Cancion Mexicana

"El Hijo del Pueblo": José Alfredo Jiménez and the Mexican "Canción Ranchera"Author(s): William GradanteSource: Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, Vol. 3, No. 1(Spring - Summer, 1982), pp. 36-59Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/780242 .

Accessed: 20/05/2013 11:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Texas Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to LatinAmerican Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 159.149.103.9 on Mon, 20 May 2013 11:12:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=texas

http://www.jstor.org/stable/780242?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


William Gradante "El Hijo del Pueblo":

Jose Alfredo Jimenez and

the Mexican Cancion

Ranchera

When the aficionado of Mexican music thinks of the cancion ranchera, singers like Pedro Infante, Lucha Reyes, Javier Solis, Miguel Aceves Mejia, Amalia Mendoza, Jorge Negrete, Lucha Villa, and Jose Alfredo Jimenez come to mind. But among com-

posers of such songs, the name "Jose Alfredo" stands out as probably the greatest. The profusion of his songs in Mexican cancioneros and the number of artists who not only have made hit recordings of his songs but also have dedicated entire LPs and concerts to his music amply at- test to Jose Alfredo Jimenez's importance to Mexican popular music since 1946.

As an ardent admirer of the music of Jose Alfredo, as he was affec-

tionately called, I have discovered a curious neglect of the composer in the popular and musicological literature since 1946. He is by no means

ignored in such reporting, but his name either is mentioned only in

passing, or is relegated to lists of winners of the Disco de Oro (Gold Record) awards-lists in which his name figures as the composer of

songs made into hits by others, many of whom had become popular idols through the Mexican cinema.

This essay has four primary objectives. First, I will outline briefly the

development of the cancion mexicana with regard to its origins in the Italian operatic tradition. Second, I will discuss the manner in which the cancion ranchera, as a "popular" rather than an "art" musical genre, was able to transcend sentimental and romantic European nineteenth-century stereotypes and develop its own innately Mexican character. In the third

part of this essay I introduce Jose Alfredo Jimenez with biographical data that place him in a unique position in the popular music scene of

mid-twentieth-century Mexico. Finally, I will demonstrate, through the use of examples of his song texts and excerpts from interviews with

Latin American Music Review, Vol 3, No 1, Spring/Summer 1982 ?1982 by the University of Texas Press 0163-0350/82/010036-25$02.00



Jose Alfredo Jimenez : 37

musicians who knew him, how the man and his music typified the real essence of la musica ranchera.

A bohemio in the fullest sense of the word, Jose Alfredo not only sang his songs, he lived them. From his humble beginnings in Dolores

Hidalgo, Guanajuato, to his final days as a recording star, he lived the life of the poor ranchero, the ordinary working man who daily experi- enced love, hate, rejection, frustration, nostalgia, machismo, and happi- ness. It was for such people and to such sentiments that Jose Alfredo

composed and sang. I feel that any popular phenomenon-in this case, the music and poetry of a single man-that has had such a profound im-

pact on the development and expression of the sociocultural self-image of such a large number of people merits scholarly examination, analysis, and commentary. It seems clear that although Jose Alfredo Jimenez fell victim to his almost self-destructive, bohemian lifestyle, as long as the

people and sentiments that he represented continue to exist, his music will live on in the cantinas, on the radio and records, and in the hearts of the people of the entire Hispanic world.

La Canci6n Mexicana

In his often comical Musicosas, the comentarista Roberto Ayala remarks, "Mexico es un pais tan curioso, que es el unico lugar del mundo donde los artistas mexicanos son desconocidos" (1962:11). Similar feelings were

expressed by singer Amalia Mendoza in an interview entitled "Nuestra canci6n ranchera se aprecia mas en el extranjero": "Los mexicanos no

apreciamos suficientemente nuestro folklore, nos interesa mas impulsar a los artistas de otras naciones y apoyar movimientos musicales externos. No valoramos lo nuestro" (L6pez Domfnguez 1974:12).

The history of popular music in Mexico is replete with examples of such sentiments. In the following section I summarize briefly the history of the cancion mexicana, with particular attention to the emergence of the cancidn ranchera and its role in the development of a truly Mexican

popular music. A convenient starting point is the end of the eighteenth century, when

the European operatic tradition began to affect profoundly the music of the Americas. Vicente Mendoza states that "el verdadero ingrediente tradicional que vino a dar nacimiento a la canci6n mexicana fue la

6pera, espectaculo que en las primeras decadas del siglo XIX aparecia en los programas del Coliseo de Mexico, intercalado de vez en vez entre las tonadillas mas en boga. ... El bell [sic] canto cay6 en buena tierra, en un pueblo de sentimiento lirico y de abolengo musical" (1956:93). A

Spanish law of 1799, which had forbidden the singing of opera in



38 : William Gradante

Mexico in any language but Spanish, was repealed in 1827, largely because of the efforts of opera singer Manuel Garcia (1775-1832). As both Robert Stevenson (1952:192) and Gerard Behague (1979:97-98) note, Garcia came to Mexico after having performed brilliantly, first in

Europe, then in New York City. An artist of international status, he had

adopted Italian for both performance and compositional purposes, in

spite of the fact that he was a native of Seville. Garcia's efforts en-

couraged the contracting of Italian opera companies to tour Mexico and

perform the latest Italian operas, which brought large numbers of Mex- icans into contact with the artistic styles and tastes of contemporary Europe.

Between 1830 and 1850 the impact of Italian musical style on the Mexican music of the day was profound. According to Stevenson, "the Mexican musical horizon between independence and the close of the Porfirian epoch (1911) was narrowly confined within the world of Italian

opera. Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi were the uncontested gods of nineteenth-century Mexican music" (1952:192).

