Cumbia De Mi Tierra exhibition @ Human Resources Gallery

Join Fenix LAX as he steps inside Cumbia de mi Tierra at Human Resources Los Angeles, archiving a living history where sound, print, and culture collide. Curated by Gary "Ganas" Garay, the exhibition traces Mexican cumbia’s evolution from neighborhood bailes in Mexico City to a global, bass heavy movement shaped by sonideros, independent labels, and the raw visual language of the streets.

Recorded across two sessions at the gallery in Chinatown, Fenix captures rare access first with Garay and collector Jose Hernández ahead of the closing, then inside the final night with Yair Sarmiento and Roberto Rodriguez. With over 100 gigs of footage archived, this episode gives you unpresedented access to this first of its kind exhibition.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:01

On April 25th, I stepped into the closing celebration of Cumbia de mi tierra at Human Resources Gallery Los Angeles. And it felt less like an end of an exhibition and more like a heartbeat, still moving, still loud, still dancing. This wasn't just an art show, it was an archive of memory, migration, and music. Cumbia de mi tierra celebrates the evolution of Cumbia Sonidera from its roots in Colombia to the streets of Mexico City and Puebla and into the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Through flyers, posters, cassette tapes, business cards, and visual art, the exhibition reveals how cumbia becomes more than just music, it becomes identity. Curated by Gary Ganas Caray, the exhibition brings together collector Jose Hernandez, photographer Stefan Pruis, and artist Yair Sarmiento. As one article described it, here in Los Angeles, Cumbia Sonidera becomes a counterforce against policing, displacement, and visibility. In this episode, we hear directly from the curator and artist and why Cumbia continues to move generations across the border. Full discretion, this episode is gonna be in Spanglish. This is Members Pass Podcast, and I am your host, Phoenix LAX. Let's discover Cumbia de mi tierra at Human Resources Gallery, Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

I'm Gary Ganas Caray of Mass Exitos, co-founder of Discos Rolas, uh radio host of Mass Exitos con Ganas on Dub Lab Radio, and uh curator of Cumbia de mi tierra that's uh showing here at uh human resources gallery in Chinatown.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. Let's step right into it. Talk to me a little bit about the name of the exhibition and why this gallery.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

So the cumbia in this exhibition, uh, the visuals, the sculptures, the artwork are revolving around, and the archive is revolving around cumbia from Mexico specifically. And one of the reasons why we chose this space is because this is a staple in performance art. Uh, human resources is a 15 uh-year-long running gallery that's really anchored itself in uh Los Angeles, um, nonprofit, and uh we just felt like this was a good space location to give us the autonomy for uh what we wanted to do.

SPEAKER_05 3:05

What is your earliest memory encountering cumbia?

SPEAKER_03 3:09

For me, uh my earliest memories of cumbia, I would say probably came from a Sinaloa angle. You know, came from a Norteño angle. My mom's from Sinaloa, my father's from Mexico City. Um, but you know, uh as mexicanos, latinoamericanos, we get cumbia from all directions and all eras, but I will say the heavier influence in the very beginning might have been stuff like uh Mickey Laure, uh uh Lindavera. Lindavera, Rigo Tobar, you know, jams like that, you know, and all the different covers.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Ya yo igual empecé a escuchar la cumbia por mis papás, porque en las fiestas escuchaba lo que era Micke Laure, Rosita Gómez, este Rigo Tovar, infinidad de grupos de esa época, porque no se conocía la cumbia colombiana todavía, todavía la gente de México nada más era como la Sonora Dinamita y ahí, pero ya después con el transcurso de las primeras personas que fueron viajando, que fueron a diferentes países, entonces por ellos, gracias a ellos llegó la cumbia a México. Entonces, por eso es que nos gusta la cumbia. Y este título de Cumbias de mi Tierra, porque realmente en México hay muchos grupos muy buenos, muchos grupos muy buenos que hicieron buenas cumbias y que son covers colombianos, pero están hechos en México, y creemos que ahorita también está de moda, entonces y creemos que son buenos temas, demasiados, y muchos instrumentos que in otros países, pero in Mexico in esa época ya los ellos los trataban de usar or colocar in los primeros lugares.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I think another important thing is like cumbia from Mexico. In general, cumbia is like appreciated in Mexico, whether it's from Panamá, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, like I feel like Mexico likes all the versions of cumbia, right? And so I think us as people that are really into cumbia, we have that outlook as well, and we celebrate it wherever it comes from, whether it's from here in the States or it's from Puebla, like we ride with it, right? But uh I feel like a lot of times people leave the cumbia mexicana out. And for maybe because it's not the cuna, it might not be the birthplace of the cumbia, but we hear the rhythms, we hear the bass, we hear the drum, we hear the recording studio, we hear the organs, we hear the synthesizers, and we know what's a quality sound, you know, and we want to let people know that there's quality cumbia coming out of Mexico, and along with the sound, there's amazing graphic design, photography, art, posters, rotulos, you know, signage um that goes along with this culture that's really heavy and has a long history and it's continuing to evolve, and we just kinda wanna show what it was and where it's at at the moment, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Really not exhibit, I had a cell for most of all that I had. But there were various people and various universities that have made a message and no, I would. But we'll talk about a year or more that it's a minimal part of what, because he was all.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

