Teacher Puts Music Into Lives of Seniors

The music is ragged, raucous: 30 guitars play a Mexican folk song accompanied by violins and harps, maracas and cries of “Musica! Baile!”

Others sitting in the lunch room clap their hands and sing along to a rousing chorus of “Las Gaviotas . “ Two women stand up and dance.

The musicians are men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s. They fumble with the chords and strum mightily, some stern-faced in concentration, others smiling.

At the center of the group stands tiny Violeta Quintero McHenry, dressed all in yellow with black lace stockings, plucking a mandolin and swinging her hips wildly from side to side.

McHenry, 33, is the teacher here and spiritual leader. She has brought these people together. Many had never touched a musical instrument before. She persuaded them to join the band.

‘They Dream With Me’

“They didn’t have the opportunity to learn music before,” McHenry says. “They were so busy as wives and husbands. Now they deserve everything. They dream with me.”

McHenry teaches music at the Pacoima Senior Citizen Multi Purpose Center and at Las Palmas Park in San Fernando. Only those 60 or older are invited to participate. Her three-hour classes are a jumble of voice, guitar and dance instruction. McHenry’s love and enthusiasm are a driving force with her students.

“She’s given me the opportunity to express myself in a way I was not able to do before,” said Antonia Lopez, 61, of San Fernando. “It’s been a complete change in my life. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Last month, McHenry was recognized for her work by being named a finalist for the Bravo Award, presented each year by the Music Center of Los Angeles County to recognize leading arts educators.

Impressed Judges

“I was flabbergasted,” said Brian Wyatt, a former administrator at the Mark Taper Forum and one of the 12 Bravo Award judges who recently visited McHenry’s class. “With such grace and such ease, she makes these people open up and learn. It really is inspiring.” McHenry’s classes take on the appearance of a cantina jam session or a mass, impromptu festival. The music shifts quickly from a Philippine waltz to a Mexican cancion to a polka. Students take turns singing at the microphone or getting up to dance.

“We all put our hearts into this music,” said Josie Espinoza, 62, of San Fernando.

Kennedy-San Fernando Adult School offers the classes free of charge through the Los Angeles Unified School District. The senior center and park donate the space.

McHenry has been teaching the class for 10 years. At first there were only five or so students. Now there are more than 100 regulars.

Jack Kosoy, an assistant principal at the adult school, attended a recent session and pointed to one man playing with the band, shaking maracas out of time with the music but smiling just the same.

“Many of these people don’t drive,” Kosoy said. “The walk, they take the bus, they carry their instruments here.

Filling a Void

“What Violeta has done is enhance the quality of life for these people,” he said. “Look at their faces. It fills a void. There’s more to life than breathing.”

The music that McHenry teaches is elementary at best. Players are taught five or six guitar chords that are basic to a wide variety of music. The chords have numbers that McHenry calls out to signify chord changes during a song.

“I didn’t even know how to hold a guitar,” said Mary Aquinaga, 68, who comes with her husband, John. “Now I can play.”

McHenry also gives students some voice instruction and teaches folk dancing.

Joyful Noise

Some of the students have been taking the class for several years and play proficiently. Others play out of time or in the wrong key. It is as haphazard as it is joyous. And it is purely musical.

“I have black students, I have white students and Mexicans and Filipinos,” McHenry said. “When they first came to class, they did not mix. They sat separated. Now, they are sitting together. Music is the thing that unites people.”

As a child and young woman, McHenry sang professionally in Mexico City. She recorded several albums, appeared on television and toured internationally with folkloric groups.

The short, dark-haired woman came to California in 1970 and, after earning a teaching credential at California State University, Northridge, took a part-time job teaching music to senior citizens at Mission College in San Fernando. The job was intended to be temporary, until she could find work teaching younger students.

But there was something McHenry found in teaching seniors. She speaks hurriedly when talking about it. She grabs a listener by the arm.

‘Power of Living’

“You can see the power of living,” she said. “I know it is God, but I know it is through music. This is their lives now. That is why I give them all I have. At night, I dream of them.”

By 1977, McHenry had begun teaching at senior citizen centers for the adult school. She teaches all day, then may spend free time to help one student select a dancing outfit or drive another to a music shop to pick out a new guitar.

She also must make arrangements for the group to play at various elementary schools, senior citizen homes and local fairs. And she is constantly prowling the senior center, looking for new students.

“I told her, ‘I have no ear for music. I have no knowledge.’ But she persuaded me to come out,” said John Hernandez, 69, of Sylmar, who has been a regular with the group for more than a year now.

McHenry’s students have become so devoted that they will attend a three-hour morning class in Pacoima, then take the bus to San Fernando for an afternoon session at Las Palmas Park.

“When I miss this class, I don’t feel good,” Hernandez said. “You have to play something around this group. You can’t sit still.”

The Music Center judges will not announce Bravo Award winners until February. McHenry would like to win, but right now she is concerned with preparing for an upcoming international fair at which the group will play.

“I have the right to be proud,” McHenry said. “I told them, ‘You are my flowers. You have to shine.’ ”