Approximately a decade before the arrival of Garcia and the subse-

quent upheaval in the sphere of art music, Mexico witnessed the arrival of another highly dynamic cultural import, this time in the sphere of

popular culture. Though neither the precise provenience nor the exact date of its arrival is known, "in 1815, an ecclesiastical official reported that the Waltz was becoming widespread. He denounced the Waltz . . . as a 'corrupt importation from degenerate France. . . . All of man's

depravity could not invent anything more pernicious, nay, not even Hell itself could spawn a monster more obscene. Only those who have seen the Vals danced with complete license are in a position to warn of its

perils" (Slonimsky 1945:220). As history has so often proved, this official might as well have been

referring to "jazz," "rock 'n' roll," "punk," or any other innovation in the domain of popular music. It seems that in most such situations, the more vehemently conservative elements protest and resist a novelty, the greater is its ultimate impact on society. This was certainly true in this instance: the waltz craze swept rapidly across Mexico and became the most common musical model for the composition of canciones. This

appears to be the case even today, in spite of the enormous popularity of the bolero, or habanera rhythm, which apparently arrived in Mexico from Cuba in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Before proceeding further in an outline of the history of the cancion

mexicana, I will examine the numerous attempts to define and classify the

genre. The cancidn mexicana, in its poetic structures and musical models, in its characteristic subject matter, in the origins of its various stylistic traits, and in its expressive function, as well as in the ways musicologists,



Jose Alfredo Jimnez : 39

folklorists, and cultural historians have attempted to describe, classify, and analyze it, is a sociocultural phenomenon that exhibits an enormous amount of variation. Throughout its history it has been highly suscepti- ble to influences from an array of literary, musical, psychological, and

sociopolitical forces. In his book, Popular Music in Mexico, Claes af Gei-

jerstam points to some of the difficulties inherent in any attempt to define this widely popular and extremely varied musical form:

As a genre the Mexican corrido is relatively homogeneous, while the cancion reveals an almost total dissolution of that concept. "Cancidn" can designate any type of song, as opposed to an instrumental piece, or it can be used to define specific varieties, such as the cancion romdntica mexicana .... The main difference between canciones and corridos is that the cancidn has a lyrical, often sentimental quality in the text and melody, while the corrido has an epic or narrative quality. Canciones do occur in copla form, but the verse structure tends to be more varied. (1976:59)

The author goes on to describe a classification system devised by Carmen Sordo Sodi that distinguishes three main types of Mexican cancion on the basis of function: religious songs, civic songs, and other secular songs. Geijerstam adds that "there is of course no clear stylistic delineation between these types and in some instances one cancion may belong to more than one group insofar as its function is concerned" (1976:59).

In his voluminous study of Hispanic verse forms, Carlos Magis sets up a system of classification that he applies to the cancion folklorica (1969: 535-647). This outline deals only with the poetic aspects of the genre:

I. La cuesti6n tematica A. Canciones monotematicas B. Canciones pluritematicas

II. La cuestion formal A. Las series homogeneas B. Las series heterogeneas

III. Formas complementarias de la relaci6n tematico-formal A. El encadenamiento B. El ritornelo C. Las f6rmulas estereotipadas

IV. Algunas formas singulares A. La canci6n con estribillo B. La canci6n paralelistica C. La glosa D. La canci6n dialogada

Magis distinguishes cancion texts further by employing more minute subdivisions within many of the categories listed and by documenting




each category with examples from his large collection of coplas from

Mexico, Spain, and Argentina. Although his is a very thorough study of this particular aspect of the cancion, it is, as Magis admits, only a partial study of the cancion folklorica: "Un estudio integral de la canci6n folklorica

exigiria una doble investigaci6n: el analisis literario y el analisis musical. Como no soy musicologo, debo conformarme con un estudio parcial: el de los aspectos poeticos" (1969:535).

Roberto Ramirez Ayala employs still another scheme in his classification system. He separates the corpus of canciones into two large groups: those distinguishable according to text, and those distinguishable accord-

ing to music, though, as the author notes, he refers here specifically to the rhythmic accompaniment most commonly used in performance. The

resulting classification system is as follows:

I. Canciones distinguishable by text A. Cancion corrido B. Cancion ranchera

1. Romantica 2. Descriptiva

C. Cancion popular II. Canciones distinguishable by music (rhythm)

A. Cancion fox or blues B. Cancion vals C. Cancion bolero D. Cancion yucateca E. Cancion huapango F. Cancion danza G. Cancion tango H. Cancion biguz'n (Ramirez Ayala 1967:135).

The additional subdivisions Ramirez Ayala adds to his "Cancion ranchera" category are of particular interest:

En la primera, o sea la Romantica nos encontramos que su letra nos habla de un amor desinteresado, puro en todas sus manifestaciones, ese amor espiritual que solamente se da en nuestra juventud campirina, donde, si

hay olvidos, traiciones o sinsabores, es sin duda, mas obra de la fatalidad del destino que de mala intenci6n de sus personajes. Canci6n que entona el ranchero para ranchera o viceversa. Tambien sus letras nos dicen de esa jactancia muy mexicana donde el valor y atrevimiento juegan un papel muy importante ....

En la segunda, o sea la Descriptiva, la letra de la canci6n ranchera nos hace referencia a lugares queridos por sus bellezas naturales o artificiales, la sinceridad del medio y la pureza de la vida pueblerina. (1967:138)

Most significant in the context of this paper is Ramirez Ayala's




category, "cancion popular." Two of the three examples that he presents in illustration are "Tu recuerdo y yo" and "Ella," two of Jose Alfredo

Jimenez's earliest and most successful compositions. Ramirez Ayala describes the "cancion popular" as follows:

Este tipo de canci6n, que a ultimas fechas ha torado mucho incremento entre los compositores y concioneros tambien se caracteriza por la forma de su letra, pues en cuanto al ritmo, tanto en este tipo como en los

pasados que hemos visto, estan escritos en tiempo de fox, blues, o vals. ... El tema de su letra, generalmente es pasional. En la expresi6n de sus sentimientos parece mas lo fisicomundano que lo espiritual o artistico. Siempre nos habla de ese amor que se da en el coraz6n del bajo pueblo, pasi6n desesperada que para callar su dolor tiene que recurrir a los placeres de la carne, como es el vino, el juego, las mujeres, etc. (1967: 140-141)

Finally we turn to the work of musicologist Vicente Mendoza, whose monumental study, La cancion mexicana: Ensayo de clasificaci6n y lantologia, is a heroic and methodical attempt to cull from an enormous corpus of canciones those characteristic traits that can best serve to establish a workable classification system. In "Some Forms of the Mexican Cancion," he states that "the classification of the lyrical songs of a people is an ar- duous and complicated task" and presents his fourteen "suggested methods of classification." In summary form, these are as follows:

1. According to chronological order (age of the cancidn) 2. According to musical structure 3. According to literary form 4. According to the subject treated 5. According to the character of the text 6. According to geography 7. According to the region of Mexico 8. According to the occasion (performance function) 9. According to the calling of the singer (occupation)

10. According to the country of origin 11. According to the rhythm of the European dance from which it

derives 12. According to its musical evolution, or because it has a known

author 13. According to the style used in singing 14. Miscellaneous (1961b:53-54).