He's on a on a higher level than just a collector, you know. So I wanted to showcase some of his archive and, you know, being if we had a larger space, I would try to show as much of that archive as possible. What we have here is a very small portion of his archive, but I didn't want it to just be archival, colorful posters, right? I wanted to have some installation work, like some sculpture, some painting, memorabilia, stickers, patches. We have a nice vitrine full of business cards. I also wanted to add photography uh into the mix. And so with that said, some of my works are collaborations between myself and Yairit Sarmiento. Uh, we also collaborated with uh with Roberto Rodriguez with the design and whatnot. And um, and we also have the photographer Estefan Ruiz, who has a photo essay of Cholombianos from 2011 uh that was shot in Monterrey that uh that focuses and highlights uh youth movement in Monterrey that is merging uh cumbia vallenato style with like Cholo style and they have their own vibe of uh dancing and the rhythms that they played were really championed and pioneered by Sony Lo Dueñas, who uh slows down cumbia that they call rebajada. Um if you if you're an English speaker, something close to it might be a way we talk about hip hop chopped and screwed, like by DJ Screw, where the BPMs are ultra slowed down and makes just the rhythm hit a lot different, you know.

SPEAKER_05 12:50

With this exhibition, are we preserving or transforming the cumbia genre?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

No, creo que nada más estamos exhibiendo, estamos exhibiendo para que el publication porque creo que es ahorita ya lo veo como que es algo importante para la nueva generación que está de moda ahorita como los sesentas, setentas, entonces es como algo bueno para ellos y pienso que de aquí van a venir cosas mejores, como el libro que está planeando o estamos planeando, porque si hay mucha gente por mucho tiempo lo ha pedido y pues no se ha dado, y no hay quien no hay quien lo que lo puede hacer porque no tiene las herramientas. Entonces pensamos que va a ser un éxito y pienso que por eso lo estamos haciendo para la gente nueva que está interesada y la cumbia que también está de moda alita.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

I kind of feel like it's doing both, right? We're preserving the things that have gone before by showing what is and whatnot, and we're also moving forward, you know. Sometimes you move backwards to move forward. Um, we're not dictating what's happening in the future. We're just like um we're activating space, we're being active with the culture ourselves, you know. And injecting the art though as well, you know, like uh it we're not just only talking about music or only talking about advertisements and propagandas. Like for myself, I'm trying to mesh all those worlds together.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

What is the feeling or essence that you want people to walk away from when encountering this body of work?

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Man, that's a good question. The first and foremost, I want them to feel at home, feel that comfort, feel that warmth, feel their family, feel their homeland, whether they're familiar with it or not, whether they go back there or not, um and and feel what a beautiful culture they are part of, you know, and and to see it, you know, not just to feel it, but to visually see it as well.

