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Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano Teacher Resource Guide

05l06 Youth EducationCreative Teachers...Intelligent Students...Real Learning

About UMSOne of the oldest performing arts presenters in the coun-try, UMS serves diverse audiences through multi-disciplinary performing arts programs in three distinct but interrelated areas: presentation, creation, and education.

With a program steeped in music, dance, theater, and education, UMS hosts approximately 80 performances and 150 free educational activities each season. UMS also commissions new work, sponsors artist residencies, and organizes collaborative projects with local, national as well as many international partners.

While proudly affiliated with the University of Michigan and housed on the Ann Arbor campus, UMS is a separate not-for-profit organization that supports itself from ticket sales, grants, contributions, and endowment income.

UMS Education and Audience Development DepartmentUMS’s Education and Audience Development Department seeks to deepen the relationship between audiences and art, as well as to increase the impact that the perform-ing arts can have on schools and community. The pro-gram seeks to create and present the highest quality arts education experience to a broad spectrum of community constituencies, proceeding in the spirit of partnership and collaboration.

The department coordinates dozens of events with over 100 partners that reach more than 50,000 people annually. It oversees a dynamic, comprehensive program encompassing workshops, in-school visits, master classes, lectures, youth and family programming, teacher professional development workshops, and “meet the artist” opportunities, cultivating new audiences while engaging existing ones.

For advance notice of Youth Education events, join the UMS Teachers email list by emailing [email protected] or visit www.ums.org/education.

Cover Photo: Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano(Photo by Hugh Talman)

This Teacher Resource Guide is a product of the University Musical Society’s Youth Education Program. Researched and written by Cecilia Fileti, David Hernandez, and Bree Juarez. Edited by Ben Johnson and Bree Juarez. Tthe lesson plans accompanying this Resource Guide have been provided by students enrolled in Dr. Julie Taylor’s Multi-cultural Education classes at the University of Michigan-Dearborn , and are noted as such. All photos are courtesy of the artist unless otherwise noted.

UMS gratefully acknowledges the following corporations, foundations, and government agencies for their generous support of the UMS Youth Education Program:

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural AffairsUniversity of MichiganArts at MichiganLinda and Maurice BinkowBorders Group, Inc.Chamber Music AmericaDailerChrysler Corporation FundDoris Duke Charitable FoundationDTE Energy FoundationDykema Gossett, PLLCHeartland Arts FundDr. Toni Hoover in memory of Dr. Issac Thomas IIIJazzNet EndowmentJPMorgan ChaseMasco CorporationNational Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsPfizer Global Research and Development, Ann Arbor LabratoriesProQuest CompanyPrudence and Amnon Rosenthal K-12 Education Endowment FundTCF BankTIAA-CREFToyota Technical CenterUMS Advisory CommitteeUniversity of Michigan Credit UnionU-M Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic AffairsU-M Office of the Vice President of ResearchWallace Foundation

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati CanoFriday, February 10, 12 noon

Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor

TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE

05/06UMS Youth Education

4 | www.ums.org/education

About the Performance* 6 Coming to the Show* 7 The Performance at a Glance

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano* 10 About Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano Mariachi 13 History of Mariachi* 17 Instruments of Mariachi 19 Mariachi Song Forms Mexico 22 Quick Facts: Mexico 25 Mexico Yesterday and Today Lesson Plans 28 Curriculum Connections 29 Meeting Michigan Standards Resources* 32 UMS Permission Slip 33 Bibliography/Discography 34 Internet Resources 35 Recommended Reading 36 Community Resources* 37 Using the Resource DVD 38 Evening Performance/ Teen Ticket 39 How to Contact UMS

Table of Contents

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About the Performance

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We want you to enjoy your time in the theater, so here are some tips to make your Youth Performance experience successful and fun! Please review this page prior to attending the performance.

What should I do during the show?Everyone is expected to be a good audience member. This keeps the show fun for everyone. Good audience members... • Are good listeners • Keep their hands and feet to themselves • Do not talk or whisper during the performance • Laugh only at the parts that are funny • Do not eat gum, candy, food or drink in the theater • Stay in their seats during the performance • Do not disturb the people sitting nearby or other schools in attendance

Who will meet us when we arrive? After you exit the bus, UMS Education staff and greeters will be outside to meet you. They might have special directions for you, so be listening and follow their directions. They will take you to the theater door where ushers will meet your group. The greeters know that your group is coming, so there’s no need for you to have tickets.

Who will show us where to sit? The ushers will walk your group to its seats. Please take the first seat available. (When everybody’s seated, your teacher will decide if you can rearrange yourselves.) If you need to make a trip to the restroom before the show starts, ask your teacher.

How will I know that the show is starting? You will know the show is starting because the lights in the auditorium will get dim, and a member of the UMS Education staff will come out on stage to introduce the performance.

What if I get lost? Please ask an usher or a UMS staff member for help. You will recognize these adults because they have name tag stickers or a name tag hanging around their neck.

How do I show that I liked what I saw and heard? The audience shows appreciation during a performance by clapping. In a musical perfor-mance, the musicians and dancers are often greeted with applause when they first appear. It is traditional to applaud at the end of each musical selection and sometimes after impressive solos. At the end of the show, the performers will bow and be rewarded with your applause. If you really enjoyed the show, give the performers a standing ovation by standing up and clapping during the bows. For this particular show, it will be most appropriate to applaud at the beginning and the ending.

What do I do after the show ends? Please stay in your seats after the performance ends, even if there are just a few of you in your group. Someone from UMS will come onstage and announce the names of all the schools. When you hear your school’s name called, follow your teachers out of the auditorium, out of the theater and back to your buses.

How can I let the performers know what I thought? We want to know what you thought of your experience at a UMS Youth Performance. After the performance, we hope that you will be able to discuss what you saw with your class. Tell us about your experiences in a letter or drawing. Please send your opinions, letters or artwork to: UMS Youth Education Program, 881 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011.

Coming to the Show (For Students)


The Performance at a GlanceWho is Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano?Mariachi Los Camperos De Nati Cano (pronounced mahree-AH-chee lohs cahm-PEAR-ohs deh nah-tee cah-no) has existed for nearly 43 years and is noted for demanding musical arrangements that highlight the individual skills and voices of the players. The ensemble employs the finest musicians from Mexico and the United States and has performed for audiences throughout United States and Canada. They were one of four mariachis that collaborated with popular recording artist Linda Ronsdadt on her album’s Canciones de MI Padre (Songs of My Father) and Mas Canciones (More Songs). Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano has appreaded on national television, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the Grammy Awards Show.

