singing alternating with violin passagework, improvisation, and complex sesquial-
tera rhythmic patterns alternating patterns of 3/4 and 6/8, and sometimes inserting
phrases in 2/4. This regional style is unique for the number of verses sung (often
improvised) and the large repertory of songs in minor keys.
1. The huapango típico or huapango mariachi is more commonly known as the
son huasteco. This is one of the seven principal kinds of son, from the north-
eastern subtropical region of Mexico known as the Huasteca, near the Gulf of
Mexico (see: son huasteco).
2. The folk or classic huapango can be found in northern Veracruz and Puebla,
southern Tamaulipas, and eastern San Luis Potosí, Hildalgo, and Queretaro. It
is associated with festivals of indigenous peoples such as the Totonacs and dis-
plays indigenous styles (most notably, the use of falsetto vocals). The Huastecan
language, still spoken today, belongs to the Yaxu branch of the Totonac-Mayan
family.
The huapango dance is performed on a wooden platform, accompanied by a trio
of musicians ( trio huasteca). Huapango couples dance is saturated with compli-
cated foot stomping called zapateado (from zapato, meaning shoe), which softens
during sung verses. Except for modern Tamaulipas, Huastecan female dancers wear
the pre-Columbian garments called the cueitl (Nahautl for wrapped skirt, some-
times covered with an apron), petob (headpiece), and quetchquémitl (top covering,
pronounced keskemet, called dhayem in Tenek, the modern language of Huaste-
cos). In states where the indigenous element is stronger, the cueitl is embroidered to
match the quetchquémitl. Theatrical dance costuming for men consists of a guaya-
bera and palm hat, carried in the right hand.
The name developed from the Náhuatl huapali (wood) and the locative frag -
ment – co (in or on); many trios still perform in indigenous languages. A common
Nahautl huapango, sung at traditional ceremonies (including weddings) is “Xo-
chipizáhuatl,” which praises both the Virgin of Guadalupe (Mexico’s patron saint)
and the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. Spanish huapangos, such as in “El querreque, ”
are improvised both at festivals and in bars traditionally restricted to men.
The music for this is called huapango huasteco, and it is usually performed on
a violin, a jarana huasteca (small five-stringed Mexican guitar tuned in a ninth
chord), and a huapanguera ( guitarra quinta), a deep-bodied Mexican guitar with
a larger resonator and eight strings (five courses of two single and three double
strings); this trio ensemble is sometimes preserved within larger ensembles, such as
mariachi groups, when they choose to reference the huapango style. Huapanguera
bass parts can include drones, melodic counterpoint to the violin, and glissandos.
Two singers alternate humorous semi-improvised coplas.
Huapango
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199
3. Three indigenous groups known collectively as the Otopame occupy the east-
central part of Mexico: the Pame, Chichimec, and Otomí. String music is played
throughout this whole region, and they share the most complex of the mestizo
chordophone musics: the haupango arribeño.
Highland huapango ( huapango arribeño) is an indigenous form: texts range
from current events to bravura displays of improvised folk poetry lasting up to six
hours.
The Pame preserve the traditional ensemble: two violins and a standard six-
stringed guitar ( guitarra sexta). The Chichimec have a more recent and mestizo-
influenced arrangement of instruments: guitarra huapanguera, two violins, and
a Jalisco-style vihuela (a small round-backed guitar). These usually accompany
Spanish literary genres (secular and sacred), such as poems in couplets ( coplas) and
10-line stanzas ( décimas, performed only by the Pame), and songs and instrumental
music for deceased infants and children ( angelitos, little angels).
Décimas are performed in two ways: as recited poetry or as a valona, a quatrain
glossed by four stanzas, each of which ends with the respective line of the quatrain,
and the whole is sung in a recitative, like a salmodia. This style relates to Otopame
ritual practices documented during the colonial period. Contemporary huapango
arribeño practitioners call themselves compañeros del destino and have expanded
across the U.S.-Mexico border, enhancing the folk repertory of tejano communi-
ties. Décimas are performed during folk dances called topadas (buttings), musical
duels that can last all night while listeners dance to the rhythms of the jarabe, the
poésia, the son, and the valona.
4. Huapango tamaulipeco (haupango norteño) is a fast dance in 6/8. This dance
style and rhythm is typical of prerevolutionary conjunto norteño ensembles,
consisting of accordian, bajo sexto, double bass, drums, and saxophone, with
violinists sometimes improvising between verses. It is also one of the main in-
digenous Mexican forms to be incorporated into música tejana (Texas-Mexican
music): although the repertoire of the tejano conjunto consisted principally of
salon music dances like the polka, schottishe, and mazurka, the incorporation
of the regional huapango tamaulipeco strengthened the music’s ethnic identity
and balanced the repertoire.