SPEAKER_05 15:34

Let's talk about the programming.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Yes, so this coming Saturday on the 18th, we'll be screening three films. Uh, one film is called Sonido Metropolis, and the second film is called Cumbane, un still different. Uh both of those uh documentaries are by the director Alvaro Para, and we'll be showing a third film that is called Grupo Cual, Cumbia de mi ba Cumbia de Barri, and that's produced by Alexander Lippman and myself of Discos Rolas. So that'll be uh our next activation. The week the following week and the week prior, we've also had Clubes de Baile. So uh opening night we had Club Inspiración Mexico, which is a very big part of what happened here for the opening, and not just as the opening party or not just as the closing party, being that human resources is a performance art space. We wanted to bring in the performative aspect into the gallery that's not only through the sonidero, the DJs, because there's a difference there. We had sonideros, we had DJs, we had a live group, but uh the one of the most beautiful parts for me was having the clubes de baile in the space because they were in this space as artists, right? They're clubes, they're a dance club, but they weren't just a dance club dancing in the space to music. I really saw that we were, I know that I was curating them into the space as performance artists. Um so kind of they're in their natural element, but at the same time, we're letting them, not even letting them, but just giving them the opportunity to be performance artists in the space.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Inspired by how a DJ could cut in and cut out of records, we're gonna go ahead and cut into this interview and jump into our conversation with Yair Sarmiento, one of the contributing artists, and Roberto Rodriguez, the graphic designer, for all of the invitations and marketing materials. Let's talk about your contribution to this exhibition.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

My inclusion to the exhibition is painting and some of the collaboration design with uh Gary.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

Okay, thank you for that. Talk to us why you guys agreed to be a part of this exhibition.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Gary and I have been working together for about a couple years now, I would say since like 2013 to 2014. And so we've been collaborating. Sometimes I have a system uh w uh at work or um outside of work, and uh yeah, we just have been connecting with art, music, uh culture, family, uh homies, all of the above, and uh it's it's it's been it's been quite some time.

SPEAKER_04 19:10

But the music tell me about your love for the cumbia culture.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

She has been present during my life.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

I wonder, no, I think for part of my parents, but I collected music, but it was like temerarios and Joan Sebastian, yes. But I connect a little bit more than my hermano, too much cumbia colombiana rebajada and elenato también, no, and the colonia, no, crecía in Guadalupe, when they dictate elso Colombia, and it escuched these rhythms, always Conjunto, Norteña or Grupera, but in fact that was cumbia colombiana rebajada, no. And I think this was what I was doing to those spaces, I connect with Yair, con Ganas, with the bandita of Los Angeles, Mexico.

SPEAKER_05 20:52

Love that. As an artist, I'm always visiting and revisiting stuff. Talk to me in your point of view, how do you go ahead and determine when a work is done?

SPEAKER_01 21:00

I would say I guess when it feels right, most specifically, like sometimes you know you you pick at it so much that like it just looks too heavy. Um I think as as practicing with with design or art, um sometimes you have to like step back, let it, let it live for a little bit, come back to it. And then sometimes you decide right there and then when when it's if it's if it's either done or if it just needs like probably like a a tiny bit of of of of color or some extra marks or anything to type whatever. And uh I think that's that's probably the way that I actu I I I believe I think like I I I feel like when the when the piece is done. It's it's almost like you don't know exactly when. It's it's just when it feels right.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

I think also the feature that they have, this ayuda much of it. But I think it depends, a project of being targeted a little bit more, in entertainment, or a little more idea, or design that is a little bit more grandeur and occupy much more time.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

But I'm according to it is definitively what she sends, and this sentiment was entending more intuition, in quantum moments that growing up for me in Cumbia was always in the background, as if it was always the ambient sound of what my family's cultural history was all about. Was this culture always something that you wanted to be a part of or represent?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

