Corrido Conference
Santa Barbara, California: May 8, 2008
by Mark Guerrero
On May 8,
2008, my brother Dan and I presented a lecture/performance at the University of
California Santa Barbara in the McCune conference room. It was part of a three day corrido conference,
which took place on May 8th, 9th, and 10th. The event, which was organized
and hosted by Maria Herrera-Sobek and assisted by Theresa Peña, was in memoriam and
honoring our dad, Lalo Guerrero, and Professor Guillermo Hernandez.
My brother and I screened parts of my brother's documentary, "Lalo Guerrero: The
Original Chicano," spoke,
took questions, and performed some corridos. I sang my dad's "El Corrido
de Delano" and my tribute song to my dad, "The Ballad of Lalo Guerrero." I
accompanied myself on acoustic guitar on both songs. "El Corrido de
Delano" was written and recorded by my dad in the mid 60s in support of Cesar
Chavez and his farm worker's movement. My song, "The Ballad of Lalo
Guerrero," although in English is a corrido, in this case the story of a
person's life and career. Generally speaking, a corrido is a musical
composition that tells the story of a person, place, or event. We closed
our presentation with my dad's "El Chicano," a corrido about joys as
well as the trials and tribulations of being a Chicano.
My brother did the vocal and I accompanied him on acoustic guitar. Our
presentation was very well received.
Also making
presentations on our day were the following speakers, whose names are followed
by their lecture topics: Jose Limon- "Singing it Back to the People: The
Discursive Ride of Gregorio Cortez"; journalist Elijah Wald- "Vuelva
Cyberpalomita: You Tube Gives New Life to the Corrido Tradition"; Jaime Nicolopulos- "Ignacio Parra: New Light on an Old Corrido"; and Luis Leal- "Corrido
de Lucio Blanco's en su Contexto Historico." What amazed me was the level
of knowledge about corridos that these and other people in the audience
possessed. Many of them were Anglo-Americans, who spoke Spanish fluently and could
quote chapter and verse about a certain corrido written in 1890 about a certain
person or event. They would quote lines from various verses and translate
them. Many of these people attend the annual corrido conference every
year, traveling to the host city wherever that may be. The previous
conference took place in Monterrey, Mexico. Also making a fine musical
presentation on our day was Manuel Unzueta, who teaches at Santa Barbara City
College, He played guitar and sang a couple of corridos. Also attending the conference
was Chris Strachwitz, owner of Arhoolie Records, who was also a sponsor of the
event. I had spoken to him on the phone on various occasions over the
years, but had never met him in person until this day. Also in attendance
was Peter Garcia, a professor currently teaching at U.C. Santa Barbara. I
had often spoken with him on the phone regarding an entry I wrote for the
Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture back in 2003. At the time he was
teaching at the University of Northern Arizona and was involved in putting the
two volume set together for Greenwood Press. This was the first time I'd
met him in person as well. I also had the pleasure of meeting Christine
Chavez, a granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, who was also in attendance. Half way through the
program, we had an excellent buffet lunch at the faculty club, where we were able to
mingle and have some good conversation with participants and audience members. After the day's presentations, we
all went to the Davidson Library for a reception hosted by Sal Guereña, Director
of the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), which is based there
at the Davidson. My brother Dan and I had donated my dad's archives to
CEMA several years ago and have since started our own archives at the facility.
At the reception was a great collection of people; writers, scholars, musicians,
poets, and academics. There was another buffet, music, and some great
conversation at the reception and everyone seemed to have good time.
In the
evening most of the conference participants went to the Casa de La Raza a few
miles from the campus. There was a band and many people getting up and
singing corridos. Earlier at the conference I had met a nice woman by the
name of Dorothy Littlejohn, who after hearing my performance of my song, "The
Ballad of Lalo Guerrero," asked me if she could video tape me singing the song
at some point in the day. I told her I was going to the Casa de La Raza
that evening so we agreed to meet there. We found a quiet room away from
the music and revelry in the main room that we could use for the taping.
