L.A. Musical Group Offers Touchstone for Mexican Culture

November 14, 2011

Music has always served as a way to bring communities together, and one California group is looking to bring a bit of their culture to all of the different ethnic communities scattered throughout the state.

The University of California at Los Angeles’ Daily Bruin reports that the Chicano-Jarocho group Camabalache has earned a name for itself, introducing the region to the traditional Mexican style of music known as Son Jarocho. Long popular in the southeastern Mexican state of Veracruz, Son Jarocho pulls together a variety of different styles taken from everywhere from indigenous populations to the Middle East.

“Whether it’s a demand for social justice [or] heartbreak, whether it’s something you want to play on a Sunday afternoon or something you really want to dance to, there’s a song for everything,” Alexandro Hernández, the group’s requinto player and resident ethnomusicologist, told the Bruin.

First brought to the U.S. in the 1970s and quickly adopted by the growing Mexican population looking for a cultural touchstone, Cambalache looks to bring its musical traditions to everyone in the Los Angeles area, Mexican or otherwise.

Pulled together by Veracruz native César Castro, the group sees itself as a sort of informal cultural exchange program, helping educate Americans about their oft-ignored southern neighbor, whether their roots lie there or elsewhere. Cambalache itself means exchange in Spanish, and the group sees itself as an uncommon connection to the heart of another culture.

Cultural exchange organizations have sprouted up around the world recently for much the same reason, as more people come to realize how important cultural understanding can prove as borders start to fade. is for transcending barriers between international people. With communications from one side of the world to the other now as simple as an email, more and more people now come in contact with societies they might never have encountered otherwise. Growing globalization and international cooperation has only encourage encouraged this development, often making cultural understanding as much a business matter as a philosophical one.

Often cultural understanding is laid at the feet of language, as the most obvious barrier between cultures. But language represents only a portion of a population’s culture and Castro pointed out to NPR that traditions like music can teach as much about a person’s heritage as anything.

"The fandango celebration has the ability to bring together families, generations, different social classes ... and that's really positive," Gilberto Gutierrez, the leader of another Son Jarocho group, told NPR.