Further Reading
Carter Muñoz, K. “Que siga el huapango! Reclaiming the Décima and Political Com-
mentary in Son Huasteca and Arribeño and ‘La-Leva’s’ Re-signification in Mexican Rock.”
Thesis, University of Washington, 2006.
Chávez-Esqiuvel, A. “Compañeros del destino: Transborder Social Lives and Hua-
pango Arribeño at the Interstices of Postmodernity.” Thesis, University of Texas at Aus-
tin, 2010.
200 | Huayno
Haynes, N. “The Huapango of the Huasteca Tamaulipeca.” Thesis, University of Texas
at Austin, 1983.
Hernández Ochoa, Arturo. 20 Años de la Fiesta Annual del Huapango: Amatlán, una
Fiesta que nunca Termina: Encuentro de las Huastecas. Amatlán, Veracruz: Patronato Pro
Huapango y Cultura Huasteca, 2009.
Lozano, M. “Usos politicos y sociales del huapango: Pánuco, Veracruz, 1940–1964: in-
cluye un CD con huapangos.” Thesis, San Luis Ptosí, 2003.
Martínez Hernández, Rosendo. Fiesta en la Huasteca: una Mirada a la Huapangueada,
los Sones, la Poesía y las Danzes Tradicionales de mi Tierra. México: R. Martínez Hernán-
dez, 2005.
Strachwitz, Chris. Music of Mexico, Vol. 3: La Huasteca; Huapangos y Sones Huaste-
cos Los Caimanes y Los Caporales de Panuco. El Cerrito, CA: Arhoolie Records CD431,
1995.
Laura Stanfield Prichard
Huayno
The huayno is a popular song and dance form indigenous to the Andean region
of Peru. It features a fast and upbeat duple meter. Traditional ensembles involve
Western and native instruments such as violin, trombone, charango, and quena.
Huayno compositions combine instrumental sections with strophes sung in Span-
ish or Quechua (Peruvian native language). Lyrics encompass themes of love, eco-
nomic struggle, and bucolic remembrance of the highlands landscape. Melodic
phrases utilize pentatonic scales and are usually fluid and
embellished, with a
preference for high pitches and brilliant timbres. Forms frequently emphasize bi-
nary structures, presenting a harmonic movement from a major section to a rela-
tive minor section or vice versa. Occasionally, a faster and celebratory coda—also
known as fuga—is introduced to provide closure. As a dance, huayno comprises
the interaction between male and female couples. Such couple-centered choreogra-
phy relates to the ancient indigenous notion of yanantin, or complementary duality,
which has played a preponderant role in shaping Andean social values and cultural
milieus through history.
The huayno emerged in Peru as a manifestation of an ongoing process of
mestizaje. This process compounds a syncretism of ethnic and cultural elements
that derive from Amerindian and western cultures. Contrary to an exoticist view
of huayno as living patrimony of the Incan Empire, the genre is in actuality not
more than 400 years old. Even though scholars have argued that huayno was
originally a funeral dance with little popularity among pre-Hispanic communi-
ties, its most salient characteristics were crystallized during colonial times and
henceforth.
Huayno
|
201
A Peruvian ensemble plays a traditional huayno. (AP/Wide World Photos)
Historically, huayno has experienced multiple changes in standard instrumenta-
tion and compositional procedures as well as other areas; much of this change has
resulted from the use and adaptation of European instruments and esthetic priori-
ties. String instruments such as the charango and the arpa indigena were derived
from the guitar and harp, becoming extremely popular. The Spanish language
was incorporated into song lyrics and the use of raised sevenths, or leading tones.
These alterations led to an expansion of the genre’s expressive capabilities. In that
sense, the performance of huayno served as a vehicle for an increasing participation
of indigenous and mestizo groups at a national level, enfolding a survival strategy
for the Andean community within the ongoing process of cultural amalgamation.
After 1950, the genre started to grow in popularity. Several commercial re-
cordings were made and distributed via radio and eventually other mass media.
Artists such as Pastorcita Huaracina and Jilguero del Huascaran became icons of
Andean nationhood, bringing working-class audiences music that reflected the
sharp consciousness of the social and economic issues that oppressed indigenous
groups. Peruvian upper classes—which previously had rejected Andean music as
boisterous and primitive—slowly started to accept huayno as one tangible voice
within the nation’s multifaceted identity. In light of its power to attract rural and
indigenous listeners, the genre also became popular in Bolivia, Argentina, and
202 | Huayno
Chile. Groups such as Inti-Illimani and Quilapayun from Chile proposed a fu-
sion of huayno with popular Latin American rhythms, promoting, in this way,
a pan-Latino consciousness. In Argentina, songwriter Atahualpa Yupanqui and
singer Mercedes Sosa borrowed huayno instrumentation and sonorities to develop
a contemporary language that appealed to the local sensibility. Their goal was to
reformulate huayno in order to spread a message against the inequalities afflicting
indigenous communities.
