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Historical
Museum of Southern Florida |
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Traditions:
South Florida Folklife Music
Folk music in South Florida presents us with a diversity of musical traditions that flourish side by side, often influencing and enriching each other. Folk music is any music, whether written or oral in origin, which is passed on aurally in small group situations. Here it runs the gamut from the twangy sounds of bluegrass to the mournful tone of the blues to the sensuous rhythms of salsa.
During the early twentieth century, Cuba was the seminal force in Latin American popular music. Musical forms such as the merengue, bolero, guaracha, mambo, arieto, rumba, or chacha can be traced to Cuba. Most of these have roots in folk traditions that derive from a synthesis of European and African musical models. Cuban folk music survives in South Florida in forms ranging from the predominantly Hispanic punto de guajiro (improvisational verses accompanied by guitar, flute, guiro and clave), to salsa-like charanga and the essentially African songs and rhythms of Santeria's guiro, bembe and bata ensembles. In south Dade county, the presence of Mexican migrant workers and permanent residents sustains several local bands. Most bands play the conjunto or norteno music favored by Mexicans and Mexican Americans from the Texas-Mexican border area. Conjunto bands, consisting of guitars, drums, vocalists, button accordions or keyboard, perform mainly rancheras — cowboy songs with a polka beat from northern Mexico. In addition, their repertoires usually include corridos (ballads), cumbias, boleros, and huapangos. Mariachi bands that play the lively regional music from the states of Jalisco and Michoacan are also crowd-pleasers.
 
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Although
continuity is perhaps the central characteristic of culture, both internal
and external forces may effect change. Clearly, the pace of change in
the formal, technological, and distributional systems of folk arts has
accelerated with the increased movement of peoples and ideas made possible
by mass transportation and the media. However, change does not necessarily
render a tradition non-folk repetition, informal context of transmission
and group acceptance are the essential criteria of folklife.
The
influx of peoples from the Caribbean and Latin American has made their
music a dominant force in South Florida's musical culture. Conversely,
many Latin and Caribbean musical styles have been altered through contact
with American traditions. The types of music featured in South Florida's
Caribbean and Latin American clubs, radio, restaurants, religious events,
community festivals and family gatherings include Jamaican reggae, Puerto
Rican plena, salsa and jibaro, Cuban guajiro and charanga, Haitian compa,
Trinidadian calypso and soca, Mexican musica nortena and mariachi. Music
is an important ingredient in the lives of members of these communities.
It serves as a buffer to a strange environment, a source of entertainment,
a reason to socialize, a part of religious observances, and a symbol of
cultural identity.