And I think you know, when when when I did have like friends and stuff over, sometimes they wouldn't really understand or they'll shy away from it, or like they'll hate, like they they wouldn't like the music. So I think I was always interested in it, and there was something lingering in my head about it, something that I felt, but I just didn't quite understand until like I would say when I got to high school, I was in my like my headphones and earphones, I was always hearing it from time to time, but it was always something kind of secretive, like something that I wouldn't express publicly. And so um I would say when I met Gary, which was not too far out when I graduated high school, um is when like I remember maybe speaking to him about this track called uh uh what is it called? Um I'm forgetting the name. Um Chambaku. Chambaku. The track was called Chambaku, and I remember I I I spoke to him about it and he just like flipped it and was like, yo, like you like cumbia, and then I was like, Yeah, I love that shit. And and from there on we just he just kind of I I would say empowered me empowered like that that feeling and just started kind of sharing and and and and and sharing his passion for it, and so I just kind of felt connected to that. And it's been it's been cool to kind of see it like come back and like sort of have a resurgence with the youth and like with young people. And so um I guess I guess that's how I would like I feel like I've I've I've felt about it this whole time. Um, I just didn't really know how to describe it when I was younger or talk about it, but it's been cool to like have this exhibition and see other young, up-and-coming, like artists, musicians, um, interested in it as well.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

I think that's something really important to talk about, no, like that empowerment. I think that's a really beautiful thing, no, that that a lot of people maybe don't get to experience in in certain years or or maybe later in their life. Or that you have somebody that that creates and nurtures that confidence in in someone that's young that needs that, you know, in order to be able to express their identity or or find the places that do. Um I think for me, uh identity was always a big part of my upbringing, you know, in in different ways, even though I might have not been able to see it at the time in that way. But I think through through the years I've been able to sort of appreciate it and find those moments that have led me here, you know like I was born in in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, uh, and grew up in Monterrey and and Jerez Zacatecas. So I think like the and part of my life grew up in in San Bernardino, Fontana, LA. So I think having like the migration pattern for me uh identified different things within culture and community that represented my family or my community today. Uh like in Guadalupe and Monterrey, there was a lot of sounds, you know, and a lot of like um even like those images that you see there, no, like their codes that I think were were cool and represented, at least for me, at a young age, something that was cool, you know, like an identity or like self-expression, uh, or rebellion. And today it it means other things much more than that, no. But I think in that moment it was that. And I think those codes have been able to sort of decipher and understand them better. And even in Jerez, it was in Sacatecas, it was like a whole different sound and a whole different kind of uh subculture, if you may, but uh no, you have you have like a tikana, you have this, so you have banda, tamboras, so different dance, different kinds of codes now. So, and coming here, it's a whole nother language, a whole nother like communication systems. I think that the identity, I feel like for me, the foundation was my family, you know, of like how they how they represented and how they kind of like kept a lot of the things that that we kind of migrated with and expressed them in certain certain things, like still trying to go to or rode or do do certain things, no, or certain traditions that allowed me to be proud proud, but also uh hold true to who I am, you know, that they were like not just a reminder, but like uh a thing that we I treasure now, you know, of like um it's not it's not a nostalgic feeling, but it's is it's like a uh a celebration of of who we are in in a sense.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

I appreciate that you guys go ahead and give me your shout outs.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Man, big shout-outs to the Nessa Wacoyotel, Mexico City. Um shout out to my my family, my paws, my mom, brother, sister, nieces, all the homies, everyone here in in downtown Los Angeles, West Lake District. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

Man, I can go on and on and on and on, but let me let me kind of give you a little bit of uh some shoutouts to also everybody from LA, you know. Um, everybody that represents uh everything that we're doing and also values uh what we're doing and is able to also extend that conversation and invitation uh Monterrey, Guadalupe, Zacatecas, a my family, my mamma, my papa, my family that I appointed and representado.

SPEAKER_05 30:25

Alright, let's jump back into our conversation with Jose and Gary.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Hey, but you can say to the gente that no discos, we hablamos. But yeah, when we got the gentle, sonideros and DJ, but still muy bueno.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Yeah, it was really cool to see the mix of people, you know, like one, we have bailarinas, we have dancers, we have sonideros, we have DJs, we had collectors, we have artists, we have writers, we have curators, we have some people that like a little bit of all of that, you know. We had viejitos, doñas, like older people, better, younger people, dogs, whatever. Like, um, so you know, in the art world, sometimes you get like it gets very niche in terms of like who comes to what and what pops off. And I think this is one of those experiences for me that was really unique. That like, man, Los Angeles as like a greater Los Angeles vibe-filling community was present. And I feel like that's really rare in art spaces, and so that was um very exciting to me.

