Fulbright-mtvU Fellows

Fa la la la la

Am totally beat from a day of rehearsals for the School of Mexican Music’s Concierto Navideño, the annual Christmas concert. With less than a week left to prepare, today the teachers and students alike were visibly on edge. And no one more than me, since I will be, as far as I know, the only female Michigander making her mariachi debut in Mexico City that evening.
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Panorama of my Mariachi Class

Maestro Pedro Guitiérrez, who has to be one of the most patient music teachers in the world, is in charge of teaching five different instruments to students of all ages.
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Pop, Rock, and Coca-Cola

The students I’ve interviewed at the School of Mexican music seem confident that the old tunes will never die. People will keep singing them at the top of their lungs at festivals and parties, and no Mexican wedding will ever be complete without them. Alejandra, the talented ranchera singer who sits next to me in chorus, sums it up like this:

“I used to go out to clubs with my cousins. I’d dance to the hits, electronica, rock en español, and all that. But whenever we had a party, at the end of the night, it was always me who sang. Everybody drunk, and I would sing. They never forgot that I would sing. So somehow, Mexican music has always had an important role. Maybe in different intensities, but it’s always been present in everybody.”

Despite the cultural value of singing old, “pure” Mexican songs (which have plenty of European ingredients, like guitars and waltzes, themselves), day-to-day Mexico City pulses with lots of imported sounds, too.

Listen to a quick turn of the dial on an FM radio in Mexico City:

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