Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Un Dueto (A Duet)

A Duet – Final Script

Ambi from the street corner fades up. We hear a car pull up to the intersection, and then pull off.

LET’S TAKE A TRIP, YOU AND ME.

Ambi fades up. We hear a car horn. Fades down and under the following.

DON’T WORRY, I’LL TAKE CARE OF THE TAXI.

We hear the collective taxi attendant shout “Mixtepec!”

COME ON, WE’RE OFF TO SAN JUAN MIXTEPEC.

We hear another “Mixtepec!” shouted from the attendant.

THE RIDE IS ABOUT AN HOUR. SO KICK BACK AS I TELL YOU A STORY.

We hear the street ambi fade up. We get in the collective taxi. We hear the driver start up the car and turn on the radio. An odd French tune plays. As this fades down and under the following narration, ambi from the village of San Juan Mixtepec fades up.

AS THE TRUCK CRESTS THE FINAL HILL WE SEE THE VILLAGE OF SAN JUAN MIXTEPEC IN THE VALLEY BELOW US.

Anderson: You see the village, you see it sunken.

THIS IS A FRIEND.

A: The hills cover us. The river is tucked close to the main plaza. We observe a Mixtepec, how should I say, with simple houses.

HE’LL SERVE AS OUR GUIDE TODAY.

A: I’m Anderson Bautista López. I’m originally from here, San Juan Mixtepec, from the San Miguelado neighborhood. This place where I reside is call “foot of the rock,” and it belongs to the San Miguelado neighborhood.

AS WE DESCEND THE HILLSIDE INTO SAN JUAN MIXTEPEC A SIGN WELCOMES US IN THREE LANGUAGES, SPANISH, MIXTECO (MIXTEPEC’S NATIVE LANGUAGE) AND SURPRISINGLY, ENGLISH.

A: Here in Mixtepec the homes are modest, very simple…there’s only been enough to make homes of adobe. Now, more recently, we’re just starting to have enough for more modern homes, homes made with concrete. I mean…the economy just doesn’t provide for more, nothing more.

JUST BEFORE THE MAIN PLAZA WE FIND OURSELVES AT THE HOME OF ANDERSON AND HIS FAMILY.

A: My house is a simple one. It’s made of material…

…EXCEPT THIS HOUSE IS A BIT DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS. IT’S PAINTED AN UNUSUAL SHADE OF YELLOW, ALMOST THE COLOR OF BUTTER. AND THIS PAT OF BUTTER SITS ATOP A SMALL SQUARE OF GRASS.

A: It’s not like the other houses because…well, because as a kid we’d travel to different villages, cities—and you’d see other people’s places; and you get it in your head to someday have a house that’s beauitful, you know?

YOU SHOULD ALSO MEET ANDERSON’S DAD.

Tereso: My name’s Tereso Bautista López, native of San Juan Mixtepec, and “Foot of the Rock.”

HE LIVES NEXT DOOR TO THE BUTTER HOUSE.

Anderson: My dad and I are fomenting the traditional music of San Juan Mixtepec. It is composed of a guitar and a violin, instruments that our grandfathers and great grandfathers have played—and that today we are trying to conserve.

T: Since being a kid I’ve always liked music.

A: I’m a guitarist. My dad plays violin. He learned impirically—he didn’t go to any schools. He learned through practicing, nothing more.

T: I’d been playing guitar for about 6 years with a group of guys. And I started to take to the violin. I was trying to figure out how to play, you know, more or less how—and now, well, now we play a little.

A: I learned to play the guitar in school. In elementary school I started in a band, in a student group.

T: Well, when my boy left school and returned home to live, well, that’s’ when we started practicing a couple of days a week, no more. And from there we started going out to play. In a baptism, a wedding, we played the popular traditional tunes of San Juan Mixtepec.

A: Jointly, Tereso and I, we form the “Dueto Bautista.”

TOADY WE’RE IN SAN JUAN MIXTEPEC TO INAUGURATE THE DUETO BAUTISTA’S FIRST ALBUM.

Their recorded music slowly fades in in the background.

A: We two, at the station, we put together a project with XETLA, recording the traditional tunes of San Juan Mixtepec—playing chilenas, that’s what they’re called here. Chilenas are joyful songs in which the feelings of the people manifest themselves—the farmers, teachers, our Mixtepec ancestors—all of their feelings are reflected through this music

The music fades up and then under the following...