SPEAKER_05 32:31

Gary, talk to me a little bit about the merchandise. What did you guys bring out? Um, did you guys have any exclusive merch?

SPEAKER_03 32:37

I mean, we had hit and run here, who does live silk screening. So we had six designs on the carousel running, so people were able to buy a t-shirt and dictate how they wanted to print their shirt with those given designs uh that were Sonidero-based, record label based, and whatnot. We had some posters that were designed by Roberto Rodriguez that looked really amazing. And um, so we also had these costroas in the house that we were selling our merch from our label. Jose as Innovation Records had crates of mainly cumbia and Latin-based records. So you were able to come here and shop for that. But in reality, the a lot of this really started and all happened because we've been working on a book. So we're in the early stages. All the works that you're seeing here that are of uh of Josez and some of my memorabilia as well. Um, we've been digitizing them um along with uh Sofia, who's my niece, and uh her and I have been working really diligently in photographing, taking scans of all this stuff, and you know, just creating the hard drive that we'll be uh designing a book of. And uh Roberto Rodriguez will be uh he'll be the chief of that, you know, he'll be the lead designer of that book, and yeah, we hope that this travels, and as it does, we hope to have a book uh with it real soon.

SPEAKER_05 34:03

Jose, I have to know. Talk to me. How did you acquire some of these legendary posters and business cards?

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Ah, pues si, mira, todos tienen historia. Really casi todos, porque era nothing, yo estaba 13 años, porque era como de un barrio a otro barrio, ando esperar el baile por lo regular terminaba atrás, de irte a dormir a la central de camiones para que al otro día a la primera hora saliera el camión para regresarte a o sea a tu casa y pues en ese tiempo no teléfonos, tu mamá preocupada y no sabía nada de ti hasta el otro día, entonces hice como que se me complicaba, pero imagínate llegar con uno de estos y pegarlo en tu cuarto y decías no pues fui allá y fui acá y así. And we terminated the baile, because in this trataban of salutes, and the son. I think that are two, and a day at the casa and I gave one paquet. Yeah, I don't know. There are more photos. But you know, today we have a puño of propaganda and targetas, I think much, and the flyer, because I collected what was the high energy, the hip hop, the industrial in this time, the los temerarios, cadetes de linares, carous show, de cuando fue la de la quebradita, the groups of quebradita, colorido, trataba de agarrarlo. House, techno.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Yeah, it was literally like a process of when we were doing the archive, you know. He was like, All right, we we we finished the posters now. And then then we'd be like, hey, come get the posters that are not part of the archive to get them out of the studio to have some separation, right? And then boom, another like 600 will pop up and be like, All right, I guess we're not done, you know. And one of the cool things that I think is uh when we this was one of those scenarios that we thought maybe the collection was done. And José's like, now I had my family send me the last posters and stuff from my house in Mexico. And I just thought it was a real beautiful thing that like now his collection was all in one place and complete, you know, because there was still stuff two months ago in Mexico City. So some of this stuff literally just crossed the border and went up on this wall. So these things are like migratory objects, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:46

Also, I need to know where was this archive stored? And talk to me a little bit more about your personal journey.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Uh, pues no, but I mean, when I vine in the 2000s, but no hice. But when I llegated, you no sabía que había bailes. Dice sí que va a tocar el pancho de Tepito, por ahí tengo el flyer, no lo pusimos, pero ahí anda. Y le digo, no, no ni creo que haya por fin que voy. And llegué and mucha gente in el salón Terraza Jamaica. And soy yo. Nunca sabían que no tomaba, no fumaba, que mira andar in los sonidos and recolectar todo esto, andar en la música para arriba y para abajo, y nunca llegas one or two days, que me iba a San Luis Potosí, que iba a León, Guanajuato, me iba a Puebla, andate salir temprano.

