OXNARD : Family Records Mexican Songs to Teach Children About Music Around the World

Despite the havoc and destruction of riots in Los Angeles, Oxnard’s musical Herrera family ventured into a recording studio in Hollywood over the weekend to participate in a unique project designed to enrich the music appreciation of schoolchildren nationwide.

Four members of the group, called Los Herrera, joined nine musicians from the Los Angeles-based mariachi ensemble Los Camperos de Nati Cano to record over a dozen Mexican songs using authentic instrumentation.

The two groups collaborated on recordings for “The World of Music,” a series of textbooks for classroom use in kindergarten through eighth grade.

“For each grade, there will be a textbook discussing the background of the musical selections, the region and the instruments used. Each text will be accompanied by a package of CDs containing dozens of songs,” said Buryl Red, who is producing the recordings for Silver Burdett & Ginn, a division of Simon and Schuster book publishers in New York.

“In some instances, the words will be printed. But it’s more for listening enjoyment,” Red said.

“With so much emphasis on a multicultural curriculum, these texts are designed to teach music appreciation while exposing children to cultures from around the world.”

Selections will involve all kinds of American and international music including folk, classical and popular. And Red said there are even selections of rock music.

“We’re trying to represent the music with integrity,” Red said. “Since these musicians are experts in their field, we’re letting them suggest things they feel are representative.”

For 17 years, two generations of the Herrera family have been researching and performing musica jarocha , a style of folk music from southern Mexico’s region of Vera Cruz. Along the way, the family and its core group, El Conjunto Hueyapan, have played for the nation’s Bicentennial celebration and at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Hollywood Bowl, the Greek Theatre and Disneyland.

In addition, harpist Fermin Herrera, professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge and visiting professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA, and the popular East Los Angeles group Los Lobos performed a traditional jarocho version of the title song for the film “La Bamba.”

And Herrera and four of his children have toured with Linda Ronstadt and often perform mariachi music with Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Ronstadt’s regular band.

“The project is a bold concept,” Herrera said. “I think it will bring teachers and students alike face to face with musical traditions that they might not otherwise have an opportunity to come into contact with.”