Who is Natividad “Nati” Cano?The highly respected Natividad “Nati” Cano is a pioneer and leader of the Mariachi Renaissance in the United States and Mexico. He is credited for taking the mariachi form from the streets to prestigious concert halls throughout the United States. Born in the state of Jalisco, Mexico in 1933 to a family of day laborers, Nati Cano is the director and founder of the Los Angeles based Mariachi Los Camperos. He was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts-National Heritage Fellowship and in Mexico, the coveted Sylvestre Vargas Award for artistic excellence. His ensemble recently appeared on the PBS television special Americanos, filmed at the Kennedy Center.

What is Mariachi?The word “mariachi” is a term that can be used to describe the individual musi-cian, the ensemble or the musical genre itself. In the complete Mariachi group today there are as many as six to eight violins, two trumpets, and a guitar- all standard European instruments. Then there is a high-pitched, round-backed guitar called the vihuela, which when strummed in the traditional manner gives the Mari-achi its typical rhythmic vitality; a deep-voiced guitar called the guitarrón which serves as the bass of the ensemble; and a Mexican folk harp, which usually doubles the base line, but also ornaments the melody. While these three instruments have European origins, in their present form they are strictly Mexican.

The music of the mariachi band is a mixture of different indigenous sounds and rhythms, combined with European and African elements. From Europe, it bor-rowed many of the dance forms such as the waltz and the fandango. From Africa, it borrowed dance rhythms and melodic ideas. The forms found in mariachi music are, without a doubt, the most important element of the style. Mariachi song forms (such as the bolero, canción ranchera, son, huapango, joropo, and danzón) are always dictated by the rhythmic patterns that are performed by the guitar sec-tion of the group. This is one of the few musical genres in which text does not indicate form.

Mariachi music is one of the few styles of indigenous music that serves both a utili-tarian and an entertainment function. The mariachi band is used for many different occasions, such as dances, weddings, and funerals. It is not unusual to find the group serenading a young woman on the occasion of her birthday, celebrating a saint’s day, or singing to the mother of one of the band members on her birthday.

People who enjoy mariachi music like it because it rekindles old memories, takes them to places that are far away, or brings back scenes of childhood.

What will I see at the performance?The performance of Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano features 10 mariachi musicians playing the traditional mariachi instruments: Violin, vihuela, guitar, gui-tarron, and trumpet. Their program will consist of arrangements of classic sons (traditional mariachi music) from all over Mexico.

What are the instruments in a mariachi ensemble?

ViolinWhen used in the mariachi band, the violin is not altered in any way from its tradi-tional use.

VihuelaThe vihuela is a creation of the Coca Indians of Southwestern Jalisco in Mexico. It has five strings and a bowed back, and it is slightly larger than a ukelele. It is played with a thumb pick in the rasqueado (strummed) style and is the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the mariachi band.

Guitar A standard guitar is used (not altered in any way) and serves to supplement the vihuela as a rhythmic element in the mariachi band. The guitar and the vihuela play the same rhythmic patterns and keep a strong foundation for the group. Typi-cally, a guitar is used in a mariachi band about 98 percent of the time.

GuitarrónThe guitarrón is the bass foundation of the group and is the single most important element in the mariachi band. It serves not only as the bass of the group, but it gives the group its characteristic sound. A rule of thumb is that if there is no gui-tarrón, there should be no performance.

TrumpetA standard trumpet is used (not altered in any way). At various times, the trumpet players are asked to perform with cup mutes to make the sound softer and less intense.


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TitleAbout Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati CanoMariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano was formed 40 years ago. Its director, Nativi-dad Cano, came to Los Angeles in 1957. For four years he worked as a musician, later becoming the musical arranger for Mariachi Chapala. In 1961, Cano became the musical director of Mariachi Chapala and changed their name to Mariachi Los Camperos. The ensemble has since grown in prominence and gained international recognition.

Mariachi Los Camperos is noted for demanding musical arrangements that high-light the individual skills and voices of the players. The ensemble employs the finest musicians from Mexico and the United States and has performed for audi-ences throughout the United States and Canada.

Mariachi Los Camperos was one of four mariachis that collaborated on Linda Ronstadt’s album, Canciones de Mi Padre. In 1988-89, the group worked on the

promotion of the album, that included national television appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the Grammy Awards Show. They also appear on Linda Ron-stadt’s Mas Canciones.

The ensemble has recorded nine albums including: Puro Mariachi (Indigo Records, 1961); North of the Border (RCA/Carino Records, 1965); El Super Mariachi, Los Camperos (Latin International, 1968); Valses de Amor (La Fonda Records, 1973); Canciones de Siempre (PolyGram Latino, 1993); Sounds of Mariachi (Delfin Records, 1996); Fiesta Navidad (Delfin Records, 1997; Viva el Mariachi (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2003); and ¡Llegaron Los Camperos! (Smithson-ian Foldways Recordings, 2005). ¡Llegaron Los Camperos! was recently nominated for a Grammy Award. The ensemble shared a 2005 “Best Musical Album for Children” Grammy Award for cELLAbration!, A tribute to Ella Jenkins.

Mariachi Los Camperos continues to raise the mariachi tradi-tion to new heights, with an ever growing following of Latino and non-Latino listeners and admires. Their contribution to the musical life of Los Angeles and the entire southwest will remain for generations to come.

Natividad “Nati” Cano, Founder and DirectorA traditionalist and a visionary, Natividad “Nati” Cano has both mirrored and shaped the history of mariachi music. He was born in 1933 into a family of maria-chi musicians in the Mexican State of Jalisco (Ha-LEE-scoh). Nati’s career took him first to nearby Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, and then further away to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he founded Los Camperos and has directed the group for over 40 years. Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano is the most accomplished and influential Mexican mariachi ensemble in the United States. The ensemble is a major driving force of the marichi music tradition in this country, and to a certain extent, in Mexico as well.

Nati first learned to play the vihuela (mariachi rhythm guitar) at the age of seven from his father. Two years later, he began studying violin at the Academia de

Natividad “Nati” Cano


Música in nearby Guadalajara (gwah-DAH-la-har-ah). At the age of 16, he left the Academia to perfor professionally in cantinas and cafes, helping his father sup-port their family. In 1950, he moved to Mexicali, the capial city of Baja Califor-nia, Mexico. There he joined Mariachi Chapala and soon became the group’s arranger. The youngest member by at least a decade, he stayed with the com-pany for seven years. In 1957, he reset-tled in Los Angeles, where he currently resides.

