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2019-08-27 The Representation of Mexican Identity through Music in the Films of Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández (1940-1950)

Carril Naranjo, Javier Arturo

Carril Naranjo, J. A. (2019). The Representation of Mexican Identity through Music in the Films of Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández (1940-1950) (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110842 master thesis

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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

The Representation of Mexican Identity through Music in the Films of Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández

(1940-1950)

by

Javier Arturo Carril Naranjo

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC

CALGARY, ALBERTA

AUGUST, 2019

© Javier Arturo Carril Naranjo 2019

ii

Abstract

Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández (1904-1986) was a prominent film director of the Golden Age of

Mexican Cinema (1936-1956). Central to his work was the representation of the Mexican national identity, which was expressed through the narrative and visual elements of his films.

Music was also central in Emilio Fernández’s work, but the soundtracks have only been passingly addressed by the critical literature devoted to Fernández's films. This thesis attempts to address this issue through a discussion of the role of music in three movies that span Fernández’s main nationalistic concerns: the Mexican revolution, the life of the Mexico's indigenous people, and social life in Mexico's urban centers.

In chapter one this thesis examines the historical events that led Mexico to become a leading Spanish-language film producer during the period between 1936 and 1956 —known familiarly as the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Chapter two is devoted to Emilio Fernández and his ideas of ‘national cinema,’ as well as the director’s relationship with the composers

(Francisco Dominguez and Antonio Diaz Conde) that wrote the music for some of the most significant films of his career. Chapter three discusses the music in Flor Silvestre (1943), a film devoted to the cinematic representation of the Mexican revolution. Chapter four is dedicated to the music in María Candelaria (1944) —a film in which Emilio Fernández portrays a stylized image of the Mexican indigenous people. Finally, Chapter five explores the musical life of

Mexico City in the 1940s as presented in the movie Salón México (1948).

This thesis traces the origin of the musical genres included in the selected movies. This is to evaluate how these genres are representative of the Mexican musical traditions. In addition, this thesis explores the dramatic function of both diegetic (onscreen) and non-diegetic

(background) music in relation to the narrative and visual elements of the films.

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Preface

Mexican cinema has received considerable attention in recent years.1 Despite this attention, studies of the role of music in Mexican film are few, with most studies treating only the songs performed in films from the ‘Golden Age’ (1936-1956) of Mexican cinema. These writings tend to emphasize the role of famous performer-actors and the vocal genres popular in Mexican cinema of that period.2 The general nature of these studies often fail to make such basic distinctions as the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic music or to discuss the musical styles employed in the films. Often the role of non-diegetic music is not engaged at all, despite its considerable presence and evident importance to the impact of a particular film. There is also little treatment of the leitmotivic dimension in the musical scores, another feature of importance.

Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández (1904-1986) is customarily regarded as one of the central figures in Mexican cinema during the Golden Age, working as one of Mexico’s most important directors over a career that spanned thirty years. He was also the most important director of films that sought to develop a distinctive Mexican national style. In this large, life-long project,

1 See for example, Charles Ramirez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015). Maricruz Castro-Ricalde, “El cine de la época de oro y su impacto internacional,” La Colmena 82, no. 2 (2014): 9-16. Robert McKee Irwin and Maricruz Castro Ricalde, Global Mexican Cinema: Its Golden Age ‘el cine mexicano se impone’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). María Consuelo Guerrero, “La revolucionaria en el cine mexicano,” Hispania 95, no. 1 (2012): 37-52. Catherine Bloch ed., Premios internacionales del cine mexicano 1938-2008 (México: Cineteca Nacional, 2009). Julia Tuñón, “Ritos y ritmos urbanos en el cine de Emilio Fernández,” Cahiers d’ etudes romanes 1, no. 19 (2008): 197-207. Carl J. Mora, Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1986-2004, 3rd ed. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2005). Andrea Noble, Mexican National Cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 2005). Susan Dever, Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas: From Post-Revolutionary Mexico to fin de siglo Mexamérica (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003). Emilio García Riera, Breve Historia del Cine Mexicano: primer siglo, 1897-1997 (Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 1998). 2 See for example, Sergio de la Mora, “Pedro Infante Unveiled: Masculinities in the Mexican ‘Buddy Movie’,” in Cinemachismo, 68-104 (Texas: University of Texas Press, 2006). Marina Díaz López, “La comedia ranchera como género musical,” Cinémas de Amérique Latine 1, no. 8, (2000): 27-40. Leopoldo Gaytán Apaez, “El mambo de Pérez Prado y el cine mexicano (1948-1953)” (Bachelor diss. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1996). Paco Ignacio Taibo I, La música de Agustín Lara en el cine (México: Filmoteca UNAM, 1984).

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Fernández made a great many films that took different approaches to the idea of ‘national style.’

And in all these films the music played a significant role in the representation of the idea of

Mexican national identity.

In making his films Fernández, worked principally with two composers, both of whom wrote their music under his directorial guidance: Francisco Dominguez (1897-1975) and Antonio

Diaz Conde (1914-1976). In addition to a contextualizing discussion of Mexican film of the

Golden Age, this study focuses upon case studies of three of Fernández's most important films from the 1940s, the period of his greatest focus upon purely nationalistic issues. The role of music in these films is discussed in detail to the purpose of showing the variety of ways in which music constituted a central component in the portrayal of national identity in Mexican cinema during this important period in its history.

v

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Kenneth DeLong, whose support, guidance and advice have been crucial for the completion of this thesis. To my exam committee members Drs. Laurie Radford, Charles Tepperman and Joelle Welling, for their engagement in my work and invaluable feedback. I would like to thank the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Communications for their commitment to interdisciplinary studies and their willingness to take me into their courses. To all the members of the School of the Creative and Performing Arts for their continuous help throughout my graduate career.

My greatest gratitude is to my family, especially to my mother Marcela, who encouraged me to pursue this dream, despite the challenges to her personal health. To my father and brothers,

José, Fernando and Eduardo, who have been supportive in their own funny and creative way. To my beloved wife Diana, who followed me in this adventure despite the uncertainties of distance and travel, and whose laughter makes every aspect of my life brighter.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the people in Mexico City that directly or indirectly supported my research. Particularly, Drs. Atzin Julieta Pérez Monroy, María de los

Ángeles Chapa Bezanilla, and Esther Escobar Blanco; M.M. Carlos Iván Lingan Pérez and Mr.

