Oaxaca is a land of beauty and joy and sadness, of poetry and romance. A land of music and music makers, song and singers.
I have always loved the fact that music is a live medium here. Strolling troubadours cruise our beach-front restaurants ready to provide romance and nostalgia for a few dollars. Every community has its brass band to provide the appropriate importance to its celebrations and observances and to its joy and its grief. And at any gathering of friends and family, someone is likely to produce a guitar to sing and play into the wee hours.

It's remarkable how many classics of this great body of traditional popular Mexican music have their origins in this small corner of the country. La Llorona, a timeless lament on the legend of the Weeping Women, which literally everybody knows, is credited to the state of Oaxaca.

Canción Mixteca, the Mixteca Song, was written in the 19th Century by José López Alavés. It talks of nostalgia for a faraway homeland and is as poignant today, in Indigenous communities decimated by the emigrants in search of the American Dream, as the day it was written. There have been countless renditions of this song recorded over the years. (Check out the version by Ry Cooder and Harry Dean Stanton from the soundtrack of "Paris, Texas".)

An anthem of love and admiration for the women of Tehuantepec on the Oaxacan Isthmus, Sandunga was written more than 150 years ago. This lovely song still accompanies the activities of the Tehuanos from the cradle to the grave.

It is said that when its composer, Máximo Ramón Ortiz, died (serving as the town's military, he was shot by firing squad in 1856), the flowers disappeared from the fields and everybody for the most humble peasant to the most exalted aristocrat wept, so profoundly did this song captured the collective emotion of this Zapotec people.

The Divas

They are true Daughters of Oaxaca. Talented, beautiful & charismatic, they are bringing the Music and Style of their Native Land to the world

Lila Downs

Lila Downs belongs to the world. "Our" Lila, a resident of Oaxaca and a frequent visitor to Puerto Escondido, now lives in New York as benefits the meteoric success of her career, thanks in large part to the Academy Awards and the movie "Frida" about the life of México's iconic painter, Frida Kahlo.
Born in 1968 to a North American father and a Mixtec Indian mother, she grew up shuttling between México and the U.S. And her music draws upon all the cultural threads of both heritages.

She studied voice and anthropology in both countries, and even had thoughts of becoming an opera singer at one point. You can still hear echoes of that ambition in her vocal style. She has extraordinary vocal range and tonality. But her real genius is melding disparate musical styles and in innovative arrangements of traditional materials. Much credit for this must go to musical and romantic partner Paul Cohen and the pan-American make-up of her band. Mexican cumbia, classic ranchera, waltz, bolero and original compositions which experiment with rap, jazz and reggae influences, among others are frequently present.

Her debut album, recently released, is La Sundunga, which covers many of the Oaxacan classics. Next came Tree Of Life (1999) which includes several songs sung entirely in Náhuatl, Zapotec and Mixtec. With La Linea (2001), singing in English, Spanish and Mayan, Lila addresses the problems of the border. A social conscience infuses all of her work.

Now she has released her fourth, brilliant album One Blood. It includes a couple of songs from the "Frida" soundtrack, such as the achingly beautiful "Cielo Rojo". But to demonstrate just how good Lila Downs is, just take a listen to her arrangements of probably the two best known Mexican songs in the world: "La Cucuracha" and "La Bamba"

Truly amazing stuff!

Georgina Menese

Poised, film actress-beautiful and with a celestially pure voice put on the earth to sing the Oaxacan ballads that drip with the sweet anguish of love, Georgina has three albums available each featuring the work of a famed Oaxacan composer.
Hasta Hoy Estoy Contigo, I'm with You 'til Now, a tribute to Jesús Chuy Rasgado, author of the lovely Naila, is my favorite. De la Farra y Dolor, Out of Pain and Revelry is a compilation of Alvaro Carrillo classics and Ausencia, Absense, features the songs of Tata Nacho, Ignacio Fernández Esperón, a hugely successful popular composer during his long career. He died in 1968 at age 77.