One of Nati’s abiding aims has been to counter the perception of mariachi musi-cas mere “cantina music,” and to ahve his beloved musical tradition be appreci-ated as an art form o innate beauty and artistry. He as accomplished this in many ways. Under his leadership, Mariachi Los Camperos, whch he founded in the early 1960s, became musically one of the best mariachi ensembles in the world. In the laTE 1960S, he opened La Fonda de Los Camperos, a restaurant with a dinner-theatre concept that welcomed mariachi fans of all cultural and economic back-grounds. La Fonda created a new model for mariachi performance venues that has been imited throughout the Southwest. He as been a major supported, organizer, and participant in the mariachi festival “movement” that started in 1979 and now boasts several dozen festivals across the United States- many of them in California.

These events reach millions of audience members and aspiring young mariachi musicians through festival workshops. His group accopanied Linda Ronstadt on her breakthrough mariachi recordings and the concerts that followed, taking mariachi music to tens of millions more listeners. His colorful Christmas production Fiesta Navidad has toured Mexican music and dance traditions to dozens of major con-cert halls throughout California and across the western United States. In addition to performing, Nati Cano is an adjunct faculty member in UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology where he passes on mariachi skills to university students.

His efforts have brought numerous honors and prestigious invitations. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Arts honored him with its highest awar in the folk and traditional arts, the National Heritage Fellowship. In September 2002, the City of Los Angeles presented him with a similar recognition. In Mexico, he was aware-ded the prestigous Sylvestre Vargas Award for artistic excellence. He has performed at the White House for two presidents and at major venues outside California such as the Avery Fischer Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center where he appreared with the American Symphony, the National Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Kennedy Center, and at Guadalajara’s Teato Degollado (tay-ah-tro deh-goh-lah-doh). he has been a repeated headliner at Mexico’s premier mariachi event, the annual Encuentro de Mariachi in Guadalajara, which was featured in a nationally aired PBS progrm.

Antonín Dvorák

Nati Cano and Mariachi Los Camperos

perform in 2004

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About Mariachi

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History of MariachiThe Wedding of Musical Traditions Prior to the arrival of Cortes the music of Mexico, played with rattles, drums, reed and clay flutes, and conch-shell horns, was an integral part of religious celebra-tions. Quickly, however, as Christianity spread, in many areas these instruments gave way to instruments imported by the Spanish: violins, guitars and harps, brass horns, and woodwinds. The Indian and mestizo musicians not only learned to play European instruments, but also to build their own, sometimes giving them shapes and tunings of their own invention.

Music and dance were important elements of Spanish theatrical productions, enormously popular throughout the Spanish speaking world during the colonial period. The typical Spanish theatrical orchestra of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries was comprised of violins (usually two), harp and guitars (or guitar variants). It was from this group that several of the most distinctive regional ensembles of Mexico developed, including the Mariachi.

Mariachi - What Does It Mean? Musicologists and folklorists have argued for years over the origin of the word - Mariachi.

The explanation that appears most fre-quently - especially on record jackets and in travel brochures - is that it is a variation of the French word mariage, meaning wedding or marriage, and comes from the time in the nineteenth century when Maximillian, a Frenchman, was Emperor of Mexico. Accord-ing to this myth the Mariachi was named by the French after the celebration with which it was most commonly associated. But this explanation, always regarded as highly doubtful by linguists, was totally discredited recently when a use of the word was found that predated the time when the French arrived in Mexico.

Currently, however, the best scholarly opinion is that the word mariachi has native roots. One theory is that it comes from the name of the wood used to make the platform on which the performers danced to the music of the village musicians. But whatever its true source - and the truth may never be discovered with abso-lute certainty - the word today has one meaning that is crystal clear: Mariachi means on of the most exciting and enchanting musical ensembles found any-where in the world.

The Unique Make-Up of the Mariachi Ensemble In the complete Mariachi group today there are as many as six to eight violins, two trumpets, and a guitar - all standard European instruments. Then there is a high-itched, round-backed guitar called the vihuela, which when strummed in the tradi-tional manner gives the Mariachi its typical rhythmic vitality; a deep-voiced guitar called the guitarrón which serves as the bass of the ensemble; and a Mexican folk harp, which usually doubles the base line, but also ornaments the melody.

Members of Mariachi Los

Camperos at the Viva El Mariachi

Competion in 2004

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TitleHistory of Mariachi While these three instruments have European origins, in their present form they are strictly Mexican.

The sound that these instruments combine to make is unique. Like the sarape, which often used widely contrasting colors side by side - green and orange, yellow and blue - the Mariachi used sharply contrasting sounds: the sweet sounds of the violins against the brilliance of the trumpets, and the deep sound of the guitarró n against the crisp, high voice of the vihuela; and the frequent shifting between syn-copation and on-beat rhythm. The resulting sound is the heart and soul of Mexico.

The Beginning of the Mariachi We Know Today Although the origins of Mariachi music go back hundreds of years, in the form we know it the Mariachi began in the nineteenth century in the Mexican state of Jalisco - according to popular legend, in the town of Cocula. The Mariachi was the distinctive version of the Spanish theatrical orchestra of violins, harp and guitars which developed in and around Jalisco. In other areas such as Veracruz and the Huasteca region in the northeast, the ensemble evolved differently. By the end of the nineteenth century, in Cocula the vihuela, two violins, and the guitarró n (which had replaced the harp) were the instruments of the Mariachi.

The principal music played by these early Mariachis was the SON, the popular music of the day. A mixture of folk traditions from Spain, Mexico, and Africa, the son was found in many regions of the country. The son from Jalisco is called the son jalisciense. La Negra is the best-known example.

Sones from other regions include the son jarocho or veracruzano, from the region around the Gulf port of Veracruz; and the son huasteco, from northeastern Mexico. The most famous example of the son jarocho is La Bamba. A typical son huasteco, also known as the huapango, is La Malagueña. It is interesting to note that there are some sones, such as El Gusto, which are common in all three regions and clearly date back to a common ancestor.

Mariachi and Dance It is important to remember the son-and other types of Mariachi music- is not just music to be played and sung. From the very start it was music to be danced.

The traditional dance technique associated with both the son jalisciense and son jarocho is the zapateado, a distinctive type of footwork that originated in Spain. When dancing the zapateado the performers skillfully drive the heels of their boots or shoes into the dance-floor, pounding out swift, often syncopated rhythms which complement the different rhythm of the musical instruments. The zapateado can literally reduce even the most resistant dance floor to splinters because of the force with which it is danced.

Each of the regional variations of the son has its traditional style of dance. The huapango or son huasteco, for instance, like the son jalisciense and son jarocho, was originally danced on wooden platforms, in some areas mounted on earthen jugs. To dance the huapango the couples line up in opposing columns. The upper

Dancers at a Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico

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part of the body is held perfectly erect as the feet perform rapid, intricate, shuf-fling maneuvers. Today it is sometimes performed with a glass of water on the head to show off the dancer’s incredible muscular control.

