Banda – Jill Domschot

As an aside, the app is giving me writing prompts, as if my problem is a lack of content rather than a lack of time! Today’s prompt is “What is your favorite form of exercise?” The answer is definitely a nature hike, but how often do I take a hike? Almost never. So, the actual answer ends up being “Whatever I can manage in my living room or when my dog drags me on my walk.”

Back to the program: El Paso. I went to El Paso this weekend to see Eden Muñoz live in concert. Eden Muñoz used to be the singer and accordion player for Calibre Cincuenta, but he went out on his own. Calibre Cincuenta was one of my favorite bands. We’ll see what they produce without Eden Muñoz and whether they remain one of my favorite bands. They are in a class of norteño called norteño-banda because they incorporate a sousaphone in the mix. Traditional norteño for a while now has incorporated a saxophone; the sousaphone is a bit of a nice change, in my opinion. Of course, norteño-banda often has the full brass band. Eden Muñoz has gone all out for the full brass.

The concert was amazing. The only drawback was being in the Abraham Chavez concert hall where there is no dance floor; the music is meant for dancing. But still, imagine two accordions, a bajo sexto, a tololoche, a vihuela, a full brass section, and multiple percussion instruments. The music is very complex yet draws a young audience because of the resonant lyrics and the danceable melodies. Also, the music traditions are carried on and reinterpreted by younger musicians.

I’m explaining this because people are generally surprised that I love this music so much, and it shouldn’t be surprising. We have some intriguing musical traditions here, in classic bluegrass or Zydeco, for example, but they don’t quite reach the level of impact that Mexican music achieves. My reaction to Mexican music is at the level of visceral, reaching my heart and soul, so I’ll just leave it at that and not overexplain it.

The theater is in downtown El Paso, and the hotel I reserved was less than a mile away. Because I’m from New Mexico, the state with the highest crime rate in the country, I’m used to hotels being behind gates and a general creepiness when walking around at night. I have been assaulted in Albuquerque while walking at night because I wouldn’t give a crazed drug addict money; my daughter has been mugged; car thefts and property crime are part of the culture here.

Imagine my surprise when I didn’t feel uneasy walking in downtown El Paso at night; this isn’t what I’m used to. I’m not an anxious person. I don’t worry about much of anything. I’m often surprised to hear that women fear for their lives constantly and that this is something men don’t understand about women. At least, this is what I’m told. I can guarantee you that I can’t remember the last time I feared for my life. When I was 14, I almost drowned in a lake. So, more than thirty years ago…? But it’s still good to listen to feelings of unease, which you will get if you visit Albuquerque. Sorry, that’s just the reality. Roswell isn’t much better. It’s smaller; that’s all.

Anyway, I found El Paso refreshing because I wasn’t bothered by crazed drug addicts. Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty there, but I’m guessing the local police must clear them out regularly. Anyway, I’ve always been fascinated by weird places like El Paso. It is a weird city because it’s the pit or hollow of the American Southwest. The landscape is hilly and has mixed architectural elements. Oh, and Juarez backs right up to it. Juarez used to be fun to visit, too, but I haven’t been in years. It started getting a little crazy with the violent crime. Like Albuquerque.

This morning, I walked a few blocks to attend Mass at St. Patrick’s in downtown El Paso. It’s a beautiful church with bad acoustics. I couldn’t hear a word of the homily or readings, but God’s presence will still fill a church during Mass. His presence doesn’t require hearing. The only missals I could find in the pews were in Spanish. Can I read Spanish? Of course. But the Mass I managed to make it to was in English. Ah, well, it took me around five minutes or so to realize I was even reading Spanish. My brain is so accustomed to Spanish by now that I found myself the other day accidentally (mentally) translating English into Spanish instead of the reverse. I wish this was a sign of fluency, but I rather think it’s a sign I’m going out of my mind. It’s been happening for a while now. Going out of my mind, I mean.

Being Spock is overrated. Spock is an alien; he isn’t human. Captain Piccard is human, with all his impetuousness and emotions. The loveable robots who are always trying to be human are attractive for a reason, and it isn’t because they’re being cold and logical. It’s because they try out emotions and human intangibles like love and bravery, even when it doesn’t make sense. Their logic must update to a new kind of sense that uses counterintuitive truth. Aliens can’t do that so much, though.

Our society really lost something when we chose to walk the path of the Enlightenment toward reason as an end to itself. I’d much rather hear “Come, let us laugh together” than “Come let us reason together” any day. In fact, I could fill in “dance” or “sing” in that spot, too. Reasoning together is a dull way to live, and that is in addition to the fact that most people aren’t as smart as they think they are, which makes their reason even more yawn-inducing than it might be if they actually said something that made others think about the world differently. I’ve run across thinkers like that, highly intelligent people who give the contrary answer because they are smart enough to do so — G.K. Chesterton is a prime example. But that’s not altogether reasonable, is it, to always be contrary for the sake of contrariness? Most people don’t have Chesterton’s IQ and can’t pull it off, anyway.

Reasoning with most people is a mind-numbing experience. You know what isn’t? Laughing. Dancing. Singing. Obviously, I would never throw reason entirely out the window. I wish that it were used more by politicians and scientists. True reason. Honest reason. Reasoning that goes beyond the easy answer. I simply don’t want to live with it as a high ideal in my daily life. When it’s idealized, we end up with psychotherapists jabbing icepicks into women’s eyeballs and jiggling around until they’ve cut something in the brain that will make the women stop expressing pesky human emotions that husbands don’t like. I mean, come on, every husband knows that expressing any emotion but sweetness to him when he gets home from work is a definable mental illness. Even if icepicks aren’t the popular cure-all they used to be, drugs that largely don’t work when put to scientific, uh, reason, are the new reasonable approach to address the expression of negative emotions. Such an enlightened way to view the world! Let’s reason together, bro! Okay bro (fist bump), but first I need to cut my wife’s brain or have her swallow a handful of mind-altering pills. She’s upset that the baby’s been up all night and the toddler’s been throwing up and she can’t seem to get the dishes done! How unreasonable! Be with you in a jiff!

It’s funny because pre Aristotle, it was normal for men and women alike to be overcome with emotion, tearing clothes, beating chests, weeping. At least people are described that way in the Bible — David, especially, and it isn’t lost on me that he’s called a man after God’s own heart. He could be quite impetuous, more like Captain Piccard than Spock. Would that I had never been trained to be like Spock. I hate that. I hate the dullness of myself with that mindset. Thankfully, I have enough contrariness that it never went too far.

I suppose this yearning to be fully human is also why I play the accordion. Mexican music has a lot of drama in it. I love that drama to the core of my being. I would exist inside the music, if it were possible. In the early days, I described the sound of many norteño and banda songs as being happy-sad. The accordion sounded happy, but the singing sounded sad — or the reverse. But there is a full spectrum of emotion and sound in the genre; it’s very complex. The focus on accordion and brass support the complexity.

And there it is, I’ve brought it all back to my favorite music. I’m very emotional about the music, you see. Little robots can learn to be human, after all! Thank goodness my little robotic core resisted the alien Spock training. Spock should be deported back to his planet by a bunch of emotional yahoos I like to call humans. The song I’m going to post below is one of my favorites to sing at full volume, really emotional-like. There’s no accordion, but there’s plenty of brass, and it can be played on the accordion. Obviously! ¡Vivan ya!