Appreciating Cinco de Mayo with Awesöme Orchestra and a nod to Mexican Romanticism
By Guest Curator and Conductor, Dr. Sixto F. Montesinos Jr.
As we watch from afar Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine (shockingly in the year 2022) let's recall a time when similar invasions were common in the Western Hemisphere. For example, France invaded Mexico two times in the 19th-century around the same time Mexico lost half its territory to the United States (Mexican-American War**). The second time France invaded Mexico, it sought to establish Mexico as French territory and take its capital Mexico City. During France’s first attempt to take Mexico City, Mexican troops gloriously defended their territory and defeated the French army at the Battle of Puebla on the fifth of May 1862. Mexican citizens celebrate this victory annually with pride and compare it to the tale of David vs. Goliath. However, that was the extent of it because France eventually occupied Mexico City and installed a new emperor about a year later. Maximilian, Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico (1832-1867), and his wife, Empress Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), were crowned at the Catedral Metropolitana in 1864 with support of Napoleon III and Mexican conservative oligarchs who identified more as Europeans than Mexicans. Eventually, the Archduke was betrayed and assassinated. His wife returned to Europe clinically insane. The tragic story of these two political pawns was even depicted in a Hollywood film (1939) and Bette Davis portrayed Empress Charlotte. Nineteenth-century Mexico is a fascinating period in world history and corresponds with two pieces selected for this session: The Mexican National Anthem (1854) written by Jaime Nuno (1824-1908) and the Intermezzo from the Opera Atzimba (1900) by Ricardo Castro (1864-1907). For more insights on the Mexican National Anthem, check out my article “The Mexican National Anthem: An Original Mexican Nineteenth Century Composition for Military Band.”
Huapango (1941) is a post-revolutionary composition and a foil to Mexican romanticism. After the revolution of 1910, Mexican composers and artists rejected romanticism and embraced nationalism. Composers refused to write any more music of Austro-Mexican style like the world-famous waltz, Sobre Las Olas (1888) by Juventino Rosas (1868–1894). Instead, composers like Carlos Chavez (1899-1978) , Slivestre Revueltas (1899-1940), and Jose Pablo Moncayo (1912- 1958) were inspired by indigenous sights and sounds and incorporated them in their music while using 20th-century compositional techniques championed by composers like Hindemith, Copland, and Stravinsky.
The aversion to romantic music in post-revolutionary Mexico after 1910 was so strong that it resulted in obscuring the work of earlier Mexican composers from the Mexican Baroque to the Romantic period. Nationalistic pieces like Huapango, Sensemaya (1937), and anything written by Carlos Chavez became extremely popular. On the other hand, pieces like the opera Atzimba or even beautiful Baroque masses and motets from the baroque period, some written at the Catedral Metropolitana and Catedral de Puebla , were overshadowed. That is the reason I continue to advocate for the music of obscure pre-revolutionary Mexican composers. I believe that earlier music by Mexican composers also deserves to be recognized. Regardless of how we feel about colonialism, Mexican composers from those earlier centuries living in Colonial Mexico before the establishment of the Mexican Republic were no less talented than the more well-known nationalistic Mexican composers of the 20th century like Chavez or Revueltas.
Additionally, it was important to select repertoire from the Romantic period in Mexico for this session because The Battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo happened while Romanticism was in vogue in the 19th century. A program selected only of 20th-century Mexican pieces would be anachronistic, failing to accurately represent music from the Cinco-de-Mayo era.
Cinco de Mayo is probably celebrated more in the United States than in Mexico. It has become somewhat of a commercial gimmick and an opportunity for advertisers and companies to “make a buck” (especially Mexican restaurants selling giant Margaritas) This holiday may be twice as lucrative if it falls on Taco Tuesday!
As we prepare to read this beautiful and timeless Mexican repertoire by Jaime Nuno, Ricardo Castro, and José Pablo Moncayo with the Awesöme Orchestra we should remember the historical significance of Cinco de Mayo is far removed from stereotypes of Mexican culture in America. The best way to celebrate Mexican culture on Cinco de Mayo in the United States (as I mention in this 2019 TV interview for Daytime Blue Ridge) is to appreciate its historical value and share it with your friends and family before sipping the refreshing and inevitable margarita.
**My grandmother’s house in Coyoacan was built on top of a mass grave of soldiers who died in one of the battles of the Mexican-American War in 1947.