I turn now to the emergence of the cancion ranchera, the manifestation of the cancion mexicana that will be my principal concern for the re- mainder of this paper.




La Canci6n Ranchera

The development and diffusion of the cancion mexicana during the middle of the nineteenth century were closely tied to the activities of the cancioneros, or itinerant musicians, the cultural descendants of thejuglares of medieval Spain. Marco Antonio Pulido explains that these cancioneros worked with a palero, who attracted attention by announcing the theme of each song performed (1969:34). He then interrupted the cancionero at

carefully selected intervals, for the purpose of soliciting donations. The

palero's objective was to keep listeners curious enough about the outcome of the cancion to remain until its conclusion and to fill the collection basket by the end of the performance. Among the better-known cancioneros of the late nineteenth century were Lucio Miranda and "El Chava-

rria," both of Sonora; "Chepe el Valedor," of Guerrero; and Antonio

Zuniiga of Silao, Guanajuato. Zfuniga is credited with the authorship of numerous canciones with ritornellos featuring hendecasyllabic lines in redondilla form (1961b:51).

By 1850 the cancion mexicana had attained a degree of popularity and musical refinement that has led many observers to designate the subse-

quent half-century as the "epoca de oro de la canci6n mexicana." Men- doza points out that, by this time, the performance of canciones had "descended" from the concert hall and had arrived

al pueblo quien la hizo suya transformandola e imponiendole su personalidad. ... La trayectoria va desde el cantante y filarm6nico profe- sional, pasando por el melomano, el compositor de provincia y el trovador popular, hasta el provinciano que expresa sus sentimientos por medio del canto, al son de la vihuela. De este modo el resabio espafiol fue sustituido por el italiano, mas el pueblo del campo logr6 transformar ambos im- primiendo a las melodias los rasgos netos del alma del mexicano. (1956:94)

The great agricultural fairs of the flat central Mexican Bajio region became vehicles for the diffusion of canciones to parts of the republic rare-

ly influenced by external sources.1 In this manner the cancion became in-

creasingly popular among the rural population, within which the cancion ranchera began to evolve. Mendoza describes this process thus: "Como una consecuencia apareci6 la cancion ranchera, la que, siendo la misma sentimental y romantica, solo difiere por encerrar en su estructura un sentimiento menos elaborado y al mismo tiempo mas primitivo." The

peasant simplified the elaborate metric structure of the operatic canciones, adapting them to his own tastes, and "en fin, aplicandoles su propio caracter cada vez mas alejado de la fuente italiana que le habia dado

origen. Por esta razon la cancion ranchera es mas autenticamente mexicana y folklorica, puesto que procede del pueblo del campo alejado de la civilizaci6n" (1956:99).




By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there existed two quite distinct classes or subtypes of the cancion mexicana. Under Porfirio Diaz, Mexico had become a nation that turned toward the United States and

Europe for its patterns of cultural, economic, and social development. In the salon tradition of the urban upper and middle classes, the cancion

romdnticay sentimental-often featuring French titles and sung in bel canto

style-was more European than innately Mexican in character. Com-

poser Manuel Ponce noted that "la musica vernacula agonizaba en las

perdidas rancherias del Bajio" (quoted in Pulido 1969:35). Pulido con- tinues in this vein and laments the fact that "la canci6n mexicana sufria el desden de los mas prestigiados compositores y se escondia como chi- cuela avergonzada, ocultando su origen plebeyo a las miradas de una sociedad que solo acogia en sus salones la musica de procedencia extran-

jera y con titulo en frances" (1969:35). Obviously, if we agree that a folk or popular music tradition must by

definition express the sentiments of the people who share it, then we must concur that the nature of Mexico's folk and popular artistic expression must have mirrored the continued large-scale cultural, social, and economic differences between the country's major population strata. But as Mexico entered the twentieth century and the Porfiriato began to draw to a close, significant changes in the nation's self-image took place. Improved methods of transportation and communication brought the urban and rural areas closer together than ever before, and the nationalist/

revolutionary fervor that would climax in 1910 gave all Mexicans a sense of pride in "lo mexicano" that was stronger than it had been in decades. This phenomenon was most visible in the flowering of the heroic Mexican corrido tradition, but it was also evident in the development of the cancion. Pulido points out that "en 1901 se fundo la orquesta tipica de Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, unica aportaci6n importante a la musica mexicana durante el regimen de Porfirio Diaz. Para diferenciarse de quienes tocaban musica europea, Lerdo de Tejada visti6 a sus musi- cos de charros; pero en sus manos la canci6n popular qued6 domesticada

por la inspiraci6n italianizante que lo dominaba, como se aprecia en

composiciones como la inolvidable canci6n de 'Perjura' " (1969:35). Its Italianate vocal style notwithstanding, Juan S. Garrido regarded

"Perjura" as the "first cancion romdntica mexicana" and added that it was different enough from the saccharin sentimentality of other canciones of its

day that the song "was not publicly accepted until around 1912, because the lyrics were offensive to women" (Geijerstam 1976:65, 160).

With the Revolution of 1910 came the ideological elevation and cultural glorification of both the peasant and the urban proletarian. Where- as the music of the common man had been treated with disdain during the Porfiriato, a country music revival occurred in Mexico City's nation-




alist theater during the Revolution. The term "cancion ranchera" was coined to describe songs previously sung by peasants on the haciendas and now performed by professional singers as interludes between acts: "The singer himself might have picked up the song at a cantina, pul- quer'a, or some other type of bar where farm workers and various people from the lowest social classes gathered to drink and sing" (Geijerstam 1976:68).