The lyrics of the sones frequently describe country life: in particular, the plants, animals and people of the region. These lyrics are highly suggestive, often using imagery of the courtship of farm animals to describe the relations of men and women. In the dance the movements of the performers often represent the farm-yard courtship described in the verses of the sones.

Another kind of music related to the son and intimately connected with a particu-lar dance is the jarabe. The jarabe, which has many regional variations, is really a medley of dance pieces, including sones, danzas, jotas, and polkas. No discussion of Mariachi dance would be complete without mentioning the famous Jarabe Tap-atio - the Mexican Hat Dance. Associated with Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, it has become the national dance of Mexico. It is highly stylized, with prescribed movements and costumes. The male wears the classic outfit the Jalisco horsemen or charro, while the female the China, wears a hand-woven shawl and a bright sequined skirt.

By the 1930’s Mariachi musicians had begun wearing the same traje de charro, consisting of a waist-length jacket and tightly fitted wool pants which open slightly at the ankle to fit over a short riding boot. Both pants and jacket are often ornamented with embroidery, intricately cut leather designs, or silver buttons in a variety of shapes. Prior to the 1930’s, photographs show early Mariachis dressed in calzones de manta, and huaraches, homespun white cotton pants and shirts and leather sandals, the clothes worn by most peasants in Jalisco.

Coming of Age: Mariachi Vargas Although the roots of the Mariachi go back hundreds of years, there are no Bachs or Beethovens in its early history because Mariachi music was the music of country people. Until the 1930’s Mariachi groups were local and semi-professional. They were almost entirely unknown outside their own region.

This began to change about 60 years ago, when the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, founded by Gaspar Vargas in 1898, went from Jalisco to Mexico City. They were invited to play at the inauguration in 1934 of populist President Lá zaro Cá rdenas, one of whose great interests was to foster the native culture of Mexico. Catching the Presidents enthusiasm, urban sophisticates took the folk arts to their hearts, and the Mariachi Vargas instantly became the toast of the town. The initial success was only the beginning. Silvestre Vargas, who had taken over from his father as leader of the Mariachi Vargas in 1928, soon hired a trained musician, Rubí n Fuentes, as musical director.

Fuentes, still actively involved with the Mariachi Vargas more than fifty years later, is one of the towering figures in the development of the Mariachi. With the help

Mariachi Pioneers:Mariachi Vargas de

Tecalitlán


History of Mariachi of Silvestre Vargas, he standardized the arrangements of many of the traditional sones composed many exceptional new huapangos, and wrote arrangements for many of the legendary song writers and singers of his generation, including Pedro Infante, Miguel Aceves Mejía, Lola Beltrán, and José Alfredo Jiménez. By the 1950’s he insisted that all his musicians read music. These innovations changed the way Mariachi music moved from one group to another. Gone was the total reliance of the musicians on their ears to pick up new songs, and techniques.

With this giant step toward professionalism coinciding with the development of recordings, radio and film, the Mariachi Vargas was able to become the ideal that all other groups would emulate. With the addition of two trumpets, a classical guitar and more violins, by the 1950’s the Mariachi ensemble had become a complete, adaptable orchestra, with the ability to retain its traditional base while it was assimilating new musical ideas and styles. The importance of Mariachi Vargas cannot be overestimated. Its arrangements have become the definitive statements of what the Mariachi should be.

The Mariachi at Special Occasions Mariachis often help celebrate the great moments in the lives of the Mexican people. With the serenata (ser-enade), the Mariachi participates in the rite of courtship. In a society where the young members of opposite sexes were kept apart, the serenata was a means of communi-cation by which a young man could send a message of love to the woman of his heart. In many areas of Mexico, it is not unusual to be awakened by the sound of Las Mañ anitas, the traditional song for saints days, or birth-days. The Mariachi is usually positioned strategically on the street beneath the window of the festejada, but the sound of its music echoes through the whole neighbor-hood. Mariachis are also commonly hired for baptisms, weddings, patriotic holidays, and even funerals. It is not

unusual for the deceased to leave a list of favorite songs to be sung beside the grave at burial.

Mariachi music has been incorporated into the Roman Catholic Church’s most sacred ritual: the Mass. The Misa Panamericana is a Mariachi folk mass, sung in Spanish, that uses traditional instruments to create vivid new interpretations of the traditional elements of the service: Angelus, Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Alleluia, Offertory, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.

The first Mariachi Mass was the concept of a Canadian priest, Father Juan Marco Leclerc, and has been celebrated in Cuernavaca since 1966. It originally took place in a small chapel, but news of it spread so rapidly, and the crowds grew so large, that the regular Sunday Mariachi Mass had be moved to the Cathedral of Cuer-navaca. It is now frequently performed throughout Mexico, and In many areas in the United States where people of Mexican origin live.

Source: History of the Mariachi from http://www.mariachi.org/history.html© Sylvia Gonzales1996-2005

Mariachi is an important part of

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All of the insturments of the mariachi band work together to create a sound all their own. For example, the sweet sound of the violins against the brilliance of the trumpets, and deep sound of the guitarrón against the crisp, high voice of the vihuela; and the frequent shifts between syncopation and on-beat rhythm. It is the contrast of the instruments that gives the ensemble their unique sound.

TrumpetThe trumpet is made of brass tubing bent into a rough spiral. Sound is produced by blowing air through closed lips so as to produce a “buzzing” effect through vibration, which creates a standing wave of vibrat-ing air and metal in the trumpet. The trumpet player can select the pitch from a range of overtones or har-monics by changing the lip aperture tension. Valves increase the length of the tubing and thus change the overtones of the instrument. Three valves make the trumpet fully chromatic, allowing the player to play in all keys.In addition to mariachi, the trumpet is used in nearly all forms of music, including classical, jazz, rock, blues, pop, ska, polka and funk.

ViolinThe violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart, the lowest being the G just below middle C. It is the smallest and highest-tuned member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello.

Guitarrón

The heartbeat of the modern Mariachi group is the guitarrón (gwee-tahr-ROHN).The guitarron provides the bass and the rhythmic foundation that was for-merly the province of the less-than-portable harp. The strings are plucked strongly, two strings an octave apart at a time. Although obviously similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instru-ment, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña. The guitar-rón is fretless, the strings are heavy gauge, so that quite a bit of left hand strength is required.

Instruments of Mariachi

Trumpet

Violin


GuitarA guitar is a stringed musical instrumen that can be acoustic, electric (i.e. with electrical amplification) or both. The kind of guitar played in Mariachi ensembles is the classical or Spanish guitar. For right-handed players, the right hand plucks the strings with either the fingers or a guitar pick. The sound is produced by vibrating strings, which in turn resonate the body and neck.The body of the guitar acts mostly as a resonator, which can be hollow in acoustic gui-tars or solid in most electric guitars, and a neck. Typically, a headstock extends from the neck for tuning. Guitars are widely known as a solo classical instrument, and the primary instrument in blues and rock music.

