(SOUNDBITE OF LOS CENZONTLES SONG, "VALOR LATINO")
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
That is the music of Los Cenzontles, a group founded by Eugene Rodriguez. He's a folk musician and the author of "Bird of Four Hundred Voices," a new memoir where he shares what it's been like to use traditional Mexican music to bridge across generations, borders and too many music genres to count. Over the last 40 years, his group has grown from a band to an arts academy and community space in San Pablo, Calif., in the Bay Area.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VALOR LATINO")
LOS CENZONTLES: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ: I want to connect the name of the music group with the title of the book. So what does one have to do with the other?
EUGENE RODRIGUEZ: Well, a cenzontle is a mockingbird. And cenzontle is the Nahuatl word, which - according to a 14th-century poem, the cenzontle is the bird of 400 voices. And the reason that I chose that name was because I feel like, like the mockingbird, the cenzontle, that listens to the sounds around it and incorporates those sounds into its voice, human beings do the same thing.
MARTÍNEZ: Belonging - clearly the throughline in your memoir. It's in the title, too, "A Mexican American Memoir Of Music And Belonging." So tell us - what does belonging mean to you?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, belonging is a long, fascinating story. And I think for families like mine, which began, in terms of this country, with my grandparents coming from Mexico to the U.S. 100 years ago - you know, we come with a communal sense. We come with big families. And little by little, the American way of life kind of erodes our connections. We become increasingly isolated. And so my work with Los Cenzontles occurred around the same time, at least within a few years, of this huge influx of immigrants from Mexico, from NAFTA - in the post-NAFTA era.
And so I saw it as a really interesting opportunity to get to know, at least from my point of view, what my grandparents went through when they came to this country. But it was also a way to - for me to feel connected, you know? My own family was interrupted with - by divorce and just estrangement. So for me, working with the kids of Los Cenzontles was my way to feel connected to other human beings. And I hope that, you know, they felt the same way while they were with us, as well.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you teach kids to play instruments without teaching them how to read music. I mean, how does that work? And why do you do it that way?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, when a child learns to speak, the child is not reading from a book. The child is listening and responding to vibrations and movement and rhythm. And that's - music is the same thing. Of course, if a child wants to read music, we provide that, as well. But when they're very small, the best way for them to learn is through movement. It's to incorporate the rhythm, the groove, into the body. And then that translates into a certain confidence and a certain knowledge into any instrument. And I call folk music, and I call this pedagogy, kind of like cultural stem cells because they can turn into anything with the right foundation.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you and your group have collaborated with musicians from all over the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE CHIEFTAINS SONG, "EL CHIVO (FEAT LOS CENZONTLES)")
MARTÍNEZ: Irish bagpipes paired with traditional Mexican music wasn't the most obvious one, so tell us about that pairing.
RODRIGUEZ: So this was a project by Ry Cooder and The Chieftains.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EL CHIVO (FEAT LOS CENZONTLES)")
LOS CENZONTLES: (Singing in Spanish).
RODRIGUEZ: And it sought to explore the connections between Irish and Mexican music around this historical moment where Mexico and the U.S. were at war, and Irish American conscripts were sent to Mexico to fight. But once they got to Mexico, they turned sides and fought with the Mexicans 'cause they realized that they were fighting alongside fellow Catholics. So Ireland and Mexico have a lot of rhythms in common. We have these complex 6/8 rhythms. We have a love for, well, spirits...
(LAUGHTER)
RODRIGUEZ: ...And romance. So there's a lot of commonalities. And in the case of the chivo, the goat - both the chivo in Ireland - the goat in Ireland and the chivo in Mexico are kind of venerated animals, important animals to culture. So that just seemed the perfect song to explore.
MARTÍNEZ: There's so many different ways to find connections that sometimes are discovered through means that you - maybe you don't think of - in this case, music, but in other cases, other connections.
RODRIGUEZ: Right, and that's something that I learned young. My grandmother, who came from Mexico, like I said, 100 years ago - she spoke to me in Spanish. I spoke to her in English. But that didn't mean that we could not communicate the complexity of the affection that we had for each other. So that taught me very early on that culture was much more than language.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, we are - I'm sure you know, Eugene - right in the middle of election season, getting close to picking a new president. You wrote a song about the Latino vote a few years ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA PELOTA")
LOS CENZONTLES: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ: "La Pelota" - "The Ball." That's where you compare the Latino vote to a ball getting kicked around. Eugene, why that analogy?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I feel that, you know, the interests of the Latino voter are very broad and like - pretty much like all Americans, but somehow, the political parties have kind of treated us - I think taken our vote for granted in many cases. They're happy to get our vote, but once the election happens, our interests are kind of set aside. And so that's why I wrote that song.
MARTÍNEZ: This year, Eugene, Mexican and Mexican American artists such as Peso Pluma, Grupo Frontera - they've cracked the Top 5 on a Billboard Hot 100 chart. I mean, are these signs that belonging for Latinos in America is starting to happen or actually happening?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, what's happening in popular culture - I suppose it's natural, and I see it as very healthy. When I was growing up - I was born in 1962. You know, like Lalo Guerrero said, there are - there were no Chicanos on TV, and the people who played Latinos in movies and television were mostly Anglo actors with brown contact lenses. So what I'm seeing now in the marketplace - I think it's thrilling. I just wish that we would see that also in government, and we would also see that in media, and we would also see that in academia and in nonprofit work because I think, in a way, the marketplace - the commercial marketplace - is ahead in that regard.
MARTÍNEZ: Maybe if it starts there, that's where it can branch out to.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think so. And I think culture - as I say in the book, culture is bigger than politics.
MARTÍNEZ: Eugene Rodriguez is the author of "Bird Of 400 Voices" and executive director of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy in San Pablo, Calif. Eugene, thanks.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EL MEXICANO-AMERICANO")
LOS CENZONTLES: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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