Antonio Diaz Rendón. Finally, to the staff members of the Cineteca Nacional, the Hemeroteca

Nacional and all the libraries of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

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Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….………….....ii Preface……………………………………………………………………………….….……….iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….…….….……v Table of Contents………………….………………………………………...………..….……...vi List of figures………………………………………………………………………...………….viii List of musical examples……………………………………………………………..………….ix

Chapter 1. The Mexican Cinema (1930-1955): An introduction….……..…...….…..……1 1.1. Music during the Mexican Cinema Golden Age………….……...... ………5

Chapter 2. Emilio Fernández and Mexican ‘National Cinema’: Contexts and Perspectives………………………………..………………………………….…….………...... 9 2.1. Emilio Fernández and the music………………………………….…….…...…...…15 2.1.1. Francisco Domínguez…………………………………….…………...... 21 2.1.2. Antonio Diaz Conde…………………………………….…….…...... 24 2.2. Music in the Films of Emilio Fernández: Three Case Studies …..…….…...... …28

Chapter 3. Flor Silvestre (1943): Sounds from the Mexican Revolution ……….……...... 29

Chapter 4. María Candelaria (1944): The Musical Representation of Indigenous People…………………………………………………………………….……………….…..…60 4.1. Indigenismo: A necessary parenthesis ………………………..….…...... 60 4.2. María Candelaria (1943) …………………………….……...... 70

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Chapter 5. Salón México (1948): The musical life of urban centers …...... ……..…...….94

Final remarks…………………...……………………………………………………………..120

Bibliography…………………...……………………………………………...……...………..125

Filmography…………………………………..………………………………….……………131

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………...……..132

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List of figures

Figure 3.1: Lyrics of El herradero…………………………………….…………………………33 Figure 3.2: Lyrics of Flor Silvestre………………………………………………………………39 Figure 3.3: Basic son rhythm……………………………………………..……………………...42 Figure 3.4: Lyrics of El hijo desobediente……………………………………………….………48 Figure 3.5: Lyrics of La Valentina……………………………………………………………….54 Figure 3.6: Lyrics of La Adelita……………………………………………………...…………..57 Figure 4.1: Diagram included in the introduction of the program notes for the concerts arranged by Carlos Chávez in the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 1940…………………..…….63 Figure 4.2: Pictures included in Francisco Dominguez’s report on the composer’s fieldwork in the State of Sonora, Mexico (1933)……………………………...………………………………83 Figure 4.3: María Candelaria. Main variant of María Candelaria’s leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack by Jacqueline Avila)…………………………..…………………………………90 Figure 5.1: Basic cinquillo rhythm…………..…………………………………………………..99 Figure 5.2: Basic montuno rhythm………………………..………………………………..……99 Figure 5.3: Lyrics of Por un amor……………………………………………………………...114 Figure 5.5: Lyrics of Las posadas (letanías)………………...…………………………………116

ix

List of musical examples

Example 3.1: El herradero………………………………………..…………………………….34 Example 3.2: Flor Silvestre…………………………………….………………………………..40 Example 3.3: El hijo desobediente………………………….…...………………………………49 Example 3.4: La Valentina……………………………………………...……………………….55 Example 3.5: La Adelita…………………………………………………………………………58 Example 4.1: Juventino Rosas, Sobre las olas, mm. 1-32…………………...…………………..67 Example 4.2: Anonimous, Olas que el viento arrastra, mm. 1-32………………………………68 Example 4.3: María Candelaria. Indians leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack)…….….76 Example 4.4: María Candelaria. Music of the “pre-Hispanic figures” scene (transcription from the soundtrack)…………………………………………………………………………..……….77 Example 4.5: María Candelaria. Love leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack)……….….78 Example 4.6: María Candelaria. María’s canoe stroll (Introduction) (transcription from the soundtrack)………………………………………………………………………...……………..85 Example 4.7: María Candelaria. María´s canoe stroll (waltz section) (transcription from the soundtrack)……………………………………………………………………………………….86 Example 4.8: María Candelaria. María’s canoe stroll (Love leitmotif) (transcription from the soundtrack)……………………………………………………………………………………….88 Example 4.9: María Candelaria. Painter leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack)…...……91 Example 5.1: Nereidas (mm. 1-9): Mercedes leitmotif………………………………………...100 Example 5.2: Juarez no debió morir (vocal section): Lupe’s leitmotif………...………………101 Example 5.3: Salón México. Beatriz leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack)……..……..105 Example 5.4: Toque de bandera…………………………………………………….………….112 Example 5.5: Por un amor: Lupe’s love leitmotif……………………...………………………114 Example 5.6: Las posadas……………………………………………..……………………….118 Example 5.7: Las posadas (Entren santos peregrinos)………………………………………...118

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Chapter 1

The Mexican Cinema (1930-1955): An Introduction

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1921) was a response to the authoritarian government of Porfirio

Díaz (1830-1915), whose lengthy rule (from 1876 to 1910) largely advantaged the economic situation of foreign investors and (from the point of view of the revolution) did so to the detriment of the Mexican people. During the three decades following this conflict, Mexico underwent a period of intense nationalism.1 The goal of the first post-revolutionary governments was to create a more stable, prosperous, and equitable society with a relatively homogeneous population, managed by a strong central government that could lead Mexico into the modern world. The presidency of Lazaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) represents the crystallization of these socialist-informed ideals. His agrarian reform guaranteed plots of land for the poor and a protectionist impetus led to the expropriation of the petroleum and railway industries, which had been under the control of foreign companies during the pre-revolutionary regime.2 In this context, Mexican artists and intellectuals looked for the redefinition of the Mexican national identity. In general, these artists rejected pre-revolutionary Europhilic notions, which privileged wealthy Mexicans of mostly Spanish descent at the expense of the lower classes, many of whom were indigenous people. The state took advantage of this impetus and promoted the arts to legitimize itself, to consolidate its institutions, and to maintain social control by providing a sense of collective identity, unity, and pride.

1 Anne T.Doremus, Culture, Politics and National Identity in Mexican Literature and Film 1929-1952 (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2001,) 1. 2 Lázaro Cárdenas, Ideario político. Selección y presentación de Daniel Durán (México: Ediciones Era, 1972), 11.

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This was accomplished by glorifying the common people (usually seen as ‘rural’) as the

‘true’ Mexicans. Although the muralist movement of the 1920s is the most well-known expression of these efforts, every artistic expression responded to the search for national identity, including cinema, which began to take a leading place by the second half of the1930s.3 Although the two regimes following the Cardenas presidency substantially shifted away from a socialist regime to a capitalistic model of economic development, the governments of Miguel Alemán

(1940-1946) and Manuel Ávila Camacho (1946-1952) recognized cinema’s potential as an instrument of social influence and continued to subsidize the Mexican film industry.4 This, along with Hollywood’s incapacity to retain Spanish-speaking audiences after the establishment of the sound in film, plus the technical and financial support Mexico received as a product of the Good

Neighbor Policy, implemented by the U.S. government during the World War II (1939-1945), allowed Mexico to emerge as the leading Spanish-language film producer in the world.5 More specifically, the quality and number of movies released, as well as the international success that some of them achieved during the period between 1936 and 1956 has led many scholars to consider these two decades as the Mexican Golden Age of cinema.6

The prosperity of the Mexican film industry during this period attracted actors, film makers, and technicians from different countries, not only from South America and the Caribbean, but

