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Monday, May 19, 2025
Events Detail
From Son Jarocho to Música de Cuerdas: Music, Community, and Collective Roots
30
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: Outdoor Amphitheatre, Rain location: Studio Theater
Audience: Alumni, Faculty, Friend of Lehman, Graduate Students, Parents, Prospective Students, Staff, Students, Transfer Students, Visitors
Admission: Free!
From Son Jarocho to Música de Cuerdas: Music, Community, and Collective Roots
Son Jarocho is a lively, string-based music tradition from Veracruz, Mexico. You might have heard it in songs by Natalia Lafourcade or Lila Downs, or in the soundtrack of the film Frida. But while this music has gained international attention, its deeper roots in community and collective effort are often overlooked.
This event invites you to experience Son Jarocho not just as a genre, but as a way of making music through shared labor, connection to place, and respect for ancestral knowledge. We will learn from two groups who are keeping the community-centered spirit of Son Jarocho alive: Colectivo Altepee from Veracruz (MX) and the Jarochicanos from Chicago. In conversation with researcher, PhD candidate and renowned guitarist Carlos Cuestas, both collectives will share their experiences using Son Jarocho to connect with Afro-Indigenous traditions, Zapatista ideas, and their own elders to turn music into a tool for building solidarity and imagining new ways of living together in community and with nature.
Participating in this workshop, attendees will experience the traditional practice of fandango will and reflect on music as something made together—through dialogue, listening, dancing, guitar strumming, and care. Come explore how these collectives are rethinking Son Jarocho as música de cuerdas (string music): a deep commitment to people, place, and sound.
This event is organized by the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music in collaboration with the Music, Multimedia, Theater and Dance department. It is free but it is helpful if you register using this link.