VihuelaThe vihuela (vee-WHAY-lah) is a creation of the Coca Indians of Southwestern Jalisco in Mexico. of strings tuned to A-D-G-B-E. This instrument gives the mariachi ensemble its unique sound as no other genre of music uses the vihuela. In addition to sound, the vihuela also provides rhythm and sound accompaniment for the ensemble.

Instruments of Mariachi

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Guitar

Vihuela

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The music of the mariachi band is a mixture of different indigenous, as well as European and African, elements. From Europe, it borrowed many of the dance forms such as the waltz and the fandango. From Africa, it borrowed dance rhythms and melodic ideas. The forms found in mariachi music are, without a doubt, the most important element of the style. Mariachi song forms (such as the bolero, canción ranchera, son, huapango, joropo, and danzón) are always dictated by the rhythmic patterns that are performed by the guitar section of the group. This is one of the few musical genres in which text does not indicate form.

The mariachi band is Mexico’s only true surviving folkloric ensemble. The group itself has changed very little since the addition of the trumpets in the middle of the 1930s. The songs that the group performs have changed, but only to meet the demands of the listening public. A good mariachi band has a minimum repertory of at least one thousand songs. Top-flight groups have song lists that are two or three times as long. On top of that, a strong mariachi musician must know three or four arrangements of each of these songs. Mariachi performers are expected to know the music that is on the mind of the entire Mexican population.

The Importance of the “Son”The mariachi sound thus came to include the style known as the “son”, which also reflected an African influence. The rhythmic pattern is a syncopated styling alternating between 3/4 and 6/8 time. One common type of son, the “son jalisciense”, was very popular in the Jalisco region. The popular Mariachi piece, La Negra, is one such example.

Almost simultaneously in other regions of Mexico, other varia-tions of the son rhythm devel-oped. In Veracruz, located on the Gulf coast of Mexico, the “son jarocho” or “son veracruzano”

developed. This style often utilizes the harp accompaniment instead of the guitar-rón as the primary bass instrument. A commonly known song in the son jarocho style is La Bamba.

In southeastern Mexico, the “son huasteco” or “huapango” evolved and often included a flute as part of the standard ensemble. This style is reflected in songs such as La Malagueña and Serenata Huasteca. Eventually, many other popular songs were developed that used combinations of these basic rhythms.

In addition to the son style, the Spanish influence added waltzes, polkas, and other styles to the Mariachi repertoire.

Mariachi Song Forms

Singer Ritchie Valens made the song “La Bamba” a mainstream hit


Voice in the Mariachi EnsembleThere is not a lead singer in Mariachi. Everyone in the ensemble does some vocal-ization even if it is just during the chorus parts. Different members sing the lead

in different songs. It is common practice to try to match the voice with the type of song that is being performed so that the emotion of the piece is conveyed in the most artistic way possible.

The unamplified voices of Mariachi vocalists can have many different styles. The bolero is a romantic style with a soft touch and a suave voice, the huapango, which employs a lot of falsetto, mixing between registers, and flipping between the head and chest registers, similar to Hawaiian folk singers. The son jalisiense involves an aggressive style of vocalization. It usually does not involve the use of falsetto, but employs a variety of rhythms. Because Mariachis do not typically employed amplification for the vocal or instrumental music, the voices need to be powerful to be heard over the accom-panament.

Most Mariachi vocalists do not have any formal music train-ing or vocal instruction. Mariachi is folk music that was per-formed by country people and was not practiced by the elite who could afford to be trained. Therefore, the traditional

sound of the Mariachi voice is rustic, viejo (old) and even sometimes borracho (drunk) sounding. There are some Mariachi vocalists who believe to receive train-ing means that one is not puro or loosely translated, authentic. They feel that it is enough that the music is coming from the heart, and to train the voice would take away from that.

The current trend for Mariachi singers today is to receive formal training. The pro-fessional sound is developing with the influence and finely tuned voices of groups like Mariachi Cobre. In order to “keep up,” other groups must receive both instru-mental and vocal training to comply with the new standard. There was a time, around the 1950’s when there were trained Mariachi singers. This group included Pepe Villa, Jorge Negrete, and Pedro Infante. The trend is going back to having a well trained instrument. Mariachi singers of today are realizing that there is noth-ing wrong with being a good vocalist.

Vocal difficutlies can arise when young singers try to imitate mariachi stars. With-out proper training, an immature voice can suffer damage from singing loudly and being overtaxed.

A mariachi singer performs

Mexico

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TitleQuick Facts: Mexico LocationMiddle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US

AreaTotal: 756,061 sq miles (slightly less than three times the size of Texas )

Land BoundriesBorder countries: Belize 155 mi, Guatemala 598 mi, US 1,952 mi

Coastline 5,797 mi

ClimateSubtropical to arid; hot and dry February to June; rainy, humid, and mild June to November; cool and dry Novem-ber to February

TerrainVaries from tropical to desert

Natural ResourcesPetroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber

Land UseArable land: 12.99% Permanent crops: 1.31% Other: 85.7% (2001)

Natural HazardsTsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destruc-

tive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts

Current Environmental IssuesScarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion

Geography NoteStrategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of the world’s major grain crops, is thought to have originated in Mexico

The Sonora Desert, Northern Mexico


Population106,202,903 (July 2005 est.)

Age Structure0-14 years: 31.1% (male 16,844,400/female 16,159,511) 15-64 years: 63.3% (male 32,521,043/female 34,704,093) 65 years and over: 5.6% (male 2,715,010/female 3,258,846) (2005 est.)

Life Expectancy at BirthTotal population: 75.19 years Male: 72.42 years Female: 78.1 years (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS- Adult Prevelance Rate0.3% (2003 est.)

NationalityNoun: Mexican(s) Adjective: Mexican

Ethnic GroupsMestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%

ReligionsRoman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%

LanguageSpanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages

Government TypeFederal republic

CapitalMexico (Distrito Federal)

National HolidayIndependence Day, 16 September (1810). The day marks the beginning of Mexico’s struggle for independance from Spain. Flag DescriptionThree equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak) is centered in the white band

Quick Facts: Mexico

Buildings in Mexico City are decorated for Independance Day, September 16


Economy OverviewMexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competi-tion in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has 12 free trade agree-ments with over 40 countries including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the European Free Trade Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. The current president Vicente Fox’s administration is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy sector, but has been unable to win the support of the opposition-led Congress. The next government that takes office in December 2006 will confront the same challenges of boosting economic growth, improving Mexico’s international competitiveness, and reducing poverty.