3 Mexican muralism, consisting of the cultivation of mural paintings of folkloric character reached its apex in the paintings of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueros— internationally known as “the big three.” 4 Charles Ramírez Berg, Cinema of Solitude: A Critical Study of Mexican Film, 1967-1983 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992), 6. 5 Charles Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), 102-103. 6 See for example: Charles Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), Maricruz Castro-Ricalde, “El cine de la época de oro y su impacto internacional,” La Colmena 82, no. 2 (2014), Robert McKee Irwin and Maricruz Castro Ricalde, Global Mexican Cinema: Its Golden Age ‘el cine mexicano se impone’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

3 also Europe. Technicians, writers, actors, musicians, and costume people from Colombia, Costa

Rica, Puerto Rico, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, England, France, Germany and the United

States all participated in the development of the Mexican Cinema. Some countries, like Cuba,

Venezuela, and Spain shared film projects with Mexico due to the lack of a developed film industry in their own nations.7 In addition, Latin American audiences saw in Mexico a film industry that was similar to Hollywood but closer to their sensibility. Mexico had its own fancy- dressed stars, living a luxurious lifestyle, and parading on the red carpet of the Arieles Awards

Ceremony (imitating the Oscars). Even more, the musical traditions that shaped the Mexican film industry reached different Latin American countries. Ecuadorians, Nicaraguans,

Colombians, Argentines and Dominicans admired charros,8 boleros singers9 and rumba dancers10 who performed their numbers in the movies.11

A measure of the international success Mexican film enjoyed during this period can be found in the resistance that this success engendered in some surrounding Spanish-speaking neighbors.

7 Maricruz Castro-Ricalde, “El cine de la época de oro y su impacto internacional,” La Colmena 82, no. 2 (2014): 11. 8 A charro is a traditional horseman from Mexico, originating in the central-western regions of the country. Charro outfits can be worn by men or women and have various levels of formality from work- wear to very expensive formal attire. The outfits consist of tight, decorated pants or a long skirt, short jackets, silk ties, and a very distinctively wide-brimmed hat. The style of clothing is often associated with mariachi and ranchera music performers. 9 Despite the name, the Spanish bolero has nothing to do with the Latin-American bolero. The latter was created in Cuba by the end of the nineteenth century and adopted by several Latin-American countries during the twentieth century. The bolero is a languid type of popular song in 4/4 meter, whose lyrics usually treat themes of unrequited loves, betrayals, and sad farewells. Boleros are commonly accompanied with guitars, maracas, and bongos. The greatest Mexican composer of boleros was Agustín Lara, whose music was well known in Latin-America, thanks to the radio and the movies in which his melodies were included as part of the soundtrack. 10 The rumba is a musical genre that originated in Cuba during the nineteenth century. Of African roots, Cuban rumba is considered the mother of several Latin-American rhythms. Rumbas are danced as a couple or alone, and the dancers reproduce the rhythmic patterns of the percussion instruments with their hips and pelvis. Rumba numbers were common in Mexican cabaret films from the 1940s, and Cuban performers such as Ninón Sevilla and María Antonieta Pons became famous through their participation in Mexican films. 11 Castro-Ricalde, “El cine de la época de oro y su impacto internacional,” 12.

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In early 1942 an anonymous Colombian critic noted that Mexico “had imposed and popularized its music, its dress, its customs, its monuments, and natural wonders on Colombian audiences;” 12 and the press in Argentina complained about the success Mexican movies had there: “Mexico, which has become the new Mecca of Castilian-speaking cinema, continues to attract our figures as their films achieve more success each day among us.”13

While Latin American industries struggled to keep their heads above water, Mexican movies continued to succeed in international stages. Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936) won the Best

Photography Award in the Venetian International Film Festival of 1938; María Candelaria

(1943) received in 1946 the Golden Palm and the Best Photography Award in Cannes.

Pueblerina (1948) won the Best Music Award at the same festival in 1951. That same year, Los olvidados by Luis Buñuel (1951) received the Best Director Award, and two years later La red

(1953) by Emilio Fernández was given the Grand International Award for the best visual narration.14

But good fortune rarely lasts, and the reasons that raised Mexican cinema to the top of the

Spanish-language film production were the same that took it down. As soon as World War II ended, Hollywood stopped its financial and technical support of the Mexican film industry. In addition, Spain and Argentina began releasing films into the market that Mexico had dominated for over a decade. When Mexican film producers realized that their industry was not as profitable as it was before, they opted for shooting more movies in an attempt to compete with their now

12 Anonymous, El tiempo, December 12, 1942, 5, quoted in Robert McKee Irwin and Maricruz Castro Ricalde, Global Mexican Cinema: Its Golden Age ‘el cine mexicano se impone’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 85. 13 Castro-Ricalde, “El cine mexicano de la edad de oro y su impacto internacional,” 11. 14 Débora Iturbe, “Las 18 películas mexicanas ganadoras en Cannes,” Tuxtlanautas Radio, entry posted August 2017, http://tuxtlanautas.com/articles/las-18-peliculas-mexicanas-ganadoras-cannes/ (accessed April 14, 2018).

5 reborn competitors. This strategy was mainly impelled by the American film magnate William

Jenkins, who, in association with some Mexican film entrepreneurs, controlled eighty percent of

Mexico’s film production. Jenkins and his associates now dominated the Mexican film industry, controlling the financing, and focusing upon only a few directors to produce a virtual monopoly of the film industry in Mexico.15 Jenkins and his monopoly were able to keep the Mexican film industry alive for approximately a decade, reaching its peak in 1954 with the production of 118 feature films.16 Despite this apparent success, Mexican audiences gradually began to attend more

Hollywood films. Moreover, Mexican television began to make inroads into the film industry beginning in the 1950s, gradually surpassing cinema as the main audio-visual entertainment medium among Mexican middle-class audiences.17

1.1. Music during the Mexican Cinema Golden Age

Broadly speaking, the Mexican film industry followed the musical practices characteristic of classical Hollywood films of the era. Following Hollywood models, most Mexican productions used orchestral ensembles to play romantic-inflected melodies, whose intention was to underline what is visually expressed onscreen, sometimes by means of leitmotifs associated with different characters, or through the inclusion of under-score (non-diegetic) music to reinforce dramatic situations.18 In this respect, although there is little detailed information about the manner of the creation of sound tracks to Mexican films of this period, evidence suggests that

15 Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro, “Origins, Development and Crisis of the Sound Cinema (1929-64),” in Mexican Cinema, edited by Paulo Antonio Paranaguá (London: British Film Institute in association with Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía), 91. 16 Ibid., 90. 17 Enrique E. Sánchez Ruiz, “Hacia una cronología de la televisión mexicana,” Comunicación y sociedad 1, no. 10, (1991): 240. 18 Breixo Viejo, “La libertad de la imaginación: música y sonido en el cine de Luis Buñuel,” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 93, no. 4 (2016): 646.