SPEAKER_05 39:47

Gary, I love this piece to my right, your left. Talk to me a little bit about it. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

That's awesome. Thank you for saying that. Um, yeah, this piece is a collaboration between uh Yai Sarmiento and I, and uh it's definitely influenced by the rotulos. Rótulos are paintings that are advertising bailes or sonideros or rock shows, it can be various things, right? It could be uh a Quebradita show or a corrido show or whatever, but they're advertisements that are painted on walls. So some people don't do posters or they don't do flyers or they may not be in those times or even now, might be posting on Facebook, might not be. Um, but anyways, it's a great way for the people that are commuting through a space in the city uh to see what's going on. And uh I'm a big fan of those. Like I'm that guy that's in the car that's always got his phone out the window while I'm driving and just trying to, you know, collect all these visuals and all these graphics that are beautifully painted on the wall. You know, I love signage and uh I like kind of like um, I don't know what, like uh informal murals. And uh so it definitely shows my love of that. Um, and then it's a miniature as well, too. So it's kind of like a moquette, you know, on the top of the wall, you have broken glass that would be like security, right? Instead of barbed wire, you break some bottles, you put it in the cement so nobody climbs your wall, and or so birds or animals don't get on it, you know, so it's reflecting that kind of type of space where that happens. And with the small bricks, you know, those bricks uh I saw in Tijuana people uh do uh sculptures that are nacimientos. So the you know, there's a a culture in Mexico, the a Catholic culture where you do the nativity scene, right? And miniature. And I saw those bricks being sold during like Christmas one time, and I was like, oh, those mini bricks are dope. Uh I really like them and my work has had uh bricks in it uh for a long time, uh, whether we're talking about adobe bricks, cinder block bricks, whether I'm doing uh block type, you know what I mean? Brick type that's maybe a little more referential to Cholo culture uh here in the United States, uh block letters, I would say. And uh, you know, conceptually I started working with those ideas of block letters, the block. I started making block letters out of actual block that the blocks are constructed out of. So it's kind of like this uh trifold type thing. And anyhow, this was like a miniature vibe of that. And uh I thought we would pay some respects to one uh Sony Lokis, who has recently passed, who's the Rey de Wepa from uh León Guanajuato. And then on the reverse side, it has uh Sonilo Samurai, who also recently passed towards the end of the pandemic, um, who played a lot of great cumbia poblana, we can say Guaracha Editada, Wepa, OG Cumbia, he kind of played it all, and uh I really liked his style and the way he got down. Was hoping that these costrolas can collaborate with him, and unfortunately he passed. So at the same time, it's a work of art that's referencing all these things. It's also a homage to those uh two great Sonideros who recently passed.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

Gary, we have to talk about the largest sculpture in this exhibit. If my daughter was here, she would be all over it. Um, it's beautiful, man. Go ahead and uh walk us through that.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

Well, that uh that installation is called Moving Units, and moving units is mostly made out of uh wood, uh faux finish, that's a collaboration. I did the whole piece is really a collaboration between my mother and I. So there's a lot of faux finish granite, faux finish marble, on wood, and then also wooden pedestals that are stacked and blocks that are stacked uh made out of wood, but then are the then they're Covered with uh tarps uh with carpa, which might usually be giving protection in uh in an informal market space or in a backyard to protect something that you can't have under a roof due to not having the resources, whether it's money, space, uh a building or whatnot. But uh going into these informal market spaces, I'm really interested in how they'll have a very small storage area or unit that they run, you know, and then when it opens, they kind of expand and go into the sidewalk and go out onto the street or outside of the market, outside of their small storage space, right? And then there's objects placed on these things uh that are for sale a lot of times, um secondhand objects, not not always, but uh a good majority of the time. And so I like how those things expand and then come back and contract. And so this sculpture is more that kind of train of thought, and it's like condensed space when everything's when the market's closed and those things come back and get compacted to store in a small space, is kind of what that uh piece is referencing.

SPEAKER_05 45:12

Jose, I need to know what makes a vinyl record rare, is it the copies printed or copies made, or is it the sound that's within the music? Also, if you can speak a little bit about the vinyl market, huh? You know, what's the current state of affairs?

