Media Luna celebrates 17 years of preserving the sound custom of Tierra Caliente

Morelia, MichThe household historical past of the Media Luna group is of at the very least 4 generations of conventional musicians from the Tierra Caliente area, within the half that corresponds to Michoacán. It’s also the historical past of a lineage through which runs libertarian blood and which covers numerous intervals of nationwide improvement, from the Mexican Revolution to the antecedents of Zapatismo in Chiapas and the present mobilizations towards neoliberalism.

Made up of six Mejía Almonte siblings, 4 girls and two males, in addition to their two dad and mom, this group from Morelia has been preserving, selling, enriching and disseminating conventional music not solely from the Calentana area, however from all of Michoacán, similar to that of the Meseta Purépecha, to which have just lately been added these from different areas of Mexico, together with the Huasteca, the Jarocha and the Comarca Lagunera.

The group will rejoice its anniversary with the recording of an album, the third in its historical past, which can be titled Blooming in reminiscence, whose realization is feasible because of the Creation System (previously Fonca), of the federal Ministry of Tradition, by being a beneficiary within the Mexican Conventional Musicians part.

“Our first album, A single music –additionally with assist from Fonca–, was to rejoice our tenth anniversary; it’s made up of sones from Tierra Caliente, together with two written by my paternal grandfather, José Mejía Ayala. Within the second, Household album, Recorded by the Oral Supplies Laboratory of the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico, we reproduced the conferences at my paternal grandparents’ home in Morelia, the place there have been at all times musicians and it was a gathering level for a lot of traditions, since they got here from Tierra Caliente, the Purépecha Plateau, the Huasteca and Veracruz; so, there was a mixture of music,” he tells The Day Ireri Mejía Almonte, one of many members of that household octet.

This new album, scheduled to be recorded in August, will include 13 unique songs, composed by three of the six Mejía Almonte siblings: Irepan, Yunuén and Ireri, the youngest of this household clan, through which the eldest member is 42 years outdated and the youngest, 32, and all have a unique skilled background. There are, for instance, a physicist-mathematician, a psychologist, a up to date dancer and a composer.

On this third album we wish to reclaim group singing in conventional music. What of our heritage we wish to get better and make flourish in reminiscence and what not. That’s to say, there are specific practices in custom that we all know aren’t so cool and simply because it’s custom we should not have to keep up them. It’s not that we’re towards every little thing, solely towards some lyrics, that are sexist; as in each cultural manifestation, right here we additionally replicate the thought that has constructed and cemented our tradition.says the aforementioned interpreter, who’s a instructor in philosophy, along with taking part in the tololoche.

Banish postures

It isn’t that conventional music is sexist, however that we grew up in a patriarchal tradition. So, it is not one thing unique to custom, however we’ve to level out this stuff, as a result of typically there are positions that wish to protect custom as it’s and mummify it, as if it weren’t alive and there have been no modifications in it; some researchers wish to protect it as a museum object or a showcase, and that isn’t the case.

One other side that they search to clarify with this materials is the place that girls at the moment occupy in these expressions, which, within the case of Tierra Caliente music, is now not restricted to the tabla, as a dancer, however We’re additionally composing, writing and singing the versesnotes Ireri, who highlights the big variety of conventional music and devices that the brand new album will embrace, in step with the influences they grew up with at dwelling.

Blooming in reminiscence It is a undertaking of nice significance for the Media Luna group, as a result of it pays homage to their ancestors, together with their paternal great-grandfather, who, so far as we all know, was the one who opened the road of guitar and violin educating within the household, in addition to their paternal grandfather, who along with being a major college instructor, is a composer. It additionally acknowledges the legacy of their maternal grandfather, a outstanding tabla dancer in Tierra Caliente.

This album can also be the vindication of well-liked singing. We’ve got that different a part of affect through which libertarian blood has run by us since my paternal great-grandfather. He was a member of Emiliano Zapata’s military; his son, that’s, my grandfather, was a part of the clandestine motion that gave rise to the EZLN; my father was a communist and took part in marches and rallies singing with the affect of all Latin People: Víctor Jara, Violeta Parra, Mercedes Sosa… And we, as brothers, though I specifically, have devoted ourselves quite a bit to accompanying the marches and demonstrations for a dignified and free life for all.says Ireri Mejia.

So, we wish to reclaim well-liked singing with a social and political which means, to have an express political and moral place that has to do with collectivity, with the group, towards the individualistic practices of a neoliberal and capitalist system that fragments us and desires us separated and disunited. For us, conventional music is extraordinarily necessary, as a result of it unites and creates collective and group ties that confront these neoliberal values.