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Mexican composers, like their Hollywood counterparts, followed the principles pointed out by

Claudia Gorbmann as distinctive of the classical Hollywood scores. As part of her discussion on the principle of “inaudibility,” Gorbmann notes that the spectator normally does not concentrate upon the music, because most people go to the cinema for a story, not for a concert.19 Antonio

Diaz Conde, one of the most prolific composers from the Mexican Golden Age, used almost the same words to describe movie goers, notating that they do not listen to the music unless it is so loud as to rouse their notice; more than music, they expect to see an image, a good story.20 He also seems to follow Gorbmann’s Narrative Cueing principle, when he points out the importance of using music appropriate to the scene. 21 In this sense, the composer assures that “background music is a descriptive kind of music… [It] describes landscapes, suspense, drama or action.”22

For him, music must always follow the film’s narrative and commented that it would be illogical to write fanfares for a love scene or ‘serious music’ for a funny sequence.23 Regarding this, Diaz

Conde seems to have shared Max Steiner’s point of view. In an interview with the scholar Myrl

A. Schreibman, Max Steiner declared that the music must always follow the actions on screen.

For Steiner, a good movie score would not play ‘fight music’ in a love scene or ‘love music’ in a scramble.24 In addition, Antonio Diaz was critical of those who defined film music as only background music; instead he preferred the term “musical frame.”25 Olga Picún sees in this conception Diaz Conde’s intention of writing music that not only strives as sound to underlie the

19 Claudia Gorbmann, Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Indianapolis: Indiana, University Press, 1987), 76. 20 Eugenia Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” Cuadernos de la Cineteca Nacional vol. 3, no. 1 (1975): 90. 21 In her discussion of this principle, Gorbmann states that music in classical Hollywood scores usually reinforces what is already signified by the film's narrative. Gorbmann, Unheard Melodies, 84. 22 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 87. 23 Idem. 24 Myrl A. Schreibman and Max Steiner, “On Gone with the Wind, Selznick, and the Art of “Mickey Mousing”: An Interview with Max Steiner,” Journal of Film and Video 56, no. 1 (2004): 43. 25 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 86.

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images, but also helps to build the structure of the whole dramatic scene.26 This notion of film music as a cohesive element fits Gorbmann’s principle of ‘unity,’ which stresses that the repetition and variation of certain musical themes contributes to the organization of the film’s narrative.27

Despite these general similarities and approaches to music in film found in the Hollywood and the Mexican film industries, the Mexican context influenced the way orchestral music was incorporated to the movies during the Mexican Golden Age of cinema. The use of opening music to announce film’s genre, mood or setting, and the use of music to recapitulate or to reinforce the narrative closure, was common to both traditions. But, the notion of orchestral music to underline almost every action on screen was not the normal practice of the Mexican Film industry. One reason for this was the low budget for individual productions. Antonio Diaz Conde notes that sometimes the lack of resources permitted only five hours for recording the music for an entire film and, although the composer typically asked for a forty-two member orchestra, he usually got the minimum of thirty-two performers.28 For his part, Manuel Esperón (1911-2011), a composer who had contracts in Hollywood as well as in Mexico, noted that during the time he worked for Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney, he was amazed to see symphonic orchestras formed of over ninety musicians working with high recording precision.29 Following the remarks of Diaz Conde and Esperón, it is possible to assume that the restrictions in the number of members in the symphonic ensembles along with the

26 Olga Picún, “La resistencia desde el exilio: Pepita Jiménez en México,” in Huellas y rostros: Exilios y migraciones en la construcción de la memoria musical de Latinoamérica, edited by Consuelo Carredano and Olga Picún (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2017), 168. 27 Gorbmann, Unheard Melodies, 90. 28 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 89. 29 Eugenia Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” Cuadernos de la Cineteca Nacional 4, no. 1 (1975): 96-97.

8 reduced time for recording influenced not only the quality of the recordings but also the length of a film’s cue. In addition, the overwhelming presence of songs in Mexican films did not always allow for symphonic music to lead the soundtrack. In fact, songs played such an important role in

Mexican Cinema that in many cases, movies were shot following the ‘narrative’ of songs already famous in the radio,30 and the title of the movies often matched the one of the songs.31 Although this was not an impediment for Mexican musicians to imprint their own musical style to the scores they wrote for the films, in many cases orchestral music only ‘embellished’ the principal songs of the movie or built on the songs’ melodic turns, like a theme with variations.32

30 Paco Ignacio Taibo I, La música de Agustín Lara en el cine, (Filmoteca UNAM, 1984): 18-19, quoted in Juan Luis Monroy Bedolla, “El cabaret y la música de Agustín Lara a través del cine sonoro mexicano: Un ensayo cinematográfico” (Bachelor diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004), 30. 31 Yolanda Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana (México: Alianza Editorial Mexicana, 1989), 82. 32 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 88.

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Chapter 2

Emilio Fernández and Mexican ‘National Cinema’: Contexts and Perspectives

Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936) by Fernando de Fuentes inaugurated the Golden Age of

Mexican cinema, winning the prize for best photography in the Venice Film Festival of 1938.1

This film also inaugurated the Comedia ranchera genre, whose narrative genre revolves around the adventures of the amusing, womanizer charros, who sing at every opportunity at the town’s party or below his beloved’s window.2 However, despite being set in an idealized Mexican environment, in which charros dress in their traditional costumes, these movies focused mainly on comedy and romantic intrigue, and did not explore national character in much depth.3 Parallel to these narratives emerged a kind of cinema that Charles Ramirez Berg has identified as the

Classical Mexican Cinema as distinct from Mainstream Mexican Cinema. The former sought to move away from those genres that, like the Comedia ranchera, adopted the Hollywood-style despite some Mexican flavor.4 Juan Bustillo Oro, Julio Bracho and Luis Buñuel are some

Mexican directors that experimented with alternative narratives that moved between surrealist, expressionist, and subversive aesthetics. Emilio Fernández also attacked the Mainstream

Mexican Cinema; he considered it hardly Mexican,5 and strived to create films that were, in his own words, “Mexican, pure […] to mexicanise the Mexicans, for we are becoming

Americanised.”6

1 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 64. 2 Yolanda Moreno Rivas, Historia ilustrada de la música popular mexicana (México: Promexa, 1979), 9. 3 Doremus, Culture, Politics and National Identity, 122. 4 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 7. 5 Ibid., 10. 6 Julia Tuñón, “Emilio Fernandez: A look Behind the Bars,” in Mexican Cinema, edited by Paulo Antonio Paranaguá (London: British Film Institute, 1995), 184.

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The reasons for Fernández’s strong interest in portraying national issues in his movies may be found in the details of his life. Emilio Fernández Romo was born in the Northern

Mexican state of Coahuila on March 26, 1904.7 His father, Emilio Fernandez Garza, was a military man and his mother, Sara Romo, was a kickapú Indian; therefore the nickname ‘El indio,’ which he proudly kept throughout his life.8 The details of his early life are sketchy and sometimes unreliable since Fernández had the tendency to overstate some aspects of his biography.9 According to the director himself, in 1910 his father joined the Mexican Revolution, and from that moment on the young Emilio traveled around Mexico following the armed groups.