Agriculture ProductsCorn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products

IndustriesFood and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism

CurrencyMexican peso (MXN) In 2005, 1 US Dollar (USD) = 10.97 Mexican peso (MXN)

Labor force - by occupationAgriculture 18%, industry 24%, services 58% (2003)

Unemployment rate 3.6% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line 40% (2003 est.)

International IssuesProlonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices and infrastruc-ture in the border region have strained water-sharing arrangements with the US; the US has stepped up efforts to stem nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other parts of the world from illegally crossing the border with Mexico

Source: The CIA World Fact Bookhttp://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html

A young child on a Mexican farm


Mexico Yesterday and TodayAt least three great civilizations—the Mayas, the Olmecs, and later the Toltecs—preceded the wealthy Aztec Empire, conquered in 1519–1521 by the Spanish under Hernando Cortés. Spain ruled Mexico as part of the viceroyalty of New Spain for the next 300 years until Sept. 16, 1810, when the Mexicans first revolted. They won independence in 1821.

From 1821 to 1877, there were two emperors, several dictators, and enough presidents and provisional executives to make a new government on the average of every nine months. Mexico lost Texas (1836), and after defeat in the war with the U.S. (1846–1848), it lost the area that is now California, Nevada, and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1855, the Indian patriot Benito Juárez began a series of reforms, including the disestablishment of the Catholic Church, which owned vast property. The subsequent civil war was interrupted by the French invasion of Mexico (1861) and the crowning of Maximilian of Austria as emperor (1864). He was overthrown and executed by forces under Juárez, who again became president in 1867.

The years after the fall of the dictator Porfirio Diaz (1877–1880 and 1884–1911) were marked by bloody political-military strife and trouble with the U.S., culminating in the punitive U.S. expedition into northern Mexico (1916–1917) in unsuccessful pursuit of the revolutionary Pancho Villa. Since a brief civil war in 1920, Mexico has enjoyed a period of gradual agricultural, political, and social reforms. The Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR; National Revolutionary Party), dominated by revolutionary and reformist politicians from northern Mexico, was established in 1929; it continued to control Mexico throughout the 20th century and was renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI; Institutional Revolutionary Party) in 1946. Relations with the U.S. were disturbed in 1938 when all foreign oil wells were expropriated, but a compensation agreement was reached in 1941.

Following World War II, the government emphasized economic growth. During the mid-1970s, under the leadership of President José López Portillo, Mexico became a major petroleum producer. By the end of Portillo’s term, however, Mexico had accumulated a huge external debt because of the government’s unrestrained borrowing on the strength of its petroleum revenues. The collapse of oil prices in 1986 cut Mexico’s export earnings. In Jan. 1994, Mexico joined Canada and the United States in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which will phase out all tariffs over a 15-year period, and in Jan. 1996, it became a founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

For more indepth information on

Mexican history, go to:

http://www.mexonline.com/

history.htm

Mexican president and national hero,

Benito Juárez


In 1995, the U.S. agreed to prevent the collapse of Mexico’s private banks. In return, the U.S. won virtual veto power over much of Mexico’s economic policy. In 1997, in what observers called the freest elections in Mexico’s history, the PRI lost control of the lower legislative house and the mayoralty of Mexico City in a stunning upset. To increase democracy, President Ernesto Zedillo said in 1999 that he would break precedent and not personally choose the next PRI presidential nominee. Several months later, Mexico held its first presidential primary, which was won by former interior secretary Francisco Labastida, Zedillo’s closest ally among the candidates.

In elections held on July 2, 2000, the PRI lost the presidency, ending 71 years of one-party rule. Vicente Fox Quesada, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), took 43% of the vote to Labastida’s 36%. Fox vowed tax reform, an overhaul of the legal system, and a reduction in power of the central government. By 2002, however, Fox had made little headway on his ambitious reform agenda. Disfavor with Fox was evident in 2003 parliamentary elections, when the PRI rebounded, winning 224 of the 500 seats in the lower house. After the elections, Fox admitted publicly that many Mexicans were disappointed with his government thus far.

In 2004, a two-year investigation into the “dirty war,” which Mexico’s authoritarian government waged against its opponents in the 1960s and 1970s, led to an indictment—later dropped—against former president Luis Echeverria for ordering the 1971 shooting of student protesters.

An attempt to bring criminal charges against Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the enormously popular leftist mayor of Mexico City, were dropped in May 2005 after a huge public rally in favor of the mayor took place. López Obrador was accused of a technical offense, breaching a court order involving the construction of an access road in the city, which could have blocked his intended run for the presidency in 2006. Many believe that the charges were politically motivated, so that López Obrador could not run against the deeply unpopular incumbent, Vicente Fox.

Current Mexican president, Vicente Fox

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Lesson Plans


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comprehensive source of arts-based lesson

plans.

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Curriculum ConnectionsIntroduction

The following lessons and activities offer suggestions intended to be used in preparation for the UMS Youth Performance. These lessons are meant to be both fun and educational, and should be used to create anticipation for the performance. Use them as a guide to further exploration of the art form. Teachers may pick and choose from the cross-disciplinary activities and can coordinate with other subject area teachers. You may wish to use several activities, a single plan, or pursue a single activity in greater depth, depending on your subject area, the skill level or maturity of your students and the intended learner outcomes.

Our Lesson Plans Are Now Online!

Lesson plans were created to help enrich your study of the José Limón Dance Company and make it come alive for your students. We hope that this new online format will make it easier for teachers to adapt the lesson plans for their own class-rooms. The plans can bee accessed at www.ums.org/education.

Lessons plans available for download are:

1. Time, Space and Energy (Grades 3-12)

2. Seeing Music, Hearing Dance (Grades 3-12)

3. Sculptures (Grades 3-12)

4. Connections (Grades 3-12)

5. Directed Improvisation (Grades 3-12)

6. Appreciating the Performance (Grades 3-12)

Learner Outcomes

• Each student will develop a feeling of self-worth, pride in work, respect, appreciation and understanding of other people and cultures, and a desire for learning now and in the future in a multicultural, gender-fair, and ability- sensitive environment.

• Each student will develop appropriately to that individual’s potential, skill in reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, listening, problem solving, and examining and utilizing information using multicultural, gender-fair and ability-sensitive materials.

• Each student will become literate through the acquisition and use of knowledge appropriate to that individual’s potential, through a comprehensive, coordinated curriculum, including computer literacy in a multicultural, gender-fair, and ability-sensitive environment.

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Meeting Michigan StandardsUMS can help you meet Michigan’s

Curricular Standards!