In the 1970s and 1980s, huayno served as a point of departure for the creation
of styles that reflected Peruvian movement toward integration. While the process
of mestizaje was still painful, indigenous populations managed to solidify their
cultural presence through the development of a genre that merged huayno’s tra-
ditional elements with more contemporary styles such as cumbia and rock. The
emergence of a Peruvian tropicalism—rooted both in a rich indigenous past and
in the flow of transnational influences—was a key element in the reinforcement of
the Andean identity. Born in the context of migratory movements that took entire
communities from the highlands to the coastal city of Lima, Peruvian tropical-
ism included styles such as Andean cumbia and chicha, which rapidly captivated the masses.
The popularity of the chicha surpassed all other native musical forms in Peru.
It combined huayno elements—e.g., melodic phrases, inner pulse, preference for
brilliant tonality—with cumbia’s danceable duple syncopations. Part of chicha’s
success relied on the use of Afro-Caribbean percussion instruments, the electric
guitar, and the bass. These instruments conferred a sense of pride and modernity
to the mestizo and disenfranchised audiences. Ensembles such as Chacalon y La
Nueva Crema and Los Shapis appeared in massive concerts at which Lima’s im-
migrant working-class had the chance to dance and socialize. Chicha concerts led
thereafter to the formation of a new type of sociocultural dynamic in the country.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a new incarnation of huayno once again achieved popu-
larity without precedent. Techno- cumbia, a hybrid form that fuses electronic dance
music, cumbia, and huayno, took the country by surprise when singer Rossy War’s
single “Nunca pense llorar” broke records for sales across the nation. This time,
however, the popularity reached the middle and upper classes. From that point on,
huayno and its multiple intersections have remained an expression that embodies
central aspects of the Amerindian and Peruvian mestizo population.
Further Reading
Romero, Raul R. Debating the Past: Music, Memory, and Identity in the Andes. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Turino, Thomas. Music in the Andes: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Carlos Odria
Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism | 203
Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism
The enormous diversity and complexity of Latin American music is derived from
cultural processes that in many cases have endured for half a millennium. Key
among these is syncretism, a process of mutual influence and adaptation among dif-
ferent cultural traditions. In a syncretic fusion, two or more cultures meld and com-
bine to form a new culture, drawing from—but wholly distinct from—its sources.
This process is naturally smoother when the source cultures hold common facets.
Most Latin American cultures typically draw from a combination of three distinct
sources: European, African and Native American, with occasional less-pronounced
influences from India, the Middle East, China, Japan, and others. The extent and
nature of these combinations differed dramatically throughout the Americas and
were affected by myriad factors such as climate, language, religion, geographical
terrain, socioeconomic factors, and historical developments, as well as any number
of unique localized factors.
The three principal root cultures were themselves not monolithic and homog-
enous. The South and Central American continents prior to 1492 were home to
thousands of different groups whose diversity was as widespread as its geographi-
cal landscape, with levels of development that ranged from hunter-gatherer tribes
to agrarian societies and to powerful civilizations,
including prominently the Az-
tecs, Maya, and Incas. These civilizations drew freely from conquered lands and
trading partners, and represented the syncretic fusion of hundreds of civilizations
that emerged on the American continent starting around 3000 BCE. Knowledge
acquired over millennia—of an agricultural technique or the construction of a par-
ticular instrument, for example—was seldom lost but instead passed on to succeed-
ing cultures. As a result, pre-Columbian cultures often shared similar traditions
including healing ceremonies, relationships with nature and animals, worship of
totems and deities, rituals dedicated to the agricultural cycle, and contact with—or
protection from—the supernatural.
The European source cultures were also enormously varied, with contributions
not only from Spain but also Portugal, England, France, the Netherlands, and other
countries. Moreover, each country often had various internal factors that made up
its cultural influence. Notably, Spain at the time of the Conquest had inherited a
syncretic mixture of Moorish, Gypsy, and Sephardic Jewish influences, as well as
elements from the various regions of the Iberian peninsula such as Galicia, Castile,
and Andalusia. Each of these, and many others, affected in varying degrees the
emergence of Latin American culture and music.
African cultures were also not homogenous, and their influence on New World
culture reflected this diversity. African slaves originated from both West Africa
(in modern Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria) and
204 | Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism
Central Africa (in modern Gabon, Congo, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mo-
zambique). They seldom spoke the same language, and belonged to various—
often enemy—ethnic and cultural groups, including prominently the Bantu, Ewe,
Ashanti, Fon, Ibo, Yoruba, and Mandinga. Moreover, Africans faced different chal-
lenges in different places, as colonial powers differed greatly in their tolerance of
African culture, religion, instruments, and musical practices. These differences
combined with the various cultural characteristics of the Africans themselves, re-
sulting in cultural traditions that were extremely diverse.
Perhaps the most important factor in the development of Latin American society
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 36
