Veracruz Musicians Teach Guitar—and Resi

Veracruz Musicians Teach Guitar—and Resistance—in Pilsen

Chicago, IL

November 27, 2024

Altepee, a music collective a that hails from Veracruz, Mexico, recently visited Chicago as resident artists at 18th Street Casa de Cultura in Pilsen, where they hosted music lessons for children and adults in Pilsen. The group uses their region’s traditional folk music, son jarocho, to create learning opportunities to share with various communities in their travels.

Sael Blanco founded the collective with fellow local musicians in southern Veracruz eighteen years ago. They aimed to preserve the traditions of their communities and Indigenous groups, such as the Nahuas and Popolucas, whose cultural heritage has been largely forgotten over the decades.

Their music features string and percussion instruments: the leona, a large four-string bass, and the four-string requinto jarocha and eight-string jarana jarocha, both similar to small guitars. The musicians play these around a tarima, a square wooden platform performers dance on. This percussion instrument is the centerpiece of the celebration.

Today, Altepee has twelve members who travel throughout Mexico and the United States. They hold music workshops and participate in local radio programs, creating spaces to share their culture and foster dialogue.

This past month, the collective was represented in Chicago by Pipo Juárez, Gemaly Padua, Ulises González, Blanco, and his fifteen-year-old son, Emiliano. While here, the musicians taught music lessons at 18th Street Casa de Cultura.

The group drew comparisons between gentrification in Pilsen and Veracruz, and urged the community to take a collective approach to resistance, a message the organization has been promoting on its tours.

This interview was conducted in Spanish. It has been edited for clarity and length.

What was your first connection with the collective?

Emiliano: I’ve been part of the collective practically since I was born. But I’ve been more actively involved for about five years now.

Pipo: My first connection was as a fan. I loved all the music they made. I’m from the central part of Veracruz. They came to visit, just like they came here [to Chicago], to share and connect.

Class participants dance while Ulises plays the jarana. Credit: Alonso Vidal

Sael Blanco leads the closing session of the collective’s visit to 18th Street Casa de Cultura. Credit: Alonso Vidal

Ulises: I discovered this music at thirteen through my community and neighbors who played it. But I officially joined this process two years ago. It started as a hobby.

Sael: In the past, it was much more difficult to access music, books, or even knowledge about your own culture. Those of us who started the collective were already musicians, and we saw an opportunity to come together and start offering workshops. We thought, “This is how we’ll preserve the music, specifically campesino music.” In a way, that brought us closer to our communities. Even though we were already living here, it made us look around and see things differently.

Can you tell me more about the themes in this music?

Ulises: A lot of this music’s speech lies in “singing about the everyday,” what exists in our surroundings and how we perceive nature. It awakened a curiosity in me to understand what I was singing about. That connection eventually became part of my identity.

Sael: It’s a part of our identity, of our people. It’s something passed down through generations. Today, it’s taught in workshops, but traditionally it was shared within families, through grandparents, fathers, mothers.

Connecting with elders enabled us to learn about the paths our ancestors walked, the uses of different plants, and the practice of making offerings. It broadens our perspective on reality and helps us take action.