SPEAKER_00 45:27

There are mythos of those discos, but really at the feature today there are much discos raros. Por eso es que a veces como mi hijo toca, tratamos de tapar a veces los sellos para que la gente no se acerque y vea el sello, because it's a disco raro. And the precios, creo que están sobrevalorados hoy en día because there are discos de mil, de ochocientos who, like ellos, not the only person who has, but no that exists a discount in the world. There are much valor and there are gente who pay dinner, for those noise. But in there today there is lotes in Ecuador, in Mexico, and have demo discount, in Ecuador. I think my fuerte is training because I have loses de muchos años. Claro, ya no antes compro como antes que me ofrecían mil y los compraba. Ahora ya es un poco más reservado. But I think my hijo trae la school, because he está agarrando el mismo camino that you had a time, because I think leaning cajas to the casa, and so he's agarized. And I had a platform with my friend and me, hey, no left my contacts to Kevin, who is me? You don't pay my contacts because they are measured by many times. Y le digo, no sé, búscalo. Es como es para que él vaya aprendiendo. Igual, pero sí la música ahorita es más la cumbia, y más hablando de cumbias, pues hay muchos sobrenombres, ¿no? Como el huepa, está las cumbias chundas que le llaman, cumbias chundas le llaman a las cumbias mexicanas, que son como de Oaxaca, de Puebla, de otros pueblos. La gente no habla mucho de la cumbia de doble paso, que no le ponen pitch, así como suena en el disco original, así la bailan, pero nada más la bailan en León, Guanajuato, no la bailan en ninguna parte del mundo más que en León, Guanajuato, y se llama cumbia doble paso porque todo lo bailan al revés. Como normal que se baila aquí, en León, Guanajuato lo bailan al revés. O sea, en lugar que bailan para acá, van de reversa. Y si aquí le das primero la vuelta a la mujer, en León se la dan primero los hombres. Y los pasos son muy diferentes. Es el único lugar in el mundo que se baila la cumbia a doble paso en su velocidad normal. If you're a skater, it's like dancing switch dance.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

That's what got me collecting CDs.

SPEAKER_05 50:27

Gary, let's tie this question back to the name of the exhibition, Cumbia de mi tierra. How does migration shape the sound of cumbia?

SPEAKER_03 50:34

I mean, how does migration not affect the sound of cumbia? I think might be a better way to look at it. Or not a better way, but that's what my brain thinks of right after that question, right? Migration influences everything and definitely influences cumbia. Um you know, Gumbia will start in Central South America. It gets infused with African slaves, with European colonists, the instrumentation, the instruments that come along with that, the rhythms that come along with that, they all start merging, right? And as they travel from Pueblo to Pueblo, city to city, those places also start injecting their own flavor into that. And so, yeah, it's always changing, you know, and that's how we get to these points of modern cumbias and production, people making cumbia on NPCs, or back in the days making it on loop uh fruity loops, um, and then even people going back to organic bands and whatnot. So the cumbia from the get-go, you know, are or I guess since colonial times has been nonstop in migration flux, you know.

SPEAKER_05 51:55

Is there such a thing as an authentic cumbia?

SPEAKER_03 51:58

I think you can probably take that back to Colombia, but even then that's like the most taboo question to ask. Because no matter how you answer it, somebody else is gonna have another answer, right? And so I think it's like all these places and all these things, but you know, Colombia is the origin, but we also got to think pre-colonial times, you didn't have all these separations of country. You know what I mean? You didn't have all these borders created. So, what we think is different countries and different people at that time they were family, they were neighbors. You know, uh the these borders are constructs. So we have to remember that, and we have to remember that the indigenous people of these lands were always there, right? Cumbia didn't just come with the African slaves that came and they're Europeans. It definitely evolved the sound, and those people had their thing. You know, we can take a cumbia and think about cumbia, and you can't separate that from West Africa and the drum patterns that are there and the rhythms that happen. Cumbia, one of the main instruments in Cumbia is the accordion. The accordion comes from Germany. Um, so we can't forget those things. But before you have that, you have the Gaita, you know, and the accordion is just kind of mimicking the Gaita. And the Gaita is mimicking birds of the Amazon, you know. Uh so it's really, I mean, the origins are it's earth music, and then yeah, it becomes all these other things from there and spreads out, and now it's even digital music, you know.

SPEAKER_05 53:33

What's your take on that, Jose?

