Last week we spent some time discussing Labor Unions. Nancy gave us a great report on a current union issue happening in Wisconsin. After searching the internet, I found a rather informative article that discusses the history of Labor and Labor Strikes for Mexican Americans, Peurto Ricans, and Cubans. What I found particularly interesting was the way in which these three groups experiences were rather different. According to the article, Mexican americans mainly worked for very low wages for companies who had investments in oil mining and agriculture in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Puerto Ricans, who settled in New York City, worked for agricultural companies, specifically sugar and tobacco.

The article goes into a detailed description of the history behind all three of these groups of people and their involvement in the American labor force. The article stated that Mexican Americans faced the harshest conditions and wages out of all three of these groups, however, they did not really go into detail as to why that is.

http://www.jrank.org/cultures/pages/4046/Labor-Labor-Strikes.html

After spending a few classes discussing El Teatro Campesino, I decided to take some time to look at the groups website. The site is filled with information on the history of the group, and even goes into a year-by-year look at their major accomplishments. One thing that I found particularly interesting is the types of shows that the group is currently putting on. For example, they are now spreading out into educational programs for little kids. The show is called Basta Basura and it is about spreading awareness of the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It tells the story of a little girl named Rosa Maria and her trip to the beach.

Another thing that I found interesting was that some of the shows are not necessarily about or feature Mexicans/Mexican-Americans. For example, an upcoming show titled "Victor in Shadow" depicts the story of a Chilean folk singer during a violent period in Chilean history. If anyone is interested in some of the other shows that are being shown this season, here is the link to the website: http://www.elteatrocampesino.com/Season2011/seasonataglance2.html

Labor Unions

This week we spoke about labor movements and the music that often accompanies it. I talked Tuesday about the current labor issue going on in Wisconsin. A lot of analogies have been associated with this protest; most notably references to 9/11 and the protest movement in Egypt. The Daily Show with Jon Steward gave a rather interesting commentary on the current event. We didn't have time to watch it in class so I am posting the link here. I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-21-2011/crisis-in-dairyland---revenge-of-the-curds

Mexican Music and Social Movements: Virtual Warfare with Mexico

Mexican Music and Social Movements: Virtual Warfare with Mexico: "Following searching recent news stories you realize that some very interesting subjects come up. One topic in particular that came up was t..."

Montezuma's headdress

Before I did my newsreport on the Trader Joe's strike about Tomato farmgrower wages and working conditions, I wanted to do an article about the battle for Montezuma's headdress. However, I couldn't tie it to Aztec dancing becasue the only one who has actually taken photographic evidence of it is Professor Hutchinson. So I couldn't actually find an article that touched on the fact that people danced Aztec dances outside the Vienna museum as a form of protest. Long story short, the Mexican people feel that the famed headdress should be in Mexico, and that it belongs to the Mexican people. However, Vienna still has the headdress. They are, however, discussing an exchange for a very old buggy that Mexico has. There have also been talks about loaning it to Mexico temporarily. As far as I know, no resolution has been made.

This is Montezuma's headdress at the museum in Vienna.

Montezuma in his headdress

Photo of the headdress.

Chicano Movement

This article is very informative. It's speaks about how the movement emerged from the civil rights movements. It speaks about court cases that are exactly the same as other famous cases such as Brown vs Board of education. I always find it interesting about how much we know and things directly related to what we know is not taught to us. Enjoy the article



http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/BrownandProudTheChicanoMovement.htm

Aztec Dance

While surfing the web i typed in Aztec dance and so much came up for this. Underneath the video you will see lots of comments about "Long Lost Culture" and "Being True to your Heritage" and things like that. The video is 21 mins long but you don't have to watch the whole thing. What do you think of the video?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4UVxrJWacw

The Mexican Hat Dance

We all knew it was coming....
It was only a matter of time before someone would discuss the Mexican Hat Dance. This song was givin the title the national dance of Mexico. Another name for this song was Jarabe Tapatí. This was written in the early 20th century for celebrating a party sponsered by the government following the Mexican Revolution. This song soon became a popular Folk Dance, yet was associated with courtship and love.

http://article-library.mexicantotal.com/culture/20101024-09582-Celebrating-Mexican-Culture-The-Jarabe-Tapatio

Current events: Music in Egyptian protests

Here is a link between our class topics and current events in the world. You know that Egyptians were finally successful in their protests, and according to this article, singing and chanting played a role here. take a look:
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/11/133691055/Music-Inspires-Egyptian-Protests

The Dance of the Concheros

The article assigned for Tuesdays class (written by Rostas) discusses the dance of the Concheros and the history behind it. The concheros dance tradition has been around for a rather long time, and places a special emphasis on pre-Hispanic Mexico. The instruments that are used are also pre-Hispanic in origin and consist of the concha, drums, flutes, rattles and seeds worn around the dancers ankles. Rather than having the melody be in the forefront, the concheros pay particular attention to creating complex rhythmic structures. As I mentioned earlier, Rostas takes the time to describe the history behind the dance, however, she also includes a section on the concheros traditions today. Mainly, she states that these groups dance for religious purposes although there are often outsiders that will stand by and watch the group during their ritual. She continues to say that the group members are encouraged to ignore the people and not to let them interfere in their ritual dance.

