After a group of businessmen expressed their intention to ban banda music in the beaches of Mazatlan, Sinaloacalling them “a scandal” and “a disaster”, which affects the rest of foreign tourists, the debate broke out on social networks about their permanence or regulation, which has already begun, with the agreement that the bands will have a schedule of I work from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.and the beginning of studies of Logistics.
However, the event opens the discussion about the condition of the performers of the different types of banda music in Sinaloa and other states of the country, as well as the protection of their repertoire and instrumentation as cultural elements, whose tradition in beaches of Mazatlan goes back to the second half of the 19th century.
It may interest you: Musicians from Mazatlán protest against the prohibition of bands on beaches to the rhythm of the drum
Also regular hotels
In interview with The Sun of Mexicothe member of the Institute of Social Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Georgina Flores Mercadobook coordinator Wind bands in Mexico (INAH, 2015), gives his opinion on what happened and the regulation of banda music.
“The voices of the musicians are fundamental. If the musicians do not have a good level of participation in the cultural policies and, in this case, the use of public space would violate the rights of groups that learn primarily through oral tradition and that protect very important repertoires, which are not valued by certain social classes.
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“This does not mean that there is no regulation, because obviously there has to be a social contract. But, just as it is proposed to regulate musicians, hoteliers should also be regulated, who have also abused by taking territories that belong to communities. privatizing them”says the specialist.
Start cultural policy
Regarding the importance that banda musicians have for the contribution and preservation of Mexican musical heritage, the researcher Flowers Market explain what “They themselves are the agents who, through their personal, family and regional stories, reincarnate their musical knowledge”.
It is for this reason that the specialist, whose lines of research include traditional music, dance and festivities as intangible cultural heritage, considers that it should be implemented “a state cultural policy that would not leave musicians adrift, because in the search for an economic income, their entire tradition is transformed”.
“There has to be government intervention in the best sense of the terms. I insist, in a participatory way with the musicians so that all long-standing musical repertoires can continue to be maintained, such as the bands present in Sinaloa for more than a century. Bands that not only appeared therebut They are the product of various processes of conflict and creativity.
“They are processes in which the same population appropriates this music and gives it life from their own culture, since they play at weddings, at wakes, in baptisms and parties relativesbut that, currently, due to globalization processes, where tourism is insertedthey have modified their scenarios and moments when musicians play”, he adds.
Among other historical changes that wind band groups have had, in general, are, according to Flores Mercado the instrumental reduction, because “they became bone bands”, in constant search for work and places to play; as well as the integration of interpreters mostly youths.
Domain of the Sinaloan gang
Of the presence of banda music throughout the Republicthe researcher mentions that these wind groups, although all They have a common origin in military bandswho also played in public places at times, each one has its instrumental and repertoire characteristics, generating a wide musical diversity that provides identity in each region, impossible to study in its entirety.
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However, the specialist points out that in recent years a reduction in said diversity has been perceived due to the great success of commercial Sinaloan bands and the technobandwhich do not respond exactly to the traditional ones.
“It is not only a dispute for public space, but also for permanence as part of a popular taste. However, in the case (of the music of band in Sinaloa) is very entrenched in the population. What should worry us more is the status that musicians have and their working conditions, rather than their permanence, which is found in practically all states of the country, and even in USA”, he concludes.