| Volume 5: Latino American and Asian American Music |
| Chapter 11. Mexican Mariachi |
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The "Come-On"
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| El Carretero (The Cart
Driver) This is one of the best of the traditional sones and goes back probably two centuries. The humorous words tell of a cart driver who wants to start his journey toward various towns (a different one is named in each verse)m but each time he is stymied by lack of something important: a mule, a wheel of his cart, the reins, etc. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #05014 1954) |
| El Gusto (The Dark-Skinned
Girl) Gusto is practically untranslatable. It means pleasure and excitement and desire to share these emotions with others, all rolled into one. The worlds of this son jaliscience refers to the excitement and good feeling generated during the course of a marriage or birthday party, with gusto of such proportions that even the dead revive to partake of the fiesta atmosphere. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #05014 1954) |
| Notes for these examples were written by Sam Eskin and accompanied the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (Cook Records) album titled The Mariachi. Musical examples were taken from the same album. |
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