She used one camera and somehow made the video look like a three camera shoot.
We did it in two takes. Days later she edited the tape and put it up on
you tube. After the taping my brother and I, accompanied by the
aforementioned Elijah Wald and another writer whose name I've forgotten, went to
a nice restaurant/bar in downtown Santa Barbara and had some liquid refreshment
and some more conversation. Participating in the corrido conference was an
inspiring and fulfilling experience for my brother and I. We worked well
together and enjoyed the whole event.
Whenever I
make a trip, be it for a concert or lecture, I try to tie in as much as I can
within reason to make the most of the journey. In this case, I had a
chance to meet with four different people who lived in the general area.
On the way up to Santa Barbara via Los Angeles, I met with Moses Mora, one of
the originators of the Tortilla Flats Mural Project in Ventura that includes a painting of my dad
with his Trio Imperial and a glossy tile with another image of him taken from a
publicity photo circa 1950. (The artist who created the mural is MB Hanrahan.) The
mural, which is made of state of the art materials, is on both sides of a
freeway underpass near Figueroa and Thompson. It also depicts many people who were displaced from
their barrio, Tortilla Flats, for the building of a freeway system in the late 40s and through the 50s. Their story
parallels what happened to the people displaced from Chavez Ravine to make room
for Dodger Stadium. The mural also has paintings of other musical artists
who performed at the Green Mill Ballroom in Ventura during that time frame,
artists representing a wide range of styles such as Chuck Berry , Fats Domino,
Spade Cooley, Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys, the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, Harry
James, Luis Alcaraz, Maria Victoria, and Lalo Guerrero. Moses showed me
the mural and told me some of the stories behind the images. We then had
coffee at a restaurant next to the mural and enjoyed some conversation about
Chicano music, Bob Dylan, rock & roll, and other topics of mutual interest.
It turns out we know some people in common, including the recently deceased
Native-American actor/musician/activist, Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
While in
Santa Barbara, I met with two local singers on the first night. I had
corresponded with them for awhile via e mail and featured their CDs on my
website's "What's New" pages. Pepe Marquez and Anthony Prieto are both
very good singers who live in the Santa Barbara area. We had dinner at a
down home Mexican restaurant that featured some good Mexican and Chicano
artwork, including a large painting of Frida Kahlo. The food was also
excellent. We talked about various subjects including the music scene in
Santa Barbara, which sometimes does not welcome them with open arms. In
one case they were told they wouldn't be hired because the owners are
afraid they would attract "the element." Pepe and Anthony both also occasionally do
shows outside of the area, including in Los Angeles, where they've been on the
bill with Tierra and other top Chicano artists. They're good guys
with talent whose work I will continue to support on my website. On my way
back to Palm Springs, I stopped in Ventura and met with Dan Pollock for
breakfast. Dan was a guitarist for The Mixtures in the early 60s.
The Mixtures, although from the Ventura area, are often considered part of the
"Eastside Sound" because they were managed by Eddie Davis, who also managed
and/or recorded East L.A. artists such as Cannibal & the Headhunters, The
Premiers, The Blendells, The Jaguars with the Salas Brothers, and many more.
The Mixtures are often included in CD compilations with East L.A. groups and
their music fits right in. I had interviewed Dan for an article I wrote on
The Mixtures for my website a couple of years before and had spoken to him on
other occasions prior to the interview. This was our first opportunity to
meet in person. Dan is a very bright man with a very interesting personal
story, which includes having played for a time with Ike & Tina Turner. We
had some great conversation over breakfast, mostly about music. My trip to
Santa Barbara was very worthwhile and fulfilling because in addition to the
great corrido conference, I got to meet with Moses, Pepe, Anthony, and Dan.
Click
here for Santa
Barbara/Ventura Photo Gallery
Contact me at:
info@markguerrero.net
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