In 1923 he was captured by the Mexican government and sent to prison. Somehow, he escaped to the United States, and by the mid-1920s he was working as an extra in Hollywood films. It was in Hollywood where he secretly watched fragments of the movie ¡Que viva México! by Sergei

Eisenstein,10 a Soviet director who worked in Mexico during the late 1930s and who traveled throughout the country, paying close attention to the land, the people, and post-revolutionary culture.11 Fernández never denied Eisenstein’s influence in his work and used to say: “when I saw the screen [¡Que viva Mexico!] I said to myself: yes, this is Mexico, of course, this is the kind of cinema that Mexico must do.”12

But it was Adolfo de la Huerta, another Mexican who was also working in Hollywood, who finally convinced Fernández to use cinema as an ideological weapon to change the negative social situation prevailing in Mexico. After paying Fernández’s bail for illegally carrying

7 Emilio García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986 (México: Universidad de Guadalajara, 1987), 12. 8 Matthew JK Hill, “The Indigenismo of Emilio “El Indio” Fernández: Myth, mestizaje and modern Mexico” (Master diss., Brigham Young University, 2009), 3. 9 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 12. 10 Paco Ignacio Taibo I, El Indio Fernández (México: Editorial Planeta, 1991), 55. 11 Doremus, Culture, politics and national identity, 73. 12 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 15.

11 weapons that supposedly were to be used to restart the Mexican revolution, De la Huerta said to

Fernández: “You are in the Mecca of cinema and movies are stronger than a horse, stronger than a 30-30, than a Mauser, than a cannon or airplane. Learn cinema, then go to Mexico and make

Mexican movies like the one you just saw.”13

Fernández returned to Mexico in 1934 and immediately began working as an actor in the growing Mexican Film Industry. Although he participated in several movies, scholars such as

Emilio Garcia Riera14 and Paco Ignacio Taibo15 agree that Janitzio (1934), a movie in which

Fernández played the role of the Indian Zirahuén, that was decisive in consolidating what would become Emilio Fernández’s approach to ‘national’ cinema—one that portrays the tragedy of the indigenous people or Mexican peasants.

Following his notion of nationalism, Fernández usually set his movies in the historical context of the Mexican Revolution or an idealized image of the times before the conflict—for example, in the rural areas where Mexican Indians lived. Less common were films set in the urban suburbs of the Mexican big cities. In all cases, his characters stood as representatives of

Mexican people and their customs. Unlike Comedias rancheras, Fernández followed

Hollywood’s production models in order to create films that denounced racist and class-based issues. Ironically, Fernández’s socialist discourse was aligned with the ideals of the earlier regime (1934-1940), rather than the capitalist-oriented policies of Miguel Alemán (1940-1946) and Manuel Ávila Camacho (1949-1952). However, since socialism was no longer a threat, the

13 Idem. 14 Ibid., 19. 15 Taibo I, El Indio Fernández, 56.

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Mexican government supported Fernandez’s films because they encouraged national identity through their presentation of revolutionary ideals as symbols of the Mexican culture.16

Emilio Fernández shot forty-one movies between 1941 and 1978; virtually all of his films portray an idealized notion of the Mexican culture.17 His focus upon issues of national identity was so consistent that Julia Tuñón considers him “the only director from the Mexican Golden

Age that may be considered an auteur.”18 Some of his detractors have pointed out that his films became so repetitive that in some movies was as if he plagiarized himself.19 In this respect, scholars such as Julia Tuñón, Carlos Monsivais,20 Emilio García Riera21 and Charles Ramirez

Berg22 agree that Fernández cinema reached its highest point of development between 1943 and

1950, and it was within this period that the director shot the movies that best represent his nationalistic style.

Fernández’s best cinema is distinctive and easily recognizable, thanks to the team he formed with Gabriel Figueroa (photographer), whose portraits of Mexican landscape earned him several awards around the world, as well as Mauricio Magdaleno (scriptwriter), whose scripts shaped Fernandez’s nationalist sentiments.23 Gabriel Figueroa and Mauricio Magdaleno were crucial for Emilio Fernández’s cinema, to such an extent that the gradual dissolution of this team

16 Doremus, Culture, Politics and National Identity, 126. 17 Julia Tuñón, Los rostros de un mito: Personajes femeninos en las películas de Emilio Indio Fernández (México: Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, 2000), 13. 18 Idem. 19 Adela Fernández, El Indio Fernández: vida y mito (México: Panorama Editorial, 1986), 230. 20 Carlos Monsiváis, “Emilio, El indio,” Intermedios, no. 1 (México: RTC Secretaría de Gobernación, 1992), 38, quoted in Tuñón, Los rostros del mito, 24. 21 García Riera, Emilio Fernandez 1904-1986, 11. 22 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 91. 23 See for example, Charles Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), Emilio García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986 (México: Universidad de Guadalajara, 1987) and Julia Tuñón, Los rostros de un mito: Personajes femeninos en las películas de Emilio Indio Fernández (México: Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, 2000).

13 led to the decay in the quality of the director’s movies.24 The reason for this ‘dependence’ was explained by Emilio Fernández’s own team in different interviews. Magdaleno and Figueroa were central to Fernández's work, for although Fernández had an outstanding creative strength and knew virtually everything about cinema, he was not a literary man, nor did he posses technical experience as with a camera.25 That is why the best of Fernández’s movies are those in which the director trusted to his collaborators the details of his productions. In these cases, the director came up with a sketchy story and Mauricio Magdaleno developed it further, filled in gaps, and introduced revisions to provide coherence to the narrative. Gabriel Figueroa received general instructions about shots and framings, but he was allowed to do with the camera whatever he wanted.26 This system proved to be very effective at first, but personal and professional issues developed such that, by the 1950s, Fernández began to act so arrogantly that the scriptwriter and especially the photographer began to purposely avoid working with him.27

Mexican landscape served as a dramatic element in Fernández's films and as a symbol of

Mexicanness, regardless of the plot or historical period in which a given movie was set. In this regard, Gabriel Figueroa played such an important role in the visual aesthetic of Fernández’s movies that Paco Ignacio Taibo comments that “when this pair worked apart, Fernández’ films seem to have lost not only a great photographer with a huge personality but also a significant part of the director himself.”28 Fernández and Figueroa both were thoroughly familiar with Sergei

24 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 128. 25 Ibid., 99-102. 26 Idem. 27 When the Mexican film industry decided to produce more films to recover the audiences it was losing, directors had to work with reduced budgets and less time for shooting. This affected Fernández who was accused to work too slowly. Besides, the director was known to have an explosive temper. This behavior got worse under pressure and Emilio Fernández started to have troubles with other members of the cinematographic environment. In response, the groups controlling the Mexican film industry gradually isolated the director. Ibid., 129-132. 28 Taibo I, El Indio Fernández, 86.

