One of
the charms of living in Tucson includes listening to live mariachi music. This
style of Mexican folk music has evolved over the past century. The
instrumentation includes a guitarrón,
which is a kind of string bass and provides the downbeats, a vihuela, which provides the upbeats,
trumpets, and violins. Typically, the players take turns singing. Favorite
songs include “Jesucita en Chihuahua”
and “Mariachi loco” or romantic songs
such as “Cerca del mar” or “Spanish
Eyes.” The musicians play at
restaurants, parties, civic functions, weddings, baptisms, quinceñeras (birthday parties for 15-year-olds), and even funerals.
The players most often wear black outfits that have, at least for this player,
a welcome slimming effect. The trajes,
as they are called, are decorated with plata,
which are silver-plated decorations that run up and down the legs and across
the chest. When the musicians walk, they jingle. This makes it hard to come
home quietly late at night!
When you
hear mariachi music, what’s the song you most want to hear?
However,
not all Tucsonans want to spend their free time listening to mariachi music.
Many are graduates of the University of Arizona. When they have free time, they
might well make use of the wonderful warm spring weather to read outside in
their rock gardens. They are so concentrated that they don’t accept
interruptions!
(Check out youtube video for Tucson Reads MArIACHI MUrDER)
Coming next time: Orvieto, Italy.