The cancion ranchera continued to flourish in the ensuing decades, but the struggle for national prominence was consistently difficult because of the increasing popularity of American jazz, the Spanish zarzuela, and, most importantly, the Argentine tango. During the 1930s and (with the

inauguration of Mexico's first nationwide radio broadcasting system, XEW) in the 1940s, the ranchera's popularity increased simultaneously with the rise to fame of Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, and others. At the same time, Agustin Lara gave added strength to the tradition of the cancidn romdnticay sentimental with his European- and Cuban-influenced com-

positions. With the 1950s came the Cuban mambo and chachachd, along with the American rock 'n' roll craze, and it seemed that the cancion

might fall from favor permanently. It was during the 1950s that Jose Alfredo Jimenez first made his ar-

tistic presence felt:

Corria el afio de 1950 cuando un diario capitalino publico estas lineas: "Por alli anda un musico que ha desempeiado toda suerte de trabajos humildes, hasta el de mesero en un restoran; pero ha perseverado en su arte y sus canciones empiezan a pegar con tubo. Su nombre es Jose Alfredo Jimenez y tiene, como los improvisadores del siglo pasado, el ins- tinto de lo popular y el don de la inspiraci6n facil. Es posible que en los pr6ximos afios, gracias al esfuerzo de este humilde compositor, seamos

testigos de un renacimiento de la musica mexicana que acabe con el reinado de los ritmos importados, como el mambo." (Pulido 1969:43)

Composer and radio personality Juan S. Garrido noted that "desde su

aparici6n en nuestro cancionero cultiv6 la musica ranchera, y fue gracias a sus melodias y su muy grata inspiraci6n de vigoroso sabor mexicano

que el 'Rock 'n roll' encontr6 aqui una barrera permanente que no

pudo arrasar; el reinado de este joven compositor fue tan largo como el lo quiso conservar" (1974:116).

Jose Alfredo Jimenez

Jose Alfredo Jimenez was born on 19 January 1926, in Dolores Hi-

dalgo, Guanajuato, the site of the 1810 insurrection of Father Miguel Hidalgo and the local Indians against the Spanish rulers. At one time,




Jose Alfredo's parents entertained hopes that he would study to become a doctor, but his disinterest in schoolwork and his passion for composing verses about the heroic past of his hometown quickly put an end to such thinking.

His father, Agustin, who owned and operated the Botica San Javier, died in 1936, leaving the family nearly destitute and forcing them to sell the drugstore and to search for other means of sustenance. The search soon proved futile, and Jose Alfredo's mother, Carmelita Sandoval, moved with her four children to Mexico City in 1939.

Having completed his elementary school education, Jose Alfredo began to take any job he could find to help support the family. Heriberto Molina, violinist and vocal soloist of the world-famous Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, talked with me of his friendship with Jose Alfredo Jimenez:

Dentro de la musica, sin duda alguna, lo podemos considerar como un heroe. Nacio en cuna de heroes porque Dolores Hidalgo fue la cuna de nuestra Independencia ... Ya traia la sangre de un heroe ... Dentro de la musica mexicana yo lo considero como un heroe ... Yo conoci per- sonalmente a Jose Alfredo Jimenez durante mucho tiempo. El hombre empez6 de la nada .. . empez de bolero, de cargador, de mesero . . . todo fue en la vida . . . pero lo que si fue desde que empezo la vida fue un bohemio . . . fue un bohemio cien por ciento. Siempre le cant6 al amor.2

Rosmel tells us that Jose Alfredo Jimenez began singing and composing his own songs at perhaps nine years of age (1976:80). The huapango "El jinete," inspired by the people and ambiance of Dolores Hidalgo, was written when the composer was only eleven years old (Rosmel 1976: 82). When it was published in 1953, it became an immediate and enormous success.

In his early teens, Jose Alfredo peddled ladies' footwear throughout the Santa Maria la Ribera section of Mexico City, and in his free after- noons he sang with a trio known as "Los Rebeldes" (Rios 1967). This trio became quite popular on a local level after it had the opportunity to perform on the radio station, XEL. The young composer, however, was not entirely satisfied with local recognition or with the idea of having to limit his musical life simply to after-hours work in the cantinas of his barrio.

Juan S. Garrido describes the decade 1931-1941 as the "edad de oro de la canci6n popular" in Mexico, an era during which an enormous number of beautiful canciones were written (1974:68). It was also a time when the increasing importance of the recording industry and the popularity of radio made it extremely difficult for a newcomer to build a reputation in the steadily more competitive musical arena. Thus, for




ten years Jose Alfredo had to resign himself to his new life in the cap- city, accompanied by his old acquaintances, poverty and anonymity.

In 1946 Jose Alfredo Jimenez participated in Radio XEW's "Hora del Aficionado," singing songs written by other composers. He recalled the experience: "Me tocaron la campana y el publico chifl6. Ahora me rio pero en aquella ocasi6n creo que hasta sali llorando" (Rosmel 1976:

80). Clearly, he was not what the Mexican of his day envisioned as a popular singer: "Jose Alfredo siempre cant6, desde muy chico solia

hacerlo, aunque su voz nunca fue de cantante" (Rosmel 1976:80). Heriberto Molina and several other members of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan agree that a beautiful voice was not one of Jose Alfredo's

gifts-an opinion shared by many lesser-known musicians I have inter- viewed on the topic. Jorge Luis Rios of La Cancidn Mexicana, a popular- music periodical, emphasizes this point: "El puiblico siempre desea ver y escuchar a un cantante que ademas de buena voz tenga presencia, y el

compositor-en mi opinion-no cuenta ni con una ni otra cosa, pero en cambio tiene algo, que no se le encuentra un nombre adecuado, pero que es conocido como 'angel,' y es que en sus interpretaciones imprime mucho del sentimiento que llevan sus canciones desde el momento mismo en que las compone" (1967).

According to all of my informants, there was indeed "something" about Jose Alfredo Jimenez. Jose Hernandez Diaz, the owner of the in-

ternationally famous Tenampa restaurant and bar in Mexico City's Plaza Garibaldi, fondly remembers him as a humble and very friendly man who was always more at home in the casual working-class atmo-

sphere of a cantina than in the company of Mexico City's wealthier

citizenry, whose economic level he eventually attained.3 Heriberto Molina qualifies this assessment by noting that Jose Alfredo was com- fortable in nearly any environment and with all kinds of people: "Como le hablabas, el te contestaba."

