapa, city of flowers
I’m puzzled as to why Xalapa hasn’t become more of a permanent residence for Americans and Canadians. Of the six cities my wife and I visited – Morelia, Cholula, Puebla, Xalapa, Vera Cruz and Queretero – Xalapa is for us the hands-down winner.
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The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel
Even though the story starts out calmly enough, by the time you reach chapter two, you're in the middle of the wildest kind of fantasy, part new age and part sci-fi, complete with time travel, space travel, reincarnation, astrology and almost anything else you can imagine. The time span of the book stretches from the fall of Moctezuma to the 23rd century
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Encounter Of Two Musical Traditions '99
"I'm playing yesterday's music and nobody pays any attention to it any more," lamented Juan Reynoso, the virtuoso violinist from Guerrero's Tierra Caliente, just a few days before President Zedillo han...
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Jose Garcia Olvera - El Professor De Los Pobres
Olvera has been teaching a choir in Santa Ana Tepetitlan, for boys aged six to 13 years old, five days a week for the last 23 years.
The first time I hear the choir Ninos Cantores d...
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A Legend In His Time - Composer Agustín Lara
Music is the universal language that crosses all barriers and penetrates the heart. There was no composer who understood the emotional draw of music better than Agustín Lara, and no song writer who ha...
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Xalapa Symphony Orchestra
This past February I had the pleasure of attending the first concert of the 2005 season given by the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra. It was the first time I had heard the orchestra, and I was impressed by t...
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The mariachi
Each year here in Guadalajara, we host an international mariachi meeting, with a musical festival and all of the rest included. Mariachis from all over the world come to celebrate the occasion every year. I've even had the opportunity to listen, believe it or not, to Japanese mariachis!
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Did You Know? Consuelo Velázquez and "Bésame mucho".
The song "Bésame mucho" (Kiss me a lot) was written by a young Mexican woman who had never been kissed. This article is a tribute to Consuelo Velázquez, who died January 22, 2005, at the age o...
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Did You Know? Popular children's chorus features cockroaches and pot smoking
La Cucaracha (The Cockroach), one of Mexico's best known corridos, is a comic, satirical song, with infinite possibilities for creative verses. Versions of La Cucaracha have been performed by countless bands and musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Bill Haley & His Comets, Doug Sahm
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Did you know? Mayan architects built world's oldest sound recordings
The Pyramid of Kukulkan, Chichen Itza
Photo by Tony Burton
Modern sound recordings usually involve tiny disks which can hold dozens of tracks, specially designed to be easily portable an...
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Did you know? Mexico's Nobel Prize nominee and music revolutionary
A Mexican who tried to revolutionize the world of classical music was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1950, Julián Carrillo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. The nominat...
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Did You Know? The Hero of Nacozari
November 7, 2007, marks the centenary of the death of Jesús García, the "Hero of Nacozari."
The small town of Nacozari occupies a valley nestled in the foothills of the Western Sierra Madre (Sierra ...
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Viva Mexico! Viva El Mariachi!
Nothing better exemplifies the lively spirit of Mexico than a fiery shot of tequila, dashing charro horsemen and the stirring strains of a mariachi band. Jalisco is the heartland of these emblematic fi...
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Mexican Tradition - Pidiendo Posada
When reenacting Mary and Joseph's quest for shelter in Bethlehem, participants in the traditional Posada processions stop to sing a litany at several designated homes. The verses alternate one by one b...
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Las Mañanitas
. . . LAS MAÑANITAS.
Estas son las mañanitas
que cantaba el rey David;
a las muchachas bonitas
se las cantamos aquí.
Si el sereno de la esquina
me quisiera hace...
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Mexican posadas and a famous Christmas carol
In my neighborhood in Talpa de Allende, we actually had a Miracle Birth at our posada last year. The miracle was that Mama Donkey didn't throw the little Virgin Mary off her back.
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La Bamba Explained - Or, The Music Of Veracruz
Can you hear Ritchie Valens belting that one out? One of Rock and Roll’s most copied songs (from garage bands, movies, and college marching bands, to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). La Bamba is an ode to an era, the anthem of the American Boom generation. Many of us over the years continue to sing that catchy song without thinking much about it. But in truth, there is a whole lot more here than meets most peoples ears.
read moreLa Candelaria In Tlacotalpan
In January 1992, looking for the roots of the musical form called
Son Jarocho, I made a pilgrimage to the river port town of Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. At dawn, as I boarded the southbound bus from ...
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