SPEAKER_00 53:36

But I think that the cumbersome, the vallenato, and the cumbia. It's what it is and ahí uh you know if I'm sure. Uh I platically, that the discos of cumbia fuentes were grabs in Ecuador Colombianos, because it was barato hacerlos. Por eso es que mucha gente de Colombia hoy en día está buscando los sellos ecuatorianos, porque fue donde hubo más grupos colombianos que ya habían sacado temas de cumbia, porque hay tengo un disco de 1940 y algo, que es la zampuesana, como la más conocida. Entonces, si tú ves el disco y dice 1940 y algo, y luego sale la zampuezana como en los 70s, 80s, o sea, y dices hoy, pues quién la hizo, quién fue el primero, y el disco es colombiano y es un sello raro que no se ha visto. Es un disco de 78, revoluciones de los primerititos de carbón, y pues es que hay muchas historias, pero así la que la mayoría de la gente sabe que fue el porro, el vallenato, hay bambucos, hay infinidad de ritmos, y de ahí surge lo que fue la cumbia, que creo que cuando salió Landeros fue cuando se hizo como popular más y que le empezaron a poner los sonidos de México, porque fue de los primeros temas que empezaron a tocar, como de Andrés Landeros, de Lucho Campillo y todo eso, entonces de ahí surge y se hace el boom, que fue, el boom fue por, no fue por mucho tiempo, fue como en los ochentas y en los noventas que en México empezó a sonar más la cumbia, porque ahí eran más salseros, más, más salsa, más salsa, hasta que hubo un sonido que se llama el oso candela, como en el 95, 96, pone un tema que le puso una cumbia, lo anuncia una cumbia en la época de la salsa, y suelta ese tema que se llama, no recuerdo el nombre, pero suelta el tema, and de ahí como que la cumbia se expand in Mexico and the gente and loca por esa cumbia. And they have the salsa, and the cumbia. And cumbia, creo que los unideros. Una salsa, una guaracha, and three cumbias.

SPEAKER_05 56:31

I think we're almost done here, you guys. I do have to ask you though, Gary, what does success look like for you and this exhibition?

SPEAKER_03 56:37

I feel like uh this exhibition is already a success, just being able to get to know Jose and working with him and having the opportunity uh to curate his archive in it. But I think what will be more successful is just having the opportunity to show this across the United States, uh in other countries and other reputable galleries and museums. Uh we're working on a book, so having this exhibition travel to you know, outside the country or within the United States to those spaces with the book would also uh be uh very successful to me.

SPEAKER_05 57:15

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. I've had nothing but an amazing time with you guys speaking. I can be here all day. Go ahead and give me your shout-outs. Who needs to hear it from you?

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Ganas the más exitos, discos rollers. Animo.

SPEAKER_00 57:50

My family no pudo llegar, llegó a final, but I think the 25, y a toda la gente que a los sonideros que vinieron también, gracias. Vino mucho escritor, hay personas que hacen libros, que había muchos que me preguntaban, hay que hacer el otro, and like no, no, no, este, no estoy ahorita, estoy enfocado en otra cosa, pero sí les quiero dar las gracias y los esperamos para el día 25, que es el cierre de esta galería. Y antes de que se fuera a la galería, ya teníamos personas de Chicago who quieren que vayamos para allá. Otra persona de México igual dijo que quería ver. Una persona muy creo que la muchacha era Colombiana. Dijo, me dijo que todo estuvo muy padre, que estuvo todo muy chido, pero que el mueble de las tarjetas que piensa que con eso hubiera sido un boom tremendo, nada más presentarlo como in otras partes, porque es algo que dice nunca en su vida que ella trabaja en esto. Había visto algo así como el mueble, nada más con las puras tarjetas de los Unidos. And me dio varios lugares, varios galerías in those unidos donde ella las puede llevar, pero pues esperemos que se haga algún día. Gracias.

SPEAKER_05 59:38

What an episode from the bottom of my heart. This exhibition has been an eye-opener. Again, like I mentioned before when speaking to Yaid and Roberto, this uh culture has been something that has been playing, you know, silently in the background of my upbringing. And I'm so glad that I was able to not only report on this, archive it, but also document the different artists moving this culture forward and preserving the culture. If you like what you heard in this episode, please consider subscribing and adding us on Instagram at ArtWars LA. And this is Members Past Podcast. Thank you for your time.