El Sereno instrument maker carves out a niche
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Kristopher Fortin profiles Cesar Augusto Castro Gonzalez -- a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who now teaches that region’s folkloric music in Los Angeles and makes the instruments to play it.
Castro specializes in making jaranas and requintos, guitar-like instruments that are key components and the most familiar parts of el son jarocho, or ‘the Veracruz sound.’ Castro’s experience has made him comfortable expressing pride in his work. ‘I make a good instrument all the time,’ Castro said. Although Castro grew up in Veracruz, he had never come across the rural folk music of the region, which uses various stringed instruments and percussion to orchestrate a song, or son. To U.S. ears, perhaps the best example of the jarocho style is ‘La Bamba,’ reports Fortin.
You can watch an audio and video slide-show from the above report here.
Read on about the music teacher and instrument maker from Veracruz here.
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