A: What we did was reproduce 15 pieces, 15 chilenas to fill a CD.

THEY INVITE US TO SIT FOR A SPELL AROUND A LONG NARROW TABLE TO LISTEN TO A BIT OF THOSE 15 PIECES, BUT THIS TIME, LIVE.

The ambience of the party fades up.

WE’RE INVITED TO DINNER, TOO, OF COURSE! TODAY’S MENU INCLUDES ONLY THE VERY TRADITIONAL OF SAN JUAN MIXTEPEC: CHICKEN VEGETABLE STEW WITH A HINT OF CLOVE BLENDED INTO THE BROTH.

The sounds of the party fade up. We hear the voices of other attendees.

A: Because of our concern to conserve the traditional music of our village we made this disc with the help of our friends from XETLA. Why? So that this music remains for our children, so that they will spread it, as well.

THE NECESSITY TO CONSERVE MIXTEPEC’S TRADITIONAL MUSIC HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THAT SIGN WE SAW AS WE ENTERED TOWN.

A: Here in Mixtepec there are a lot of people who speak English.

T: Those who emigrate to the U.S., well, they return with their kids, everyone speaking English. And in that way we’re sort of losing our village’s customs. Because now they don’t speak Mixteco, not at all. And we don’t want it to change, we don’t want to leave behind our Mixtecan culture. And for that, we made this attempt at recording an album…now we just need them to hear it.

A: Right now, we have a lot of immigrants from San Juan Mixtepec in the United States, like a majority of our village—80-90% are in the United States. The economic standard in Mixtepec has changed. Why? Because now there are remittances, people sending money to their people, to their families. But the standard of culture, or costumes is diminishing. That includes what they’ve brought from the United States—they’ve brought very bad customs, we would say. For example, the vices, a lot of the vices—a lot of “cholitos” live here that have spent time in the United States, and they commit a lot of the crimes here. So we’re losing our customs because they’re bringing others from outside. So for us it’s very important to conserve our traditions, our music—so that we don’t lose it forever.

SO, PERHAPS THERE’S A PARALELL BETWEEN THE EXTERNAL INFLUENCES FLOODING MIXTEPEC AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF WHAT IS LOCAL. THE CONSERVATION OF THIS VILLAGE’S TRADITIONAL MUSIC CONTRIBUTES TO THE PRESERVATION OF MIXTEPEC’S ANCESTRY; BUT IT ALSO SEEMS TO STEM THE RAPID INFLUX OF WHAT IS FOREIGN.

A: They take recordings with them on a cassette, or on a CD and then they adapt them. They interperet the songs—depending on how they feel them. The music’s being lost—because it’s no longer the original.

TRADITIONAL SONGS CAN REMIND PEOPLE OF THE CHARACTER AND VALUE OF WHAT CAME BEFORE.

A: These songs are going to remain for the young people, for those who come after, way after us; they will say: “Well, these chilenas are from my village, from San Juan Mixtepec, and I am from there. They identify with the music. I think, in a way, we contribute something—yea—because that music is being lost. And that’s the motive to make these recordings—to conserve them, and not lose what remains, to not allow the music to erode any further.

FOR XETLA THE CONSERVATION OF THIS MUSIC IS A DAY-TO-DAY REALITY.

T: I am grateful to the radio—um…the support it has given us is, um—it’s very good.

A: For the part of the Bautista’s, we are so grateful to XETLA for the help they have offered us, and not only to us, but to all the indigenous villages, through one or another project. They do their work with eagerness to promote culture, indigenous culture so that customs are not lost. For us, this is fundamental. Because if there weren’t an institution like XETLA to support musicians, language, customs—it would be lost.

CLEARLY MIGRATION NORTH WILL CONTINUE. BUT PERHAPS THROUGH CONDUITS (LIKE THE RADIO) MIXTECOS CAN MAINTAIN CONTACT WITH THEIR VILLAGE, THEIR MUSIC AND THEIR TRADITIONS.

A: For questions of work, one has to leave. It’s just a fact. But as inhabitants of San Juan Mixtepec, of course we love it here, because this is our home. And we can’t love somewhere else. Because I am from here. And although I listen to other musicians from the north, playing chilenas, it’s just not the same because I am from here, from Mixtepec. And I will always be here.

The music fades up. We here the music of the party in the distance. We hear the night and its sounds. Slowly all fades to zero.

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