The activities in this study guide,

combined with the live performance, are aligned with Michigan

Standards and Benchmarks.

For a complete list of Standards and

Benchmarks, visit the Michigan Department of Education online:

www.michigan.gov/mde

ARTS EDUCATIONStandard 1: Performing All students will apply skills and knowledge to perform in the arts.Standard 2: Creating All students will apply skills and knowledge to create in the arts.Standard 3: Analyzing in Context All students will analyze, describe, and evaluate works of art.Standard 4: Arts in Context All students will understand, analyze and describe the arts in their

historical, social, and cultural contexts.Standard 5: Connecting to other Arts, other Disciplines, and Life All students will recognize,

analyze and describe connections among the arts; between the arts and other disciplines; between the arts and everyday life.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTSStandard 3: Meaning and Communication All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic

contexts.Standard 6: Voice All students will learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written and visual texts that enlighten and engage an audience.

SOCIAL STUDIESStandard I-1: Time and Chronology All students will sequence chronologically eras of American history and key events within these eras in order to examine relationships and to explain cause and effect.Standard I-3: Analyzing and Interpreting the Past All students will reconstruct the past by

comparing interpretations written by others from a variety of perspectives and creating narratives from evidence.

Standard II-1: People, Places, and Cultures All students will describe, compare and explain the locations and characteristics of places, cultures and settlements.

Standard VII-1: Responsible Personal Conduct All students will consider the effects of an individual’s actions on other people, how one acts in accordance with the rule of law and how one acts in a virtuous and ethically responsible way as a member of society.

MATHStandard I-1: Patterns Students recognize similarities and generalize patterns, use patterns to create models and make predictions, describe the nature of patterns and relationships and

construct representations of mathematical relationships.Standard I-2: Variability and Change Students describe the relationships among variables, predict

what will happen to one variable as another variable is changed, analyze natural variation and sources of variability and compare patterns of change.

Standard III-3: Inference and Prediction Students draw defensible inferences about unknown outcomes, make predictions and identify the degree of confidence they have in their pre-dictions.

SCIENCEStandard I-1: Constructing New Scientific Knowledge All students will ask questions that help

them learn about the world; design and conduct investigations using appropriate methodology and technology; learn from books and other sources of information; com-municate their findings using appropriate technology; and reconstruct previously learned knowledge.

Standard IV-4: Waves and Vibrations All students will describe sounds and sound waves; explain shadows, color, and other light phenomena; measure and describe vibrations and waves;

and explain how waves and vibrations transfer energy.


TitleEach UMS lesson plan is aligned to specific State of

Michigan Standards.

CAREER & EMPLOYABILITYStandard 1: Applied Academic Skills All students will apply basic communication skills, apply

scientific and social studies concepts, perform mathematical processes and apply technology in work-related situations.

Standard 2: Career Planning All students will acquire, organize, interpret and evaluate information from career awareness and exploration activities, career assessment and work-based

experiences to identify and to pursue their career goals.Standard 3: Developing and Presenting Information All students will demonstrate the ability to

combine ideas or information in new ways, make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and organize and present information in formats such as symbols, pictures, schemat

ics, charts, and graphs.Standard 4: Problem Solving All students will make decisions and solve problems by specifying goals, identifying resources and constraints, generating alternatives, considering impacts, choosing appropriate alternatives, implementing plans of action and evaluating results.Standard 5: Personal Management All students will display personal qualities such as responsibility, self-management, self-confidence, ethical behavior and respect for self and others.Standard 7: Teamwork All students will work cooperatively with people of diverse backgrounds and abilities, identify with the group’s goals and values, learn to exercise leadership, teach others new skills, serve clients or customers and contribute to a group process with ideas,

suggestions and efforts.

TECHNOLOGYStandard 2: Using Information Technologies All students will use technologies to input, retrieve,

organize, manipulate, evaluate and communicate information.Standard 3: Applying Appropriate Technologies All students will apply appropriate technologies

to critical thinking, creative expression and decision-making skills.

WORLD LANGUAGESStandard 2: Using Strategies All students will use a varietry of strategies to communicate in a non- English language.Standard 8: Global Community All students will define and characterize the global community.Standard 9: Diversity All students will identify diverse languages and cultures throughout the world.

Resources

Resources

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor)

Dear Parents and Guardians,We will be taking a field trip to see a University Musical Society (UMS) Youth Performance of the Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano on Friday, February 10, from 12noon-1pm at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor.

We will travel (please circle one) • by car • by school bus • by private bus • by footLeaving school at approximately ________am and returning at approximately ________pm.

The UMS Youth Performance Series brings the world’s finest performers in music, dance, theater, opera, and world cultures to Ann Arbor. This performance features the Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano.

We (circle one) • need • do not need additional chaperones for this event. (See below to sign up as a chaperone.)

Please (circle one) • send • do not send lunch along with your child on this day.

If your child requires medication to be taken while we are on the trip, please contact us to make arrangements.

If you would like more information about this Youth Performance, please visit the Education section of www.ums.org/education. Copies of the Teacher Resource Guide for this performance are available for you to download.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at ____________________________________ or send email to _________________________________________________________________________. Please return this form to the teacher no later than _____________________________________________

Sincerely,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My son/daughter, __________________________________, has permission to attend the UMS Youth Performance on Friday, February 10, 2006. I understand that transportation will be by _____________.I am interested in chaperoning if needed (circle one). • YES • NO

Parent/Guardian Signature________________________________________ Date_____________________

Relationship to student ____________________________________________

Daytime phone number__________________________________________

Emergency contact person________________________________________

Emergency contact phone number_________________________________

UMS FIELD TRIP PERMISSION SLIP

Bibliography/DiscographySome of the textual information as well as some of the graphics included in this guide were derived from the following sources:

Bibliography

Puro Mariachihttp://www.mariachi.org/

Mexican Mariachi Music and Instrumentshttp://www.sbgmusic.com/html/teacher/reference/cultures/mariachi.html

Introduction to Mariachi Music http://www.teachervision.fen.com/mexico/music/6757.html

Mariachi History http://www.elmariachi.com/library/history.asp

Mariachi Publishing Companyhttp://www.mariachipublishing.com/

History of Mexicohttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107779.html

The World Factbook -- Mexicowww.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html

Discography

Puro Mariachi (Indigo Records, 1961)

North of the Border (RCA/Carino Records, 1965)

El Super Mariachi, Los Camperos (Latin International, 1968)

Valses de Amor (La Fonda Records, 1973)

Canciones de Siempre (PolyGram Latino, 1993)

Sounds of Mariachi (Delfin Records, 1996)

Fiesta Navidad (Delfin Records, 1997)

