Fandango sin Fronteras
Mexican son jarocho
Fandango sin Fronteras is an exchange, or intercambio, between musicians, artists, and community workers from Los Angeles and Veracruz, Mexico. Its primary concept of organzing and exchange comes from el fandango — the participatory performance-celebration of Veracruz’s son jarocho musical genre — which is to build community through participatory music. In January 2003, Los Angeles’ music group Quetzal along with a dozen other musicians, visual artists, writers, and community workers from Los Angeles visited Xalapa, Veracruz, to help organize and form part of the first Chicano-Jarocho meeting. From this, a myriad of projects, recordings, writings, performances, and relationships have evolved, extending the concept of el fandango to a transnational network of artists and community workers in Veracruz and the Chicano and Mexican immigrant communities of Los Angeles.
In 2012, Fandango sin Fronteras received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to create a documentary short video which will record the construction of a traditional jarana, or lute, which is central to the son jarocho sound. Cesar Castro, a native of Veracruz and current Los Angeles resident, is the luthier whose work will be documented. Included in footage will be interviews with master luthiers in Veracruz who will provide added context as the tradition expands and grows in California.