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/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-MEXICO: Indigenous Youngsters Conquer Audiences Everywhere

Adrián Reyes

MEXICO CITY, Apr 4 2005 (IPS) - They learned to play music while playing children’s games in the hilly scrubland of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, and although they are still just youngsters, they can read sheet music and execute works by Beethoven and Latin American popular music standards with equal ease.

These talented children and adolescents are members of the philharmonic orchestra from the Centre for Musical Training and Development of the Mixe Culture (CECAM). The centre is based in the town of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, which is home to around 8,000 members of the Mixe community, just one of nearly 60 indigenous ethnic groups Mexico.

The young musicians have performed in Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, considered the most prestigious concert venue in the country, and in a number of U.S. cities including New York, San Antonio and Cleveland. They have also shared the stage with such well-known Latin American artists as Peruvian singer Tania Libertad and Mexican baroque flautist Horacio Franco.

"I want to be the best flautist in all of Mexico and give concerts," Citlalmina Cardoso, an 11-year-old with big black eyes and long braids trailing down her back, told IPS. In the Mixe language, her name means "queen of the stars".

Along with her playmates and fellow musicians, nine-year-old Ajaaypiyj Delgado (whose name is the Mixe word for a yellow marigold native to Oaxaca) and 10-year-old Concepción Hernández, Citlalmina has become used to being approached after concerts by adults who want the youngsters to pose for pictures or sign the cover of the orchestra’s CD, Sones de Tierra y Nube.

At a recent outdoor concert in Coyoacán, one of Mexico City’s most historically and culturally rich neighbourhoods, the audience called out for so many encores that the young musicians ended up playing a full 45 minutes longer than planned.

Under the conduction of César Delgado, the CECAM orchestra performed a repertoire of Latin American popular music favourites that moved some audience members to get up and dance.

The musical tradition underlying the creation of this 50-member group dates back to the 19th century, when indigenous communities in Mexico formed wind instrument ensembles to play at religious ceremonies and local celebrations. In the rural community around Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, this tradition was cultivated with particular emphasis.

In the 1970s, the Mexican national government instituted a programme to promote musical education for indigenous children and adolescents. When this initiative ended in 1983, it was revived by the Xquenda Cultural Association, a non-governmental group, and CECAM was born.

CECAM operates as a boarding school where the children and teenagers receive musical training at the same time as instruction in regular elementary and secondary school subjects. They are taught by satellite, since there are no public schools in the area or teachers to work in this small community perched in the mountains of Oaxaca.

Singer Susana Harp, one of the driving forces behind CECAM told IPS that this initiative is aimed at "giving the country and the world an original artistic offering. These children and teenagers help promote arts and culture, and as members of an ethnic community, they send a message of peace to the world."

Like a pint-sized army wielding an arsenal of musical instruments, clad in "uniforms" of spotless white cloaks and leather sandals, the CECAM philharmonic orchestra invaded the town square of Coyoacán and conquered the audience with their talent and enthusiasm.

"We’ve been interested in music since we were little kids," said Mario Rubio, a 19-year-old trumpet player. "I have younger brothers who are in other bands for beginners. For us, it’s like keeping a tradition alive. And now it’s spreading to other parts of the country, too," she added.

At the end of the concert, conductor Delgado seemed to be fighting back tears before the audience’s deafening applause for these remarkable young artists.

"I’ve seen this reaction everywhere we perform, but I still find it overwhelming," he commented to IPS. The important thing now, he added, is for the authorities to provide these youngsters with the opportunity to continue their musical training.

Delgado himself received his initial musical instruction at CECAM, and then pursued further studies in France, where he trained as an orchestra conductor.

More than an indigenous cultural phenomenon, this orchestra is a showcase for the talent of children and adolescents who have had access to musical training despite the poverty of the community they hail from, and have used it to extraordinary effect, said the conductor, as he watched little Citlalmina and Ajaaypiyj cheerfully consent to the endless stream of requests for pictures and autographs.