HOME

TheInfoList

Click Here for Items Related To - Mexican music in Chile

OR:

Mexican music in Chile on: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Amazon]

225px, María José Quintanilla, a Chilean singer of ranchera.">ranchera.html" ;"title="María José Quintanilla, a Chilean singer of ranchera">María José Quintanilla, a Chilean singer of ranchera. Music of Mexico">Mexican music The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of musical genres and performance styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably deriving from the culture of the Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. It also ...

enjoys widespread popularity in some social and geographic sectors of Chile. In particular, Mexican music is especially popular among Chilean rural lower classes. Geographically, Mexican music is most popular in Zona Sur, south-central Chile, but there are also significant audiences elsewhere, such as in the northern city of La Serena. Mexican

corrido The corrido () is a popular narrative metrical tale and poetry that forms a ballad. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for criminals, the vaquero lifestyle, and other socially relevant topics. Corridos were widely popular ...

s commonly perform in Chilean national day celebrations of Fiestas Patrias. Mexican music as understood in Chile is

norteño music Norteño (Spanish: "northerner") may refer to: * Norteño (music) is a style of Mexican music related to polka and corridos * Norteño refers to the people originally from Northern Mexico and Southwestern U.S. * Norteño (band) is a ''tango nuevo ...

, a series of styles that originated in the rural world of the northern half of Mexico. The

and

ranchera Ranchera () or canción ranchera is a genre of traditional music of Mexico. It dates to before the years of the Mexican Revolution. Rancheras today are played in virtually all regional Mexican music styles. Drawing on rural traditional folk music ...

genres of norteño music in particular are referred as "Mexican music" in Chile. Though other regional styles of Mexican music are represented in Chile, similarly to the

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...

radio format in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Among the annual Mexican music festivals in Chile are the ''Festival del Cantar Mexicano Guadalupe del Carmen'' in

Chanco Chanco is a name traditionally assigned to a Native American who is said to have warned a Jamestown colonist, Richard Pace, about an impending Powhatan attack in 1622. This article discusses how the Native American came to be known as Chanco. ...

, ''Festival Internacional de la Voz de la Música Mexicana de Puyehue'' in Puyehue, and ''Festival del Cantar Popular Mexicano'' in La Serena.

Origins

It is thought that Mexican music gained popularity, even in remote areas of Chile, through radio stations and Mexican movies. The first Chilean interpreters of Mexican music appeared in the 1940s, and by the time of

Jorge Negrete Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno (; 30 November 1911 – 5 December 1953) was a Mexican singer and actor. Life and career Negrete was born in the city of Guanajuato and had two brothers and three sisters; his father was a Mexican Army Colonel who ...

's visit to Chile in 1946,

Los Queretaros LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

and many other ensembles specializing in Mexican music were thriving. Musicologist Laura Jordán González comments that "music listening practices in Chile have extensively shown a preference for foreign music, which has been explained by some authors as a result of successive non-protectionist policies". Radio stations specializing in Mexican music are common in Chile. They may play music from as early as six o'clock in the morning, when farmers begin their workday. Typically, broadcasts of Mexican music on these radio stations continue well into midnight. In the 1950s and 1960s, non-specialized radio stations such as Radio Yungay and

Radio Agricultura Radio Agricultura (originally ''Radio Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura'') is a Chilean radio broadcasting network belonging to the association of landowners, Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura (SNA). It is run by ''Publicaciones y Difusión SA'' ( ...

created programs dedicated to Mexican music. According to lifelong Mexican music collector Fernando Méndez, the popularity of Mexican music was helped by similarities in Chilean and Mexican culture, such as the equivalence of the

charro Charro has several meanings, but it generally refers to Mexican horse riders, who maintain traditional dress, such as some form of sombrero, which in Mexican Spanish are called ''sombrero de charro'' (a charro's hat). The charros could also ...

with the

huaso A huaso () is a Chilean countryman and skilled horseman, similar to the United States, American cowboy, the Mexico, Mexican charro (and its northern equivalent, the vaquero), the gaucho of Argentina, Uruguay and Rio Grande Do Sul, and the Austr ...

1970s to the present

As Mexican music gained ground in Chile by the 1970s, the popularity of the

was considered to be on par with the local

cueca Cueca () is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially declared as such by the Pinochet dictatorship on September 18, 1979 ...

, a local genre regarded as typically Chilean and promoted by the

Pinochet dictatorship Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. As happened in many aspects of Chilean society, Mexican music became politicized in the 1970s. Jorge Inostroza, a prominent

radio host A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a radi ...

and promoter of Mexican music, alienated much of his audience with his public support of the Pinochet dictatorship. The military dictatorship sought to isolate Chilean radio listeners from the outside world by changing

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...

to middle wavelengths. This, together with the shutdown of radio stations sympathetic to the former Allende administration, had a negative impact to Mexican music in Chile. Another challenge to Mexican music was the closing of

record shop A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record sho ...

s selling Mexican music which coincided with the installment of the dictatorship in the early 1970s. In response to these adversities, Chilean exiles in Spain and Mexico supplied their relatives in Chile with records of Mexican music. The scarcity of Mexican music records is thought to have contributed to the creation of the local recording company ''Sol de América'' and the

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

brand ''Cumbre y Cuatro'', both of which catered to Mexican music enthusiasts. Elements of the Chilean military distrusted Mexican music, leading to cases where the music was denounced as "communist". The military's dislike of Mexican music may be rooted in the Allende administration's close links with Mexico, the " Mexican revolutionary discourse", and the overall low prestige of Mexican music in Chile. The dictatorship never suppressed Mexican music as a whole, as distinctions were made between different currents, some of which were actually promoted. Among the Chilean upper class, Mexican music has gained more acceptance since the 2000s. In part, this trend is explained by the popularity of the musical talent show '' Rojo Fama contra Fama'' on

TVN TVN may refer to: * TVN (Australian TV channel), a former horse racing channel * Televisión Nacional de Chile, a public broadcaster * TVN (Indonesia), a former television station; predecessor of Rajawali Televisi * TVN (Norway), or TVNorge, a comm ...

, which aired for the first time in 2002.

María José Quintanilla María José Quintanilla (born 17 February 1990), also nicknamed “Coté”, is a Chilean singer, songwriter, and actress. She began singing as a child and participated in numerous singing contests in her teens. She signed with Sony Music's Chil ...

in particular gained acclaim on the program by singing

songs.

References

{{reflist

External links

2008 report on Mexican music in Chile
TVN official channel Mexican music Chilean music Cultural exchange