ABSTRACT
As a well-known and influential example of transference from Mexican folk music to mainstream American pop, Ritchie Valens's “La Bamba” (1958) has proven pedagogically useful to demonstrate Latin American influence in early rock ‘n’ roll. The Veracruzan genre of son jarocho from which Valens drew is itself an admixture of Indigenous, African, and Spanish cultures, marked by a long history of colonialist, political, and economic forces shaping its evolution. Following decades of commercialization, the jarocho revival launched in the late 1970s to bring the music back to its rural folk roots through constructed notions of authenticity. The revival also led, somewhat ironically, to a new wave of professional “jarocho fusion” groups. The 2007 recording of “La Bamba” by Sonex, a leading jarocho fusion group from Veracruz, offers a beneficial opportunity for students to consider how stylistic fusion within the jarocho tradition operates on more levels than immediately meet the ear.
