LOS JARANEROS DE LAS TUXTLAS

By ED WILKINSON-LATHAM

 Under a bruised Mexican sky, in front of a flaking colonial town house, a group of elderly men strum their weather-beaten jaranas, and transform a street corner into a party. A block later the same chords, accompanied by the quick tap of soled shoes on a concrete floor, filter through a dirty curtain at the entrance to a cantina.

 It is not until midnight that those familiar sounds of drumming are again heard, combined with excited voices and the odd firework. Families and couples promenade the warm evening, all moving in the same direction. To fandango. Twenty musicians or so are clustered together playing small guitars of various sizes called jaranas. All attention is focused on the couple dancing on a wooden platform -- the stomp of their feet acting as percussion to the music. As someone begins to sing, the choreography changes, and the sound of the couple's feet takes second place to the lyrics. The musicians duel both instrumentally and lyrically. The meanings and arrangement of the sones, or songs, get more complex, and the dada da da of the feet beats on.

 The fandango is the most characteristic expression of rural music in the southern part of Veracruz. Musicians sing traditional sones, a lyrical poetry with subject matter ranging from symbolic foods, animals and land, to folklore, legends, relations between men and women and the battle between good and evil. Some sones are handed down through generations, or sold from one musician to another, and some exist only in the memories of elderly jaraneros. A festive ceremonial occasion, fandango usually coincide with religious holidays, births or even deaths. The dancers play the role of percussionists and execute precise rhythms on a raised wooden platform called la tarima. Fandango has been an integral part of all kinds of celebrations since the 18th century, but since its decline in the 1950s, the fandango has disappeared in innumerable communities. But here, the music, poetry and dance still live on, amongst the corn fields, mountains and magic that is Las Tuxtlas.

Felipe Lara... story continued.