Jarocho
People born in the Sotavento region of the state of Veracruz (Mexico) are known as jarocha (jarocho, masculine), commonly known as Veracruz Leeward and which includes the municipalities of Puente Nacional, Úrsulo Galván, Paso de Ovejas, La Antigua, Soledad de Doblado, Manlio Fabio Altamirano, Veracruz, Cotaxtla, Jamapa, Medellín, Boca del Río and Tlalixcoyan.
Word origin
There are different versions of the birth of the word jarocho, the version subscribed by the anthropologist Fernando Winfield, states that jarocho comes from jara, in the sense of saeta, arrow or spear, formerly being called «jarocha » to the rod or garrocha with which the muleteers poked the animals, and jarochos to those who used this instrument. This same designation was received by the black militiamen integrated into the corps or companies of lancers that guarded the coasts. These black lancers formed the militias that defended the Spanish regime during the Independence of Mexico.
It is likely that jarocho originally served to designate the blacks who used the jara or spear, and were muleteers or militiamen. The word was later applied to all people with Negroid features and finally served to designate the inhabitants of the leeward coast.
There is another version in relation to jaras: The word “jarocho” is said to come from the indigenous people in the Papaloapan river basin, they fished with jaras for which they had great skill. Basically they are jarochos, people born in the Sotavento, which is the coastal plain in the state of Veracruz; but as Don Francisco Rivera Ávila, Paco Píldora (one of the greatest popular poets of Veracruz and, at one time, chronicler of the city of the same name) established, the term was finally adopted to identify to the porteño veracruz and from the region of the south coast of veracruz.
Typical costume
There is a version that stereotypes the jarocho, which is: the white guayabera with a red bandana around the neck tied in front adjusted with a golden ring, white pants and a hat with four stones; even the ankle boots are usually white. In the case of women there is also a stereotype in which the white color predominates in the garments, wide skirts with edges and lace, (blouse, skirt, petticoat, scarf and shoes).
However, it is known, without being proven, that the use of white corresponds more to wedding attire and, to a stereotype of jarocho clothing popularized by Mexican films of the forties and fifties, and reinforced by the attire of the dancers of the famous Amalia Hernández Ballet. In fact, in daily clothing, only some inhabitants of the Sotavento wear guayaberas and they are usually of different colors, with a tendency to light tones; The same thing happens with the women's blouses and skirts, who only use the cachirulo (kind of comb) and flowers as hair ornaments in exhibition dances, but very rarely in parties and fandangos.
The male custom of wearing a bandana around the neck has its origin in the habit of protecting the shirt or guayabera from sweat at that point.
Regional dance
The stereotyped dance of the jarochos is the zapateado or son jarocho, which is customary in exhibitions throughout the territory of Veracruz. It is played with music of jaranas, requinto, harp, tambourine, donkey jaw, among other instruments, and is danced on a platform or table, tapping. Some dances are La bamba, El colás, El torito, La bruja, El tilingolingo, The pigeon, etc.
Music
Although it is commonly accepted that sones jarochos have a peasant or rural origin, their irradiation basically corresponds to the cities and, more specifically, to the city of Veracruz. To understand this, it must be taken into account that when the son begins to take "naturalization letter" As a Veracruz expression (especially from the middle and end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century), the most important city in the State was already, precisely, Veracruz, in which all the artistic manifestations (formal and popular) of the entity. If the traditional theme of the music has an undoubtedly Indian and rural origin (animals, customs, landscapes, geographical features, etc.), the truth is that in the son jarocho, as in almost no other musical form in Mexico, the three ethnic roots: Indian (for what has been said), black (in rhythms) and European (in instruments and harmonies).
There are sones jarochos originating in the early and mid-19th century that have become popular all over the world; among the best known are: La bamba, El colás, El siquisirí, El Balajú, El aguanieve, El buscapíes, El jarabe loco, El zapateado, El toro zacamandú, Chuchumbé, La petenera, La llorona, La guacamaya, La iguana, The Witch, The Pigeon and the Dove, among others, which continue to be interpreted.
In recent years a stream of young musicians has emerged, a few with academic training, who have taken up the structures of the son to recreate them and give the son a new vitality, combining non-traditional instruments, Afro-Caribbean rhythms and more complex harmonizations. In general, this type of music is more to listen to, so it does not necessarily have to be danced (in fandangos, for example). The sones are divided, by their tonality, into sones in a minor mode and a major mode, and by the way they are danced, into sones de montón and sones de pareja; Huapangos are also danced, although these are rather native to the Huastecas, in the north of the state of Veracruz. Tropical dances of Afro-Caribbean origin are also popular, reaching the point of taking root to the extent that the danzón is already traditional and typical.
One of the cultural currents fights for the non-commercialization (in its pejorative sense) of the son jarocho, taking up the peasant-inspired fandangos and the one versed in their ritual world, trying to root them in the traditional. However, by not accepting a natural evolution, this current runs the risk of exhausting itself through repetition and stereotyping and, finally, disappearing.
Discography: http://www.musicajarocha.com/