I found a video of a group of individuals performing one of the dances of the concheros online. What I found particularly interesting was not the actual dance that was being shown, but rather the setting in which this dance was taking place. The dancers were dressed in the traditional costumes and were using the instruments described in the article, however, they were on a stage in front of a large group of people. Rather than doing the dance as a form of ritual, this group of people put on a performance. These dancers belong to the Mexican Dance Ensemble in Chicago. I'm curious as to how individuals who actually participate in this ritual and place a special value on it would feel about their dance being done by a company on stage.

Here is the video that I mentioned: http://mdechicago.org/wordpress/?p=658

Mariachi

Mariachi music causes alot of debate over what mariachi music. I posted this because it starts with some mariachi history and is a very interesting article. enjoy :)

http://www.mariachi.org/history.html

Virtual Warfare with Mexico

Following searching recent news stories you realize that some very interesting subjects come up. One topic in particular that came up was the virtual warfare that is going on along the Mexican/ United States Border. Some of the things that are used are drones that are capable of killing people but are claimed to only be used for surveillance purposes. Another form of technology being used is a specific x-ray machine. Being able to detect specific drugs and even human flesh. The types of technology being created in the world today is rapidly improving and these were just some interesting things I wanted to share.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54388

Son Jarocho

Well I guess it's time to discuss another type of music from Mexico. Recently reading I learned about Son Jarocho music. It was a mix of Mexican music and African styles. This was an interesting concept. Reading more into this genre it is explained that this is Mexican Folk music. This is something that could be very important especially when you think the impact of folk music has had on the United States. Something that really stuck out in my mind was how while reading it is said that the same song is never exactly alike. Each has it's own uniqueness. If things of this nature intrigues anyone else take a look at the website.

http://www.sonjarocho.com/history.html

Solderderas

In Nancy's reading report last class, we had a rather lengthy discussion on the type of clothing the solderderas wore. Through the articles, it seemed as though some women chose to wear dresses whereas others chose to wear more masculine clothing. I find it interesting that there is a big difference between the types of clothing that the solderderas wore. I tried searching for some photos of these women, in an attempt to try and get a better understanding of perhaps why there were two very distinct choices.

The website that I found showed mainly woman in long dresses, with sashes and guns. The image was very striking to me, because the women were wearing traditional clothing in a non-traditional way. The image definitely would stir up emotions during the time because it was obvious that the solderderas were so powerful. At the bottom of the page, there was an image of a single woman dressed in mens clothing. After looking back and forth at the two images, I still cannot decide which type of clothing is more powerful. In some ways, the more masculine image is more powerful because it is taking the femininity out of the woman and showing her as a powerful, strong individual. At the same time, however, the images of the women in dresses fighting are in way even more powerful simply because the image is more unusual and striking.

Here is the website with the images: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/soldaderas-1.htm

Migracorridos

Last week I gave a news report on Migracorridos, a CD created by the US Border Control. The article that I presented stated that the Border Patrol's involvement in creating and distributing the CD was not publicized, but they did not say anything regarding peoples feelings about their involvement. The article showed a positive view on the CD.

I have found myself thinking about that article more and more over the past week, and decided that I would search to see if there were any other articles written about the CD. I found an article written in the NY Daily News, which was titled " 'Migracorridos' Aim to Keep Immigrants Home". There was a quote towards the end of the article that caught my eye. It reads, " But Gasca, who didn't know Elevacion works for the Border Patrol, said his listeners would have wanted nothing to do with the songs if they knew of the agency's involvement- they'd feel as if la migra was after them in their own country".

In the discussion section of my presentation, I asked the class whether or not they felt that the US Government was changing the meaning of the corrido. Most people felt that it wasn't mainly because these corridos were fighting social injustices, just as others typically did. This article makes me once again return to this question. If the people of Mexico would alienate these corridos and make sure they were not part of their lives, then it makes you wonder whether or not the migracorridos can even be considered corridos. If outsiders write corridos, even if they discuss social injustices, are they still corridos?

Here is a link to the article, if anyone is interested: http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/01/23/2009-01-23_migra_corridos_aim_to_keep_immigrants_ho.html?page=1

A bit of extra information on Zapata

Well after hearing about Zapata in class I wanted to learn some more about him. Some things that I have learned were that he created a plan. This document that was drafted came with Zapatista demands reform, freedom, law, and justice. Being such an intelligent leader Zapata thought that it would be best to attack an area that would be highly dominated by politics if you were to control there you can gather control of the other places. As Zapata gained land after land after land it was beginning to show the following that he had. Though he became a powerful leader unfortunately was set up in a clever ambush by Pablo Gonzales. Zapata was gunned down during this ambush yet his legacy remains alive.