It seems that as long as Jose Alfredo persisted in singing songs com-

posed and previously performed by other, more-famous, and profes- sionally established musicians, his physical unattractiveness and his apparently undistinguished singing voice would continue to invite un- favorable comparison with music and movie idols such as Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete. This relative anonymity was changed, however, by what Jose Alfredo would probably have called "destiny." Rios tells how

Jose Alfredo met Paloma Galvez, a niece of Mario Talavera, the ac-

complished composer, influential member of the Sociedad de Com-

positores, and member of the renowned Trio Veneno (1967). Paloma

immediately fell in love with the music of the ingenuous "country bumpkin" and eventually with Jose Alfredo himself. She persuaded her




uncle to listen to some of his songs and, if he liked them-as she assured him he would-to help Jose Alfredo get them published and recorded. Talavera and his companions, Ignacio Fernandez Esper6n ("Tata Nacho") and Alfonso Esparza Oteo, of the Trio Veneno, were delighted with the songs they heard and, in effect, gave Jose Alfredo Jimenez the

long-awaited opportunity he needed. Rfos relates the following anecdote about the recording session that resulted: "Como dato curioso cabe notar que una de las mas bonitas canciones de Jose Alfredo, 'Ella,' no

queria ser aceptada por el director artistico de la compania, ya que la

parte aquella de los mariachis y la reina, le parecia muy absurda y tras muchos ruegos al fin acept6 y fue llevada a los acetatos, con el triunfo de todos conocido" (1967).

It was Jose Alfredo's ability to capture the essential emotive element of an entire song in a single line that was the basis of his effectiveness as a ranchera singer and composer, according to Heriberto Molina. "Yo," Jose Alfredo's first commercial success, was recorded by the Trio de los Hermanos Samperio and later gained more popularity with the record-

ing by Elpidio Ramirez and Los Huastecos. Finally, Mariano Rivera Conde of Radio XEQ recorded it with the Conjunto Los Costefios of Andres Huesca, and it became one of the best-selling records of 1950. This success prepared Mexico for "Ella" (Rosmel 1976:81), the cancion ranchera that Molina believes "opened the door to fame" for Jose Alfredo.

Jimenez wrote "Ella" at the age of eighteen, as a consequence of his first experience with love and deception, and it remained one of his personal favorites for many years (Rosmel 1976:82). This was the first of his compositions to be performed in the Mexican cinema, though by other artists, and although it was his second major success in Mexico, it was his first song to gain widespread popularity in the United States. It was also the first to receive negative comments from the Mexican music

critics, as "demasiado cruda," "muy directa," and "poco romantica." Rosmel emphasizes the most important factor: "Lo cierto es que 'Ella' marc6 una nueva etapa dentro del bolero ranchero, sin tanta metafora, como se utilizaba anteriormente, abordando problemas o situaciones ac-

tuales, vigentes, y hablando un idioma mas preciso y mas usual, comun e inteligible a todos" (1976:81). In fact, one of his later songs, "Lleg6 borracho el borracho," was banned in a number of Mexican cities because of its overt discussion of drunkenness and violence (Pulido 1969:44).

After the success of "Yo," "Ella, " and "El jinete,"' there followed several more widely popular recordings, including "Cuatro caminos," "Sucedio en la barranca," "El cobarde," and "Que suerte la mia"

(Rosmel 1976:82). In 1951 Jose Alfredo published eleven songs in




addition to the hits "Ella," "Cuatro caminos," and "Que suerte la mia." These included "Como un criminal," "Cuando el destino," " Cuando juega el albur," "El arrepentido," "Ella volvi6," "Esta

noche," "La que se fue," "Mi despedida," "No estoy vencido," "Nuestra noche," and "Viejos amigos." From 1950 to his death in

1973, Jose Alfredo Jimenez wrote between four hundred and five hundred songs, over three hundred of which were published.

The Mexican variant of our own "Gold Record" award was established in 1950. The Mexican award, however, more closely resembles our "Grammy Awards." Jose Alfredo Jimenez received the award for "Best Composer" (compositor) for the years 1950-1951, 1951-1952, and 1954-1955. His huapango "El jinete" won the "Best Song" award (can-

cion) for 1953-1954. At this stage of his career Jose Alfredo figured primarily as a composer; movie stars with almost operatic singing voices won the "Male Vocalist" awards (cantante), while simultaneously making his music famous. The three most important of these were Pedro

Vargas, Pedro Infante, and, in particular, Miguel Aceves Mejia. Following their example, singers such as Amalia Mendoza, Lucha Villa, El Trio Los Panchos, Lola Beltran, and non-Mexican artists such as Paul Anka, Camilo Sesto, Rafael, and Vikki Carr began to record Jose Alfredo Jimenez's music.

Heriberto Molina explains that "siempre han habido trilogias dentro del ambiente artistico. Le voy a enumerar algunas. Sale Jorge Negrete como cantante, entonces sale Ernesto Cortazar y Manuel Esper6n como

compositores y como arreglista sale Manuel Esper6n. Viene despues Jose Alfredo Jimenez como compositor. Sale Miguel Aceves Mejia como

interprete y Ruben Fuentes como arreglista." The role of Ruben Fuentes as Jose Alfredo Jimenez's arranger must not be underestimated. Molina explained how he and Juan Pinz6n, another violinist with the Mariachi Vargas, frequented the modest apartment Jose Alfredo lived in even after having earned over a million pesos. In one room he main- tained a small cantina that he affectionately and nostalgically referred to as El Tenampa. Molina remembered how the bar and floor were scat- tered with torn pieces of paper on which Jose Alfredo had scribbled snatches of poetry to be used in future compositions. He never learned to read or write music, nor did Molina ever see him play any musical instrument. It was to Ruben Fuentes, the arranger of the music of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, that Jose Alfredo Jimenez brought his

fragmentary compositions for organization and notation. Often rhymes or even entire lines were missing or inadequate and had to be recom-

posed or rearranged until they made musical, metric, and poetic sense. As Jose Alfredo's compadre, Ruben Fuentes was also a close personal




friend and, according to Molina, "siempre fue un panio de lagrimas para Jose Alfredo Jimenez."

I have already noted that the voices of Pedro Vargas, Pedro Infante, and Miguel Aceves Mejia turned many of Jose Alfredo's compositions into successful recordings. They and many other singers also sang his

songs in numerous films throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Later, Jose Alfredo himself appeared on film to make occasional " intervenciones musicales" in which he sang, and eventually he acted in what were apparently limited roles. In 1955 "Camino de Guanajuato" became the first of

many of his song titles to serve as the name of a movie in which he was the featured performer of several of his own compositions (Garcia Riera

1963:188).