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Eisenstein’s work and Fernandez always considered the Russian director one of his teachers in cinematography.29 According to Carl Mora, Fernández and Figueroa adopted techniques developed by the Soviet director such as, “low-angle long shots in silhouette that emphasize the stark landscape and sky and the smallness of the human figures before them; the close-ups of

Indian faces and shrouded women; and the ‘dead tree framing’ in which long shots are composed between the gnarled branches of a dried-up tree.”30 These techniques became representative of

Fernández’s style in which, the preference for wide-shots showing skies full of huge clouds to infuse a dramatic atmosphere to the landscape. In Fernández’s cinema, images often seem to be more important than the dialogue, and their visual rhythm may be so slow that sometimes its conception is closer to the photography than conventional film. Fernández avoids medium shots, so the characters are often small pieces inserted in the landscape and an off-voice informs the audience what they are talking about. Frequent close-up shots tend to emphasize the dialogue, but the sequences tend to be separate and not thoroughly integrated into the larger narrative.31

Many of Fernández’s important films had scripts written by Mauricio Madgaleno, often consisting of polished, elaborated versions of ideas initially generated by Fernández himself. For

Garcia Riera, it was Magdaleno who polished the clumsiness and dramatic simplicity that characterized the plot lines of the movies Fernández filmed before 1943; to a considerable extent, it was Magdaleno who made the scripts logical, balanced, and dramatically credible. 32

Gabriel Figueroa described Magdaleno as one of the few writers capable of building a perfect joining of the script and the images. Emilio Fernández nicknamed him “the man of the iron

29 Garcia Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 15. 30 Carl Mora, Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a society: 1896-1988 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982), 79-80. 31 Tuñón, Los rostros del mito, 33. 32 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 36.

15 dialogues,”33 maybe because with his treatment of dialogue Magdaleno helped Fernández to convey the moral and educational messages that are central to the director’s filmography.34 Good dialogue was central to Fernández, even though he preferred simple phrases, leaving the visual images to truly tell the story. Despite this, there were also times for long, rhetorical speeches as well.35

2.1. Emilio Fernández and the music

According to the film composer Antonio Diaz Conde, during the Mexican Golden Age the use of music in movies depended in the first place on the director, then the sound engineer, then the composer.36 In this respect, Emilio Fernández was outstanding for being a director whose movies constantly present musical numbers and background music. This contrasts the work of other directors from the same period. For example, Diaz Conde used to complain about

Luis Buñuel’s films because, “they simply do not have music… maybe a trumpet, a guitar, a fanfare every now and then but nothing else.”37 This testimony is reinforced by Breixo Viejo who commented that many critics and spectators have noted that Buñuel did not seem to like music in his movies.38 One could argue that Buñuel’s is an exceptional case, but some of the most representative films from the Mexican Golden Age such as, Campeón sin corona (1946) by

33 “Mauricio Magdaleno, un puente perfecto entre el guión y las imágenes,” La Jornada Aguascalientes, May 13, 2016. http://www.lja.mx/2016/05/mauricio-magdaleno-un-puente-perfecto-entre-el-guion-y-las- imagenes/ (accessed June 26, 2018). 34 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 42. 35 Julia Tuñón, “Una escuela en celuloide. El ‘Indio’ Fernández o la obsesión por la educación,” Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia XLVIII, no. 2 (1998): 439. 36 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano”, vol. 3, 90. 37 Ibid., 92. 38 Viejo, “La libertad de la imaginación: música y sonido en el cine de Luis Buñuel,” 639.

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Alejandro Galindo or Cuando los hijos se van (1941) by Juan Bustillo Oro only include opening and closing music, plus a distinctive song that somehow relates to the film.39

Fernández’s interest in music was substantial: he even owned a Steinway grand piano on which his daughter was ‘obliged’ to play every time the director had guests,40 and “one of his

[Fernández’s] biggest frustrations was being a detuned singer and never being able to play guitar.”41 It is maybe for this reason that he established very close relationships with the musicians that would play in his movies. He used to organize big parties in which he ‘kidnaped’ his favourite musicians for days. Although these long stays resulted in lost job opportunities, composers and performers strived to attend those parties because they could gain the opportunity to participate in any of Fernández’s movies.42 Antonio Bibriesca was one of the composers who stayed in the director’s house for long periods of time, just because ‘El Indio’ did not let him go.43 It could have been thanks to those long meetings that Bibriesca was chosen to play the background solo guitar that underlines some scenes of Flor Silvestre in 1943. Beginning with

Flor Silvestre, the guitar became so common in Fernandez filmography that Garcia Riera has considered Bibriesca’s solos a mark of Fernández’s style.44 Some other musicians that frequently visited Fernández’s house and participated in his movies were the Mariachi Vargas 45 which

39 See minute 00:29:10 “Campeón sin corona,” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTDd1Wk4cs (accesed April 14, 2018). And minute 01:35:22 “Cuando los hijos se van,” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pelioro/videos/606056306267716/ (accesed April 14, 2018). 40 Fernández, El Indio Fernández: Vida y mito, 63 and 74. 41 Ibid., 30. 42 Ibid., 142. 43 Ibid., 144. 44 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 45. 45 Fernández, El Indio Fernández: Vida y mito, 142.

17 played in Las abandonadas (1944),46 and Andrés Huesca y sus costeños,47 and who performed the musical numbers for La Perla (1945).48

It is evident that Fernández used Mexican radio stations as his main source for the musicians he employed. The Mariachi Vargas used to play in the XEW, accompanying Lucha

Reyes, who also participated in several of Fernández’s movies;49 and the Huesca brothers continuously broadcasted on Mexican radio during the 1940s.50 The way in which Fernández contacted the musicians he invited to his house was not very complicated. For example, when he listened to the mariachi singer Amalia Mendoza ‘La Tariácuri’, he simply called to the radio station to invite her to his house; after that she obtained a role in the movie Cita de amor

(1958).51 Something similar seems to have happened with other musical groups such as the Trio

Calaveras, which had a prominent place on Mexican radio and also regularly participated in

Fernández’s productions.52

Fernández tended to build a close relationship with his film composers. Even though he worked with several different composers during his career, Fernández openly mentioned

Francisco Dominguez and Antonio Diaz Conde as his favourite film composers.53 Unfortunately, there is hardly any information about the relationship between Emilio Fernández and Francisco

Dominguez. However, it is possible to know, in an oblique way, roughly how Fernández worked with Antonio Díaz Conde and other musicians.

46 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 316. 47 Fernández, El Indio Fernández: Vida y mito, 145. 48 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 317. 49 Antonia García Orozco, “Lucha Reyes la reina del estilo bravío,” Estudios sobre las culturas contemporáneas, vol. XIX, (2013): 141. 50 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 188. 51 Fernández, El Indio Fernández: Vida y mito, 144. 52 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 42. 53 Lucy Virgen, “Emilio Fernández,” El informador, December 15, 1996.

