Para Bailar La Bamba

Something a little different for today's Illumination - not so much a specific act, but a thing that has caused joy and been used in ways that far outstrip its original intentions. Most Americans know the song "La Bamba" at least peripherally - it, along with "Feliz Navidad," are generally the two songs in Spanish most Anglophone Americans recognize right away. However, the history of "La Bamba" is more involved that I ever knew, and thus, I share it with you all.

It's a folk song to start, one that appears to have been born in Veracruz, Mexico. It originated from a style of music called son jarocho, which is a kind of cultural integration that came about when African slaves, indigenous peoples of Latin America, and Spaniards were all squished into the same place. The fact that the song was born of such strife and represents a blend of cultures is, in itself, a testament to the power of music.

The most popular version for most Americans is either the Ritchie Valens version from the 1950s, or the Los Lobos version that was used in the movie about Ritchie Valens, which came out in the 1980s. Every version has a little bit of a twist, a little more of what the people of the time need and want, and yet it remains recognizable and, frankly, fun.

Lately, it's been used in some interesting ways. There's a group based out of East LA, called Las Cafeteras, that have remixed the song with some hip-hop influences and made it a bit more relevant to the Chicano experience. The song has also been played at counter-protests against the white nationalist/neo-Nazi types, which just adds an extra layer of entertainment, in my mind. It's a song that's been there forever, as far as I'm concerned, and I love the fact that it was born of a mixture of people and cultures, and it continues to grow in the same way.