El Compositor del Pueblo

Let us return to that special "something" about Jose Alfredo Jimenez. All sources agree that he never had a beautiful voice, that he was not an actor by vocation, and that he certainly was not good-looking. It seems that it was precisely his "ordinariness" that made him the beloved poet and singer he became, for it was for the Mexican masses, the

"ordinary" people, that he composed and sang: "Es que la muisica del

compositor de Guanajuato es para el pueblo y es el pueblo mismo que lo tiene colocado en el lugar de los favoritos" (Rios 1967). In fact, Rios also notes that Jose Alfredo had much greater royalty earnings than even the "immortal" Agustin Lara, who published more than twice as many songs.

We can understand the great mass appeal of Jose Alfredo Jimenez's music if we examine the essential nature of the cancion. Ruben Campos speaks of "los cancioneros que . . . crearon las canciones, haciendose eco del alma de una raza, reflejando la tristeza genuina del alma racial mexicana empapada de miel y acibar" (1928:80). He asserts that "la

poesia de la canci6n mexicana . . . consiste en que nos habla del instante

fugaz que pas6 para nunca volver; del dia de ayer" (1928:78). He con- tinues:

La canci6n mexicana es breve: es una queja y un suspiro, y no puede menos que ser breve. Es un pensamiento expresado en una forma musical que solo tiene un ritornello. En la literatura musical es, sin duda, la com- posicion mas breve, y, por tanto, requiere una intensidad mayor de ex- presi6n que cualquiera otra composici6n musical. Debe decir lo que quiere decir. Debe expresar en una forma poetica y concluyente, lo que un musico sabio diluirfa en muchos compases artificiosamente recamados con el primor de los procedimientos artisticos. En la canci6n, el musico no




tiene mas que la sentimentalidad concentrada en una forma clara y breve. Va al alma del pueblo, que no entiende de fugas sino cuando las propone a una novia, y no sabe de gramatica sino conjugar el verbo amar.

La canci6n, por lo tanto, debe ser sencilla y sincera. La falta de artificio queda compensada con la inspiraci6n. (1928:80)

Inspiration and intensity, simplicity and sincerity, were probably Jose Alfredo Jimenez's greatest attributes. Even casual listeners are impressed by these qualities in his singing style, particularly when compared with other singers of his day.

Discussing her feelings about the cancidn ranchera, singer Amalia Men- doza emphasizes the intense personal involvement required of the performer:

Lo importante es que uno viva lo que esta cantando, para que los que escuchan reciban en realidad el mensaje y se identifiquen con el. ... La canci6n ranchera expresa el sentir del pueblo y llega al pueblo: de ahi su popularidad. En cualquier pequeiia poblaci6n, y aun en las comunidades rurales de nuestra provincia, se oye musica ranchera y los artistas toman ante nuestras gentes una imagen muy importante, porque hablan de sus

problemas, sus alegrias, sus anhelos y tristezas .... Se puede decir que la canci6n ranchera refleja la personalidad del pueblo, porque expresa alguna vivencia que todos tenemos en comun. jQuien no ha sufrido desenganos amorosos? dQuien no ha sentido pasi6n por su patria? Por eso el pueblo adjudica las canciones, las hace suyas. (L6pez Dominguez 1974:12)

Her words immediately bring to mind the questions of "Tu recuerdo y yo": " .Quien no sabe en esta vida la traici6n tan conocida que nos deja un mal amor?" ".Quien no llega a la cantina exigiendo su tequila y exi-

giendo su canci6n?" Thus we can understand Molina's important obser- vation that Jose Alfredo "tenia una facilidad enorme. . . . Cualquier cosa le servia de tema para hacer una canci6n... Aunque era muy rico, el seguia siendo pobre, seguia viviendo en el pueblo y supo captar la filosoffa del pueblo." Whereas Mendoza emphasizes "la importancia del yo" in the cancion ranchera (1961a:29), Molina insists that Jose Alfredo Jimenez's purpose was not to sing about himself as much as to evoke in his listeners memories of similar sentiments and experiences in their own lives. Several of the residents of Dolores Hidalgo whom I in- terviewed could recall clearly local incidents or personalities that served as the bases of many of his songs, and they agreed with Rosmel's state- ment that Jose Alfredo "no hizo sino contar su vida a trozos"

(1976:82).4 But beyond the limits of that small town, his singing provided the

listener with an experience that was more personal and more emotional than aesthetic. We listen to Javier Solis, Miguel Aceves Mejia, or Pedro




Infante to enjoy a beautiful singing voice; we listen to Jose Alfredo

Jimenez to rekindle old memories. The subject matter used as the basis of Jose Alfredo Jimenez's poetry

varies greatly. He wrote numerous "corrido-rancheros" that employed cer- tain norteno corrido poetic structures, but that were sung in characteristic ranchera vocal style and that lacked the formulaic and precisely descrip- tive character of the northern genre. Some are about Mexican localities, others about the deeds of heroes who were either totally fictional or based in part on the experiences of Jose Alfredo Jimenez or his acquaintances. Some of his better-known corridos are "Camino de Guanajuato," "Sucedi6 en la barranca," "El hijo del pueblo," "Jesus Maldonado," "Lleg6 borracho el borracho," "Los dos generales," and "El caballo blanco." He authored a much smaller number of boleros and huapangos than rancheras, but the number of canciones rancheras he wrote far exceeds the total of all the other genres in which he composed.

In the poetry of some of the better canciones rancheras, Jose Alfredo con-

jured up scenes in the warm earth tones of a Daumier painting, in which ordinary people perform their ordinary activities, unaffected by our presence, yet drawing us into the action. As we examine the text of

"Ella," for example, we are encouraged to relive our own memories of barroom scenes in order to fill in the details of Jose Alfredo's very stark

portrait. His "painting" includes only the broken-hearted lover and his former sweetheart, a glass of tequila, and the mariachis, whose music

governs the ebb and flow of the drinker's emotions. The setting is the same in "Tu recuerdo y yo," "Pa' todo el afio," "El cantinero," "Lleg6 borracho el borracho," and many others. No character is fully developed, nor is anything described except as the singer sees it through his tired and bloodshot eyes. Although it is true that the paucity of

description and characterization is due in part to the inherent brevity of the cancion's formal structure, this void allows and even forces us to sup- ply our own details: the location of our "own" table in that particular cantina down the street; our own favorite song performed by the local

mariachis; the name of that old flame.