Susana Harp

It certainly didn't hurt her career to have the name of one México's richest men, but Susana Harp is both talented and dedicated to her music. She has shown an academic, as well as a musical interest in researching material and traditional instruments. Her albums Mi Tierra, Xquend, Béele Crú and Arriba del Cielo cover the classics of Oaxacan music from "La Sandunga", "Canción Mixteca" to "El feo", "Naila" and "Dios nunca muere" (Macedonio Alcalá).
Alejandra Robles

We haven't found any discs by this vivacious and charismatic singer. She, like Susana Harp, performed during Puerto's Fiestas of November last year, and those of us who were fortunate enough to hear were blown away. She was actually born in Puerto Escondido and now lives in Xalapa, Veracruz. Her upbeat music moves easily into Jarocho influences, a musical heritage almost as rich as ours. A talent this big is sure surface eventually. Look out for her.
The Music Makers

Alvaro Carrillo

Oaxaca's most illustrious musical son was Alvaro Carrillo, a man who was both the Lennon and McCartney of his country. A brilliant wordsmith and melody writer, his 300 or so songs include some absolutely perfect compositions, which are sure to be sung for generations to come.
Alvaro Carrillo Alarcón was born in Cacahuatepec, Oaxaca, on Dec. 2, 1921 and died tragically young in 1963. He is best known for his romantic boleros, such as his biggest international hit "Sabor a Mi." But he also wrote numerous chilenas, the music that was born in his native Costa Chica (small coast), such as the ubiquitous "Pinotepa", as well as classics such as "EEl Negro de la Costa," "El Bravero" and "Alingo Lingo"

He epitomized the Bohemian musician of his time, carousing all night playing music to drown the bitter sweetness and the inevitable pain of being in love.

Chuy Rasgado

Born 1848, Jesús "Chuy" Rasgado was Juchitan's Máximo Ramón Ortiz and his "Naila" is the anthem of that Isthmus town whose people have always had fierce rivalry with their Tehuantepec neighbors. He began playing in the local band and showed so much musical talent, that he was band conductor by the age of 15. Before he died in 1907, he wrote some exquisitely sad ballads and left an indelible mark on the region setting and directing local bands.
What To Hear More

I'm not nearly good enough a writer to do justice to this music. Music is to be heard and felt, it is visceral. So don't take my word for it.
Most of the recordings mentioned in these pages are available at Universo Musical, on Calle 4th norte (4th north street), just across the street from Ahorrará Supermarket and conveniently close to the offices of El Sol de la Costa.

You will also find there a great selection of recordings by contemporary local artists. Pepe Ramos is king of the chilenas and is worth listening to. There are also chilena compilations by various artists, including the near legendary Chanto Vielma. Alvaro Monterrubio and his Santa Cecilia Band is the favorite jaripeo or rodeo band. Other popular local bands include Los Conde, Roya Musical and Karavana Show, all good general party bands, all of whom appear live here on a regular basis. These dances generally take place at either the city hall plaza (explanada de la Agencia Municipal) or at the Benito Juárez Sports Center, located behind the municipal market.

While regularly scheduled live music is scarce until the season picks up, you can always count on hearing the intrepid Mayka at her El Son y La Rumba club, where every night she presents her interpretation of the complete range of Latin music, including much of what was written about in these pages. The Arco Iris can always be counted on for music during the dining hour.

There is, of course, a pool of talented itinerant musicians who, on any night of the week can be found roaming town ready to bring music into your life. Ask any one of them to play a song mentioned here, and I can almost guarantee they will know it. Don't be afraid to ask for a song. The going rate is 20 or 30 pesos per song. (If you would like to hire a trio for a private event, expect to pay 300 or 400 pesos per hour.)

I can personally attest to the passion for music that is so deeply rooted in our community. Some years back, on the occasion of the 2nd and 3rd anniversaries of the paper, El Sol de la Costa sponsored a song contest, "A Song for Puerto", in which we invited composers to present an original song about Puerto Escondido. The response was amazing; housewives, fishermen and bricklayers, as well as professional music makers entered in droves. (And, for the record, A Song for Puerto will return. Stay tuned for details.)

So to end, allow me to acknowledge some of these talented people who are carrying forward the spirit of this rich cultural heritage. Oaxacan composers Hector Martel and Xavier Santos are nationally renowned. Juventino Robles has written a host of songs for local communities; Balthazar Velasco Garcia, expert on the Costa Chica. Francisco Morán Nava, Roman and Silvia María, thank you for your talent and advice. But please note: Any errors here are mine, not theirs.