Mexiko, Mexiko Über Alles! (Friday Night Video)
Eddie, at “Third World Shopkeeper” is complaining about the Bavarian sound of some Mexican music. Close, but probably more Hanseatic than Bavarian (not that I know the difference). German, definitely .. but not exactly music to invade Poland by… though maybe it would make a decent sound-track for the conquest of San Diego.
The music in question was born here in Mazatlán.
Mazatlán, which wasn’t really a port until after 1830, was heavily settled by German merchants, mostly from the north German port cities of Hamburg and Bremen. Making a fortune from the California 49-ers who either came overland from Veracruz and waited for a ship here, or from smuggling (opium to China, and silver to Europe), they could afford to indulge in a bit of nostalgia for the old country. Miguel Valadés Lejarza’s in “Origen de la banda sinaloense” (Revista Encuentras con la Historia, October 2003, Cuilican Sinaloa) claims Jorge and Enrique Melchors sponsored the first banda group by about 1860.
Mazatlán’s Afro-Indigeno-Hispano-Filipino-Hibero-Sino-German-Mexican community made a few adjustments to the basic Melchor plan, and have been every since. But it still has that Germanic weltshuung… a few of my neighbors were practicing the other afternoon down the street. Next to the Chinese restaurant. An hour later, they were hungry for the reconquista…
Lucky for Lou Dobbs, they weren’t in uniform. Now these guys…
Que te ruegen quien te quiera, Banda el Recodo (Univision Music)
The Mex Files 
I’ve lived all my life in Mazatlan. I was born here almost 61 years ago. One thing I’m really curious about is: Who brought the first instruments to this city? Secondly, who were the first music teachers to use the new toys with their students? It is clear to me that those instruments were brought on purpose; perhaps some of the german people got homesick and decided to relief the pain by importing them but how the music caught on among the mazatlecans is still a mystery to me. I would like to get more information about this fact. Can any of the readers help?
Lou Dobbs: Don’t like Messicans cuz his wife be messican.
Hi Richard
Just catching up on some blog reading here and came across your very thorough explanation.
Thanks for the hat-tip but my point was that the ‘banda-ization’ of certain songs was what was annoying…not banda music, per se.
I mean, sheesh! Terry Jack’s “Seasons In The Sun” done in BANDA??!! Puh-leeeeze!
Bavarian – without doubt.
Hanseatic – not at all.
Holito is a “Deutsch-Mexicanisches Leben in der deutschen Provinz,” so I’ll have to bow to his superior ear. Perhaps the Melchors received a shipment of tubas, and were astute businessmen.
Or Hanseatic businessmen with a weakness for Bavarian “Oomphhhta-ooommmphta” music… 🙂
BTW: This kind of music can be found at different locations, e.g. in Bohemia.