Referring to "Mi Tenampa," in which Jose Alfredo asserts that

parranda y Tenampa, mariachi y canciones, asi es como vivo yo," Heri- berto Molina reminds us that "asi es como vivimos todos," at least from time to time. Thus the brevity, simplicity, and straightforwardness of the

poetic structure of the cancion ranchera serve as the vehicle by which Jose Alfredo's poetry creates an imaginary scene (described in a way that makes it seem "real") into which his gutsy singing style projects his own emotions and simultaneously evokes similar feelings in the listener.




Ella

Me canse de rogarle Me canse de decirle Que yo sin ella De pena muero

Ya no quiso escucharme Si sus labios se abrieron Fue pa' decirme "Ya no te quiero"

Yo senti que mi vida Se perdia en un abismo Profundo y negro Como mi suerte

Quise hallar el olvido Al estilo jalisco Pero aquellos mariachis y aquel tequila Me hicieron llorar

Me canse de rogarle Con el llanto en los ojos Alce mi copa Y brinde por ella

No podia despreciarme Era el ultimo brindis De un bohemio Para una reina

Los mariachis callaron Di mi mano sin fuerzas Cay6 mi copa Sin darme cuenta




Ella quiso quedarse Cuando vi6 mi tristeza Pero ya estaba escrito Que aquella noche Perdiera su amor.

(Recording: El Disco de Oro deJose AlfredoJimenez. Arcano DKL 1-3009 TMK(S) RCA Corp. 1972 RCA Records, New York, NY Distrib.: Caytronics Record Corp.)

Behague defines the cancion mexicana as "a Mexican song of lyric ex-

pression which has assimilated many characteristics of nineteenth-century Italian opera. It is not confined within any given meter or rhythm, but its form generally is a binary structure consisting of the song itself and an instrumental ritornello. The variety within the boundaries of the genre is abundant" (1973:202). As we can infer from this passage and as the first part of this paper made evident, the extremely heterogeneous nature of the cancion mexicana as a genre makes it difficult to make valid generalizations about characteristic musical structures. However, a musical feature that does seem to be an inherent trait throughout the various subtypes of the cancion is the unique singing style customarily utilized. Geijerstam notes that "there is also a specifically Mexican style of singing that is typical of corrido and ranchera artists. The performance of ranchera songs exhibits an inimitable sentimentality, even tearfulness, which seems to be characteristically Mexican. It could be called the 'Mexican intonation.' This type of singing employs a distinctive lag- ging drawl, the portamento, at the end of the phrase. The falsetto cries are another popular device, especially in huapangos huastecos and rancheras" (1976:125).

Roberts's remarks come more directly to the point: "Though the corrido's subject matter is melodramatic, it preserves the deadpan language and performance style of most folk styles. Ranchera singers, by contrast, display an emotionalism that most Anglo-Saxons would avoid even when singing in the bath" (1979:18). It is this peculiarity of the cancion-and particularly to the degree that it is present in the cancion ranchera-that has made it possible for women with low, husky voices, such as Lucha Reyes and Lucha Villa, and untrained vocalists such as Jose Alfredo Jimenez, to become so successful.

Earlier in this study I referred to Amalia Mendoza's comment, "Lo importante es que uno viva lo que esta cantando." Jose Alfredo Jimenez was best known as a singer of his own songs and only rarely recorded




songs that were not his own. How, then, could he not have "lived" what he was singing? It was because he was in fact singing of his own life that the performing style of the cancion ranchera so ideally suited his talents and character and allowed him to become the success that he was as a

composer "of the people." David Ewen describes the musical character of late nineteenth-century

America in the following manner: "During the 1890s, the sentimental ballad flourished and prospered as never before. The nineties was

basically a sentimental decade" (1977:108). I noted earlier that this same period was the culmination of the first "golden age" of the sentimental cancion in Mexico. The second active period was between 1930 and 1950. Charles Hamm has this to say about the character of American music during this era:

But by the 1930s popular music had become concerned mostly with personal, private matters. Love-romantic, idealized, sentimental, sincere love-was the subject of an overwhelming majority of these songs. Such events as the Great Depression, the takeover of much of Europe by totalitarian governments, the Second World War, the infringements on basic human rights in so many countries after this war passed by almost completely unnoticed by the men who furnished lyrics for popular music. This music, aimed squarely at what later was to be called Middle America, was planned by those who marketed it to ruffle no feathers, to raise no questions about the way life was going, to remind no one of unpleasant, painful events across the ocean, in the next block, or across the railroad tracks. (1975:127)

Although the central theme of the poetry of Jose Alfredo Jimenez was

frequently love-for a woman, a friend, a locale, or a way of life-his music was not sentimental. For a quarter of a century he wrote about the things that affected the day-to-day existence of the common man in Mexico.

Space does not permit examination of all of the various themes Jose Alfredo Jimenez explored and developed in his works, but we should be aware that many of these themes reappeared throughout his artistic life. If we took his poetry as a whole and grouped verses according to theme, we could compile what would amount to a "diccionariofilosofico" of the man and his "pueblo." His numerous observations on the nature of love and woman are complemented by themes dealing with the nature of man and machismo, with the principles of fortune and destiny (la suerte, el

destino) and their conflict with human will (orgullo), with the effects of modern city-life and social structure on the small-town- and village- orientation of traditional Mexican culture, and with his personal notions and experiences of youth, aging, and life itself. Rosmel informs us that "poco antes de su muerte pensaba: 'Estamos anticuados en cuanto a



Jose' Alfredo Jimenez : 55

composiciones mexicanas, habria que modernizarlas, se esta quedando atras nuestra musica. Hay que darles un toque mas moderno para que la gente se identifique con las canciones' " (1976:82). We see, then, that even at the end of a career that spanned four decades, his objective was to maintain a close personal and creative relationship with his pueblo and with the rapidly changing world around him.

His success in capturing the philosophy and sentiment of his audience is attested to by the epithet, "El compositor del pueblo," which he earned early in his career. I have already noted that Jose Alfredo Jime- nez earned several million pesos as a singer and composer, but his most valued rewards came in the form of the many honors that his beloved pueblo bestowed on him and that led Rosmel to claim that "no hubo trofeo que no obtuviera" (1976:82). These trophies, Gold Records, and other awards are housed today in a small museum in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, along with numerous gifts from admirers from around the world and several of the sarapes, sombreros, pistoleras, and vestidos de charro in which he customarily performed.