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In 1979 ‘El indio’ described Antonio Diaz Conde in the following words: “[he] was one of my strongest pillars. Without his music my movies would not have been what they are.”54 The director had such a preference for Diaz Conde’s work that, in an interview for the Esto magazine in 1949, Diaz Conde admitted that on several occasions Fernández “imposed”55 him into his team despite the difficulties this represented to the director.56 Thanks to Diaz Conde’s testimony, it is also possible to know that Fernández paid special attention to the musical underscoring in his movies and encouraged his composers to be fully engaged with the films for which they wrote the music. Antonio Diaz Conde notes that it was a common practice among film composers to run the films as soon as they were edited, and watch the movie several times with the director to share ideas of what should be done; after these meetings, composers began to write the score, following the agreed plan for musical support.57 Diaz Conde notes that although it was not really necessary, on the occasions in which he worked with Fernández, he accompanied him to sets and external locations to get a deeper sense of how a film was shot.58

For Diaz Conde, a good director would never tell the composer the kind of music he or she should write but, in his own words, would impart to the composer “some . . . kind of

54 Idem. 55 García Riera, Emilio Fernandez, 1904-1986, 144. 56 The origin of Fernandez’s troubles might have been the Sindicato de trabajadores de la Industria Cinematográfica, which in 1944 decided to limit the access to foreigner workers. Although this new politic forced most of the Spaniard refugees Mexico had welcomed after the Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939) to become legally Mexicans, apparently Antonio Diaz Conde never abandoned his Spanish citizenship. Jorge Chaumel Fernández, “Los profesionales cinematográficos republicanos exiliados en México en los años cuarenta y cincuenta” (Ph.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 2015), 99 and 103. Despite Chaumel’s information, it seems that by 1957 Diaz Conde’s citizenship was not clear even for the Enciclopedia Cinematográfica Mexicana. In this document Antonio Diaz Conde’s name was included in the section dedicated to the composers as well as in that devoted to those musicians working in the orchestras belonging to the Mexican film industry. While in the first section the document refers that he was from Spain, the second one indicates that his citizenship was Mexican. Ricardo Rangel and Rafael E. Portas eds., Enciclopedia Cinematográfica Mexicana 1897-1955 (México: Publicaciones Cinematográficas, 1957), 1172 and 1200. 57 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 87. 58 Idem.

19 sensibility.”59 That must have been the case with Fernández, since in an interview for the Cinema

Reporter Magazine Diaz Conde declared, “I would like to take this opportunity to express my particular gratefulness to the director Emilio Fernández because, since the moment I had contact with his extraordinary artistic personality, I even feel like my production is deeper and clearer.”60

In addition, anecdotal evidence confirms that Fernández was significantly involved with the music underscoring of his movies. Diaz Conde recalls that Fernández knew the effort the composer went to in writing the music for La Perla (1945), and he got really angry when the movie did not receive the Music Prize in Los Arieles ceremony in 1947.61 As compensation, the director created a personal prize that he handed to his friend in a public ceremony, along with the following note: “Antonio: Before the injustice committed by the Academy of Arts, etc. stripping you of an Ariel, accept my apology and my gratitude for your collaboration with this other trophy that is true and is better. Your friend, Emilio.”62

Certainly, the hiring of musicians for the movies was not unique to Fernández. However, it is clear that the director played an exceptionally active role in the selection of performers and composers. Although Fernández did not write any music himself, his ideas of nationalism influenced not only the plots and visual elements of his movies, but also the kind of music he chose to sonically represent the Mexican people. In this regard, anecdotal evidence confirms how important music was to the director’s sense of filmography. When the movie Rio Escondido

(1947) was exhibited in the Vatican, the organisers of the event decided to substitute the original

59 Idem. 60 Martín Borja, “La música del maestro Díaz Conde y su gratitud con el cine mexicano” Cinema Reporter, July 2, 1949, 11. 61 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 92. 62 Taibo I, El Indio Fernández, 119.

20 music for motets and baroque choruses. This really annoyed Emilio Fernández, who harshly commented, “those wretched singing angels have nothing to do in a Mexican drama.”63

In the case of popular (diegetic) music, Charles Ramirez Berg has already noted that

Fernández used musical numbers to stamp his movies as Mexican.64 However, it is still to be determined which are the musical genres the director chose to represent particular aspects of the

Mexican culture and how they interacted with visual and narrative elements of his films. Since

Fernández worked with different musical groups during his career, I will only deal with those groups that participated in the movies I selected for this study.

In the case of the orchestral (non-diegetic) music, Francisco Dominguez and Antonio

Diaz Conde are constantly mentioned as the composers that provided music for some of

Fernandez’s most important films. Carlos Monsivais considered them as part of the team that helped Fernandez to consolidate the nationalistic style that characterized his productions.65

However, the way in which the music of these composers portrayed the Mexican national identity has only been tangentially addressed. The existing literature on Mexican film has neglected the film music from this period, and it is therefore impossible to offer an exhaustive study of this music or how it came to be written. In the following section of this thesis, I will attempt to provide a glimpse into the life of Fernández’s leading composers in order to shed some light on the musical influences that might have determined the way they musically represented ‘Mexicaness’ in Fernández’s films.

63 Fernández, El Indio Fernández: Vida y mito, 218. 64 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 122. 65 Carlos Bonfil, ed., Las imprescindibles de Monsiváis (Mexico: Cineteca Nacional, 2010), 29.

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2.1.1. Francisco Dominguez

Francisco Dominguez was born in Mexico City in 1897.66 He studied violin and composition at the National Conservatory of Mexico. However, he dedicated a substantial part of his career to the collection of folk music from different regions of Mexico. For that reason, he belongs to the group of Mexican nationalistic composers from the early twentieth century and is considered one of the first Mexican ethnomusicologists.67

Dominguez’s interest in folk music can be traced to 1923 when the Ministry of Education hired him to study and catalogue vernacular music in the Mexican state of Michoacán. The finished product was a collection entitled Album de Michoacán, which includes melodies from that region transcribed for piano and voice. In the Preliminary Notes of this document,

Domínguez explains that his collection is homage to “the genius of the ignored mestizo and indigenous Tarascan composers”68 and clarifies that the melodies gathered correspond to the diverse areas of the state such as, the lake Patzcuaro, the highlands and the lowlands. Examples of Dominguez’s compositions are scarce, however it can be said that he incorporated his folkloric ideologies to his professional activities. In 1926 Dominguez joined Luis Quintanilla’s theatrical project El Teatro mexicano del murciélago (Mexican Theater of the Bat). This show included comic representations of contemporary Mexican figures as well as folk dances of the state of Michoacán. Thanks to his experience as collector in this area of the Mexican territory he was able to arrange music suitable for the show and take Michoacán old folkloric traditions such as La danza de los viejitos, La danza de los Moros and La Noche de los Muertos to Mexico City

66 Gabriel Pareyón, Diccionario Enciclopédico de Música en México (México: Universidad Panamericana vol. 1, 2006), 331. 67 I will return to this point in Chapter 4, in the section dedicated to the Indigenismo movement. 68 Francisco Domínguez, Álbum musical de Michoacán (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1925), Preliminary Notes.

