Veracruz rings with music every hour. The bells in the clock tower in the city’s central plaza play “La Bamba” on the hour, and it is not Ritchie Valens’ rock ‘n’ roll hit from 1958. The original “La Bamba” has been played in this sultry, moldering port city for centuries.
“It’s our hymn,” said one longtime musician.
Son Jarocho’s Roots
The most famous song of a regional genre known as son jarocho, which refers to the music of Veracruz, is “La Bamba”. It is heard at joyous community gatherings called fandangos, which have no connection to the online movie-streaming service. Those celebrations developed among the diverse group of people who settled along the Gulf Coast following the arrival of conquistador Hernán Cortés, who dropped anchor and founded Veracruz as Mexico’s first port in the early 1500s.
This music blends European, Caribbean and Indigenous influences into a syncopated, joyous style. Fandangos, where people come together to play their instruments, sing and dance, date back more than 300 years. Yet despite their long history, these gatherings are now gaining popularity far beyond their home region.
If experiencing the genuine article is what you seek, then Veracruz is where you should go.
A Night in the Plaza
On a Saturday night in mid-August, a man wearing a traditional jarocho straw hat and a tropical shirt dances with a woman in a floral dress on a wooden platform in the central square of the old city. The heat of the day has not yet cooled, and the man sweats through the evening as he moves. A musician plays a quijada, the jawbone of a donkey, scraping the teeth and slapping the mandible to make them rattle. The woman fans out her skirt with each step, and people drink cold Mexican beer and eat tamales wrapped in banana leaves as the night wears on.
The audience joins the three musicians to form one massive group performance. The instrument they play is a small, eight-string guitar unique to the area known as a jarana. Before long, La Bamba has two dozen players up there strumming the jarana, and the three-chord tune keeps going—hypnotic—for 15 minutes.
“Fifteen minutes is nothing,” said Tacho Utrera, a Grammy-winning jarocho musician and renowned instrument maker.
A Revival Around the World
Son jarocho is alive today, as Mexico and cities across the globe search for authenticity, originality and soul. Each weekend in Veracruz, there are fandangos for baptisms, birthdays, wakes, saints’ days and simply the joy of being alive.
The caSon Cultural Center, founded by Gilberto Gutierrez, holds a monthly Saturday night fandango in the old city of Veracruz, and this year marks its 25th anniversary.
Why People Gather
“Fandangos happen because there’s a community around the musicians, dancers, singers, and the cooks who bring the food,” Gutierrez said. “Humanity needs this coming together. We all need to belong to something. And I believe that’s why fandangos have spread far and wide.”
Where You Can Hear It Now
Today, you can hear son jarocho in:
- Mexico City
- Argentina
- Spain
- Finland
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- France
- Tokyo
- Canada
- US cities with big Latino populations like Los Angeles and New York
Dancing on the Taríma
The tap dance, known here as el zapateo, serves as both performance and percussion, helping the string players stay in time with each other. The wooden platform where the dancer performs is called a taríma.
“To step onto a taríma is an act of respect and skill — that you know how to dance,” said Ada Veronica, a high school teacher from Puebla who’s been dancing for 20 years. “You shouldn’t get up there if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
The Classes Fill Up
El caSon’s classes in jarocho music and dance sell out fast. Young Mexicans are embracing genre-bending sounds such as reggaeton and corridos tumbados, yet they’re also rushing to join fandangos.
Paloma Rizo, a 28-year-old teacher who took up the jarana earlier this year, played her heart out at the fandango, according to “You simply feel it, you live it,”.
“Even if people don’t know what a fandango is,” she continued, “they want to be part of it. You watch the dancing and the playing and it calls you, it invites you.”
What the Word Means
Veracruzanos use the word convivencia to describe the feeling at a fandango. It translates literally as “coexist,” though it means something closer to “alive together.” when people are gathered for music and dancing.
The essence of the music lies in people assembling, playing, singing and dancing together amid the heat of a Veracruz summer.
Source material: “Playing 'La Bamba' for an hour? Must be a Mexican fandango!,” NPR.
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