This brief exploration of the life, music, and artistry of Jose Alfredo Jimenez can be summed up most appropriately in the text of one of his final compositions, "Gracias." Just as Jose Alfredo was able to capture in a single verse the central emotive element of an entire song, he cap- tured in "Gracias" the full meaning and reason for his life. As he said in the closing lines of "El hijo del pueblo," probably his most autobio- graphical song, "Yo compongo mis canciones pa' que el pueblo me las cante y el dia que el pueblo falle ese dia voy a llorar." Although Jose Alfredo Jimenez shed many tears in his life, we may rest assured that he never shed any for lack of the adoration of his pueblo.




Gracias

jC6mo puedo pagar Que me quieran a mi Por todas mis canciones? Ya me puse a pensar Y no alcanzo a cubrir Tan lindas intenciones

He ganado dinero Para comprar un mundo Mas bonito que el nuestro Pero todo lo aviento

Porque quiero morirme Como muere mi pueblo

Yo no quiero saber

Que se siente tener Millones y millones Si tuviera con que Comprarfa para mi Otros dos corazones

Para hacerlos vibrar Y llenar otra vez Sus almas de ilusiones Y poderles pagar Que me quieran a mi Y a todas mis canciones

(Spoken:) De veras, muchas gracias por haberme

aguantado tanto tiempo, desde 1947 hasta 1972 y yo siento que todavia me quieren. eSaben por que? Porque yo he ganado mas aplausos que dinero. El dinero . . . pues no se ni por donde lo tire, pero sus aplausos, esos los

traigo aqui adentro y ya no me los

quita nadie, esos se van conmigo hasta la muerte ....




Recording: Gracias. Arcano DKL1-3200 TMK(S) RCA Corp. 1972 RCA Records, New York, NY Distrib.: Caytronics Record Corp.

Notes

1. The Bajio region of Mexico generally refers to parts of the states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Queretaro, and all of Aguascalientes and Guanajuato.

2. All quotations from Heriberto Molina and other references to the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan are from several hours of interviews in San Antonio, Texas, in September 1980.

3. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Sefor Hernandez for his generous hospi- tality and valuable insights into Jose Alfredo Jimenez and his music, and into mariachi music in general, which he shared with me during my visit to El Salon Tenampa in Mexico City in the summer of 1980.

4. I would like to express my gratitude to Dofia Alicia Zarate Sandoval and her sister Imel- da for their assistance in procuring valuable information concerning the family of Jose Alfredo Jimenez, during my visit to Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, in February 1981.

Bibliography

Ayala, Roberto 1962 Musicosas: Manual de comentarista de radioy television. Vol. 1.

Mexico City: Editorial Selecciones Musicales.

Behague, Gerard 1973 "Latin American Folk Music." In Folk and Traditional

Music of the Western Continents. 2d ed., by Bruno Nettl, pp. 179-206. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

1979 Music in Latin America: An Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Campos, Ruben M. 1928 Elfolklorey la mu'sica mexicana. Mexico City: Publicaciones

de la Secretaria de Educaci6n Publica.

1930 Elfolklore musical de las ciudades. Mexico City: Publicaciones de la Secretaria de Educaci6n Publica.




Ewen, David 1977 All the Years of American Popular Music. A Comprehensive

History. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Garcia Moncada, Francisco 1971 Estudio anal'tico de la cancidn "Los magueyes." Mexico City:

Ediciones Framong.

Garcia Riera, Emilio 1963 Historia documental de cine mexicano. Mexico City: Ediciones

Era. Vol. 6.

Garrido, Juan S. 1974 Historia de la musica popular en Mexico: 1896-1973. Mexico

City: Editorial Extemporaneos.

1976 Historia moderna de la musica popular mexicana. RCA Records, vol. 3, MKLA 117 (booklet).

Geijerstam, Claes af 1976 Popular Music in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New

Mexico Press.

Hamm, Charles 1975 "The Acculturation of Musical Styles: Popular Music,

U.S.A." In Contemporary Music and Music Cultures, by C.

Hamm, B. Nettl, R. Byrnside, pp. 125-158. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

L6pez Dominguez, Ma. Emilia 1974 "Nuestra canci6n ranchera se aprecia mas en el extran-

jero." La Mzsica en Mexico: Suplemento Mensual de El Dia, no. 24(1 July), p. 12.

Magis, Carlos H. 1969 La lirica popular contemporanea. Espana, Mexico, Argentina.

Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico.

Mendoza, Vicente T. 1956 Panorama de la musica tradicional de Mexico. Mexico City: Im-

prenta Universitaria.




1961 a La cancion mexicana: Ensayo de clasificacion y antologia. Mexico

City: Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico.

1961 b "Some Forms of the Mexican Canci6n." In Singers and

Storytellers, edited by Mody C. Boatright, Wilson M. Hud-

son, and Allen Maxwell, pp. 46-55. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

Pulido, Marco Antonio 1969 "Vida, pasi6n, y muerte de la canci6n mexicana." Con-

tenido, no. 79 (December), pp. 28-45.

Ramirez Ayala, Roberto 1967 Guitarra moderna (de bolsillo): Metodo moderno y practico para

tocar guitarra sexta. Mexico City: Ramirez Editores.

Rios, Jorge Luis 1967 "Jose Alfredo Jimenez: Como lleg6 a compositor." La

Cancion Mexicana, no. 13 (July).

Roberts, John Storm 1979 The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American Music on the

United States. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rosmel 1976 ". . . pero sigo siendo El Rey." Album de Oro, no. 17, pp.

78-82.

Saldivar, Gabriel 1934 Historia de la mu'sica en Mexico. Mexico City: Editorial

Cultura.

Slonimsky, Nicholas 1945 Music of Latin America. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell

Company.

Solis, Juvenal 1980 "Aun muerto Jose Alfredo es . . . El Rey!!" El Sol del

Bajio (16 November), p. 3.

Stevenson, Robert 1952 Music in Mexico: A Historical Survey. New York: Thomas Y.

Crowell Company.



Cancion Mexicana

Documents

Transcript of Cancion Mexicana