Viva el Mariachi (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2003)

¡Llegaron Los Camperos! (Smithsonian Foldways Recordings, 2005)

There are more study guides

like this one, on a variety of

topics online! Just visit...

www.ums.org/education

Arts Resources

www.ums.org/educationThe official website of UMS. Visit the Education section (www.ums.org/education) for study guides, information about community and family events and more infor-mation about the UMS Youth Education Program.

www.artsedge.kennedy-center.orgThe nation’s most comprehensive web site for arts education, including lesson plans, arts education news, grant information, etc.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano

www.radiobilingue.org/mariachi/bio_naticano_camperos.htm - Abiography of Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano

www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/containerdetail.aspx?itemid=3050 - Samples of muscial tracks from their Grammy nominated album ¡Llegaron Los Camperos!: Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

Mexico

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mxtoc.html - A comprehensive country study by the Library of Congress, including Mexican history, economics, government, and politics.

http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico/ - Latin American Network Information Center based at the Univerisity of Texas-Austin facilitates access to Internet-based information to, from, or on Latin America.

www.elmonterey.com/mexicanculture/festivals.aspx - a guide to Mexican holidays and festivals

Mariachi

www.mariachi.org- a calendar of western US concerts and events, directory of groups, and links to history and review sites. www.alegria.org/body_lnk_music.html - a guide to mariachi and other Mexi-can folk music. The site also contains information of traditional Mexican folkloric dance and art.

http://personal.linkline.com/dserrano/infolinks.htm - a resource for links to mariachi and mariachi education sites.

Although UMS previewed each web site, we recommend that teachers check all web sites before introducing them to students, as content may have changed since this guide was published.

Internet Resources

PRIMARY & ELEMENTARY GRADES

Alarcon, Francisco X. Angels Ride Bikes: And Other Fall Poems (Children’s Book Press; Bilingual edition, 1999).

Alarcon, Francisco X. From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems (Children’s Book Press; Bilingual edition, 1998).

Alarcon, Francisco X. Iguanas in the Snow: and Other Winter Poems (Children’s Book Press; Bilingual edition, 2001).

Alarcon, Francisco X. Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems (Children’s Book Press; Bilingual edition, 1997).

Freedman, Russell. Stories of Mexico’s Independence Days and Other Bilingual Children’s Fables, (University of New Mexico Press, 2005).

Galindo, Mary Sue. Icy Watermelon/ Sandía Fría (Arte Publico Press; Bilingual edition, 2001).

Mathews, Sally Schofer. The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss (Clarion Books, 2001). Nye, Naomi Shihab. The Tree Is Older Than You Are: A Bilingual Gathering of Poems & Stories from Mexico, (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, 1995). Ober, Hal & Carol Ober. How Music Came to the World : An Ancient Mexican Myth (Houghton Mifflin, 1994).

Wilson Sanger, Amy. Hola Jalapeno (World Snacks), (Tricycle Press, 2002).

Winner, Ramona Moreno. Lucas and His Loco Beans: A Tale of the Mexican Jumping Bean, (Brainstorm Three Thousand, 2002). UPPER MIDDLE & SECONDARY GRADES

Bierhorst, John. The Mythology of Mexico and Central America (HarperCollins Publishers, 1990).

Joseph, G. M., Timothy J. Henderson, Gilbert M. Joseph, eds. The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers) (Duke University Press, 2003).

Melazzini, Santiago. Mariachi: A Flip Book, (La Marca Editora, 2006).

Shane, C. J., ed. The Mexicans (Coming to America) (Greenhaven Press, 2004).

Sheehy, Daniel. Mariachi Music in America : Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series) (Oxford University Press, USA, 2005).

There are many more

books available about mariachi and

Mexico

Just visit www.amazon.com

Recommended Reading

University Musical Society University of Michigan Burton Memorial Tower 881 N. University Ave Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1101 734.615.0122 [email protected] www.ums.org/education

Mariachi Especial Alma de Mexico David Hernandez 9210 Mason Place Detroit, MI 48209 313.843.6945

Casa de Unidad 1920 Scotten Detroit, Ml 48209 313.843.9598 http://casadeunidad.com/

Latinos Unidos, Inc Cecilia Fileti P.O. Box 131527 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113 866.249.8600 [email protected] www.milatinosunidos.org

LA SED (Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development) 4138 W.Vernor Detroit, Ml 48209 313.554.2025 University of Michigan Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2607 Social Work/ International Institute Bldg. 1080 South University St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 734.763.0553 [email protected] http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/lacs/

Wayne State University’s Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies 3324 Faculty Administration Building 656 W. Kirby Detroit, MI 48202 313.577.4378 [email protected] www.clas.wayne.edu/cbs/

Community Resources

36 | www.ums.org/educa-

Title


Using the Resource Disk

Evening Performance InfoMariachi Los Camperos de Nati CanoNatividad “Nati” Cano, artistic directorFriday, February 10, 8 pmPower Center

Mariachi goes beyond music: it is a musical celebration of life expressed through a group of musicians in traditional clothing, encompassing the essence of Mexico and its people. The eleven-member Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano takes this musical folk tradition from the streets into the concert hall, where it can be right-fully appreciated as an art form of innate beauty and artistry.

A traditionalist and a visionary, Natividad “Nati” Cano has both mirrored and shaped the history of mariachi music, blending traditional rhythms with the more complex harmonies of American and Mexican popular music. Growing up in rural Mexico, he moved to Guadalajara and then Los Angeles, where he founded Los Camperos, the major driving force of the mariachi tradition and the group that is chiefly responsible for its surge in popularity in North America.

To hear their richly operatic voices interwoven with the lush melodies of violins, the complex rhythms of guitar, vihuela (mariachi rhythm guitar) and harp, and the vivid brilliance of trumpets, is to experience mariachi at its best — a triumphant balance of contrasts that is distinctly Mexican yet universal in its appeal.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

To purchase UMS tickets:

Onlinewww.ums.org

By Phone 734.764.2538

TEEN TicketIn response to the needs of our teen audience members, the University Musical Society has implemented the TEEN Ticket. All teens can attend UMS events at a significant discount. Tickets are available for $10 the day of the performance at the Michigan League Ticket Office, or for 50% off the published price at the venue 90 minutes before the performance begins. One ticket per student ID.

Send Us Your Feedback!UMS wants to know what teachers and students think about this Youth Performance.

We hope you’ll send us your thoughts, drawings, letters or reviews.

UMS Youth Education ProgramBurton Memorial Tower • 881 N. University Ave. • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011

734.615.0122 phone • 734.998.7526 fax • [email protected]/education

Mariachi Sg

Documents

Transcript of Mariachi Sg