1. What was happening between Indigenous people, Africans, and Europeans at the time of these compositions?
The tragic aspects of the Spanish Conquest and the resulting disastrous effects it had on the conquered indigenous people of the Americas and the African slaves who were used as laborers in the new colonies are fairly well known and documented. What is perhaps not as well known—or maybe not at first recognized as a positive effect—is the huge impact the Conquest had on cross-cultural relations and the creative output of the people it affected. If it can be said that anything good can come of war, it’s that the warring parties are forced to learn about one another (think how much more the average American today knows about the Arab world, the culture of the Middle East, and Islam since 9/11 and the “War on Terrorism”). Spanish missionaries found it necessary to employ indigenous and African music as an aid in the process of religious conversion and thus began writing new music that incorporated the languages, dialects, melodies and rhythms of these people. For their part, the indigenous Americans were fascinated by the new European music they were hearing, and as early as the 1530s—just a decade after the Conquest—they were singing Gregorian chants in the streets and writing polyphonic motets and masses, adding European instruments such as recorder, harp, cornet, and bassoon to their traditional native ensembles of log drums, gourd shakers, and clay ocarinas. The Africans who were laboring on sugar plantations in the Caribbean and building the colonies of Mexico and South America were combining their own music with Spanish, European, and Indigenous American forms, creating the earliest roots of Afro-Caribbean music and Jazz.
2. One of the songs on the album has some pretty disturbing and surprising lyrics. Can you comment on them?
“Eso rigor e repente” was written by Gaspar Fernandes, a Portuguese musician employed by Spain as Chapelmaster of the cathedral in Puebla, Mexico in 1606. Fernandes had among his singers, musicians, and friends many former African slaves, and he wrote a large number of pieces bearing the designations “negro,” “negrito,” and “guineo” which use West African languages, dialects, harmonies, and rhythms that Fernandes was familiar with. “Eso rigor e repente” is one of a few songs from this period that addresses the issues of African slavery and race relations, and the only one that deals so directly with them. Even within the context of this joyful and ebullient Christmas song about Africans celebrating the birth of Jesus, the opening lines seem to allude to the cruel act of enslavement (“That sudden hardship…” —i.e. enslavement?) and clearly describe the Africans’ “non-white” status in Puebla (“Certainly, here I’m not favored…”). Not only does the text continue to point out social inequalities between whites and blacks, it goes on to describe an apparent ethnic bias that existed within the black community itself between Angolans (“ugly blacks”) and Guineans (“handsome blacks”). Whether this black-against-black prejudice originated in the African community or was somehow instigated and/or encouraged by the Spanish community for some reason requires further research. But one thing is sure—the Africans who were singing in Fernandes choir weren’t Angolans!
3. Why do some of the songs seem to be “from the perspective of Africans?” Was this an attempt by the Church to recruit them or a sign of something else?
Songs from this period that bear the designations “negro,” “negrito,” and “guineo” did, to a certain degree, serve as vehicles for the evangelization of Africans. But what is more revealing about these songs is how they were reflecting the “facts on the ground.” At this period in Mexico’s history, during the construction of the colonial cities, the African slave population was greater than the Spanish and Indigenous American populations combined. In terms of presence, the Africans were dominant. The reason for this is the indigenous population throughout the Americas was decimated by diseases brought to the New World by the Spaniards and Portuguese. The Africans, already part of a slave trade controlled by the Portuguese, had long since developed immunities to the European diseases and thus were brought to the new colonies to build the cities, mine the silver, and work the land and sugar plantations.
4. What does this repertoire say about early race relations in the Americas?
Since this repertoire was written within a religious Spanish Catholic context it speaks mostly of the relationship between the missionaries and the Indigenous Americans and Africans. From that point of view and within that context, the music would seem to indicate a sympathetic relationship. The most dedicated of the Spanish missionaries were clearly opposed to slavery. They also saw in the indigenous people of the New World an opportunity to create a “new Eden” on earth. They truly believed they were there to help socially as well as spiritually. For the Indigenous Americans and Africans, this music must have represented a certain kind of acceptance of their own cultures and traditions, not only in the missionary composers’ attempts to use indigenous and African elements, but also in their encouragement of native composers’ own creativity.
5. Weren’t the Blacks all slaves in Mexico & Latin America at this time period? Actually, you never hear about Africans in Mexico, what happened to them?
In theory (although not always in practice), the Spanish had a different approach to slavery than the Portuguese or the North American colonists. Enslavement was prohibited in the New World, both by papal law (Pope Alexander VI, 1493) and Spanish order (Queen Isabella, 1500). When the immense need arose in the colonies for a healthy labor force, the Spanish purchased West Africans from the Portuguese slave traders. Once under Spanish authority, these Africans became indentured servants—unfree laborers—under contract to Spain for a certain amount of time, after which they could buy their freedom. However, there was a “catch” in the Papal law stating that those who did not accept Christianity or reverted to their old religions should be punished and could be enslaved. Thus, it was in the interest of the Africans to convert to Christianity if they wanted their freedom. In practice, however, this system was not always put into effect and many Africans remained slaves. Some fled to remote areas of the country as fugitives. Others rebelled or conspired to.
The strict “intermarrying-between-races” taboo that existed in North America and parts of South America under Portuguese control evidently did not apply to Mexico, because from the time of Cortes on, intermarrying was common. This resulted in a blending of the races and a variety of social classifications based on the degree of European blood that a person had. These included peninsular Spaniards (those full-blooded Europeans born on Spanish soil), criollos (those of Spanish descent born on American soil), mestizos (those of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry), and mulattos (those of mixed black and white ancestry). In addition, Africans and indigenous Mexicans either married or had amorous liaisons. Over time, a population of mixed blood “mulattos” emerged who were born free or acquired their freedom.
Today in Mexico there are only a few remaining people who are visibly of pure African descent, but the Africans in Mexico have left their cultural and genetic imprint everywhere they lived.
6. What is the codex “Cantares Mexicanos” and how does it play into your repertoire?
The 16th century codex, “Cantares Mexicanos,” is a collection of pre-and post-Conquest Aztec songs. Ninety-one songs were compiled between 1550 and 1580 by a group of indigenous Mexican musicians and historians under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan missionary who spent much of his career recording native customs and beliefs. Although no written music exists for any of the songs in the “Cantares,” there are drum patterns notated in the form of onomatopoeic Nahua syllables which are dispersed throughout the codex. The notation is essentially made up of four different syllables--ti, qui, to, and co--which are grouped in a variety of sequential patterns. Seven hundred fifty-eight different syllabic sequences (drumming patterns) have been counted in the “Cantares.” We use many of these drum patterns in our musical arrangements.
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