22 for the first time.69 During the 1930s his works in stage productions lead him to get deeply involved in Mexico’s dance culture. He composed ballets with regional and folkloric themes for the Escuela Nacional de Danza (National School of Dance) and the Escuela de Plástica

Dinámica (School of Dynamic Plastic Arts). This allowed him to become director of the Escuela

Nacional de Danza in 1935 and to compose and to write arrangements for the performances of some of the most prestigious Mexican dancers before the 1940s such as, José Limón, Nelly and

Gloria Campobello, and Yol-Izma. In addition, he continued to publish essays and transcriptions of music from several regions across Mexico as part of his work for the Ministry of Education.70

It might have been Dominguez’s contributions for the Ministry of Education which lead him to initiate his career as film composer. Besides Michoacán, Dominguez participated in several of the ‘Cultural Missions’ sponsored by the government to preserve the Mexican cultural heritage as well as to collect folkloric music from different Mexican states.71 In 1931 he traveled to Chalma, a small town belonging to the Mexican state Estado de México; the priest Canuto

Flores, the ethnographer Othón de Mendizabal and the photographer Luis Marquez Romay joined Dominguez’s team to document Chalma’s annual festivities.72 In 1934 Luis Marquez

Romay worked as scriptwriter and photographer of the movie Janitzio (1934). It is likely that

Marquez, aware of Dominguez’s knowledge in folkloric music, recommended his work to the director Carlos Navarro. In this respect, Dominguez’s appointment as musical director seems

69 Emilio Casares Rodicio ed., Diccionario del cine iberoamericano: España, Portugal y América vol.3 (Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 2011), 320. 70 Jacqueline A. Avila, “Los Sonidos del cine: Cinematic Music in Mexican Film, 1930-1950” (Ph.D. diss., University of California Riverside, 2011), 112. 71 Dominguez’s ‘Cultural Missions’ of the 1930s include: Chalma, Estado de México (1931); México DF (1931); Jilotepec, Estado de México (1931); Tepoztlán, Morelos (1933); Huixquilucan, Estado de México (1933); Regiones de los Yaquis, Seris y Mayos, Sonora (1933); San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco (1934); Chiapas (1934); San Pedro Tlachichilco, Hidalgo (1934); Tepoztlán, Morelos (1937). Ibidem, 113. 72 Leonardo Huerta Mendoza, “Luis Marquez: Regreso triunfal a Nueva York,” El Universal, November 11, 2010. http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/64208.html

23 quite suitable since the film’s title (Janitzio) refers to an island in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán, in which Dominguez centered the fieldwork discussed before.

There is no information indicating how the relationship between Francisco Dominguez and Emilio Fernández began, but they must have been at least acquainted during the shooting of

Janitzio (1934), in which the director worked as an actor. Fernández’s interest in creating movies that were Mexican in style and atmosphere, as well as Dominguez’s preference for Mexican folkloric music may have been the catalyst to their relationship, one in which Fernández saw in

Dominguez’s compositional style a suitable way to establish a sense of Mexican identity in his movies. Dominguez composed the music for Fernández’s earliest movies: La Isla de la Pasión

(1941) and Soy puro mexicano (1942). However, it was with Flor Silvestre (1943), Maria

Candelaria (1943) and Rio Escondido (1947) that Dominguez became part of the team that worked with Emilio Fernández during these year.73 These movies put Fernández’s cinema on the map nationally as well as internationally and, according to Aurelio Tello, guided Fernández’s cinema to a nationalism similar to that expressed by the painting, literature, and music from that age.74 During the rest of his life Dominguez combined his work as ethnomusicologist with his work as composer in the Mexican film industry, collaborating with different directors from the

Golden Age of Mexican cinema, such as, Fernando de Fuentes and Roberto Gavaldón. Francisco

Dominguez died in Mexico City in 1975.75

73 Casares ed., Diccionario del cine iberoamericano vol. 3, 320. 74 Idem. 75 Pareyón, Diccionario Enciclopédico de Música en México vol. 1, 331.

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2.1.2. Antonio Diaz Conde

Antonio Diaz Conde was one of the most prolific composers from the Golden Age of

Mexican cinema. He wrote the music for over one hundred films and worked with some of the most important directors from this time. Nevertheless, Conde is usually associated with Emilio

Fernández because he wrote the music for twenty-six (of a total of the forty-one) movies shot by

Fernández, including some of his most renowned films. Diaz Conde worked as a film composer from 1942 to 1974. Both prolific and adaptable, he was able to change his musical style to the evolving demands of the Mexican film industry. In this, he drew upon elements from different musical idioms, such as Spanish and Mexican folkloric music, late Romantic and contemporary western musical tradition, popular Mexican music, and jazz.76

Antonio Diaz Conde was born in Barcelona on January 25, 1914. As a child he sang in the chorus of the cathedral of Barcelona, where he received his first musical instruction from the priest of that church. Later, he studied with different piano teachers before entering the

Conservatory of Barcelona to study piano in 1931. His teachers at the Conservatory of Barcelona were Juan Lamote de Grignon (director), Guillermo Garganta (piano), Eduardo Zamacois (sol-fa and harmony) and Jaime Pahissa (history and aesthetics), who considered him to be an outstanding composer.77 His studies at the Conservatory of Barcelona included the music of the great masters “from Bach to our days”78 and allowed him to play Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude and the Rhapsody No. 6 by Liszt.79 In addition, he studied the principal instruments of a symphonic orchestra.80 In 1936 the Spanish civil war forced him to interrupt his studies and to

76 Casares ed., Diccionario del cine iberoamericano vol.3, 191-192. 77 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 84. 78 Ibid., 83. 79 Ibid., 85. 80 Ibid., 83.

25 join the army to work as a military band director. His first connection to film music took place after the war, since the Union of Musicians of Barcelona increased the number of performers in cinemas with the purpose of helping musicians to make a life after the war. This job kept Diaz

Conde busy until he met the choreographer Paco Reyes, who invited him to tour Argentina as companion pianist of his ballet company in 1941. During that travel Diaz Conde met Manuel de

Falla, to whom he was introduced in a letter by Falla’s friend Angel Barrios. About this meeting

Juan J. Viniegra comments that when Manuel de Falla met Antonio Diaz Conde “[Manuel de

Falla] realized he was before a real musical talent. That young man had written music for the

‘Romances de la pena negra’ by Garcia Lorca, and Manolo [De Falla] was really surprised when listened to his music […] from that moment, my friend [De Falla] protected him.”81

Unfortunately, his relationship with de Falla ended after Diaz Conde composed the music for the movie Pepita Jimenez (1945): De Falla disliked film music because, in his opinion, music must serve nothing but music itself.82

The time the two Spanish composers spent together was very short, because the same year De Falla met Diaz Conde he started a professional relation with the Spanish singer Conchita

Martinez, who decided to take her show to Mexico; Diaz Conde went with her. During his first years in Mexico Diaz Conde combined his work as film music composer with his activities as pianist. Between 1942 and 1943 the composer worked for the radio station Radio Mil, where he used to play Spanish music. On March 14, 1943 the Mexican journal El Nacional announced the musical program for that evening; in that occasion the composer accompanied at the piano El

81 Juan J. Viniegra y Lasso de la Vega, Vida íntima de Manuel de Falla y Matheu (Cádiz: Imprenta de La Voz, 1966), 137-138, quoted in Olga Picún, “La resistencia desde el exilio: Pepita Jiménez en México,” in Huellas y rostros: Exilios y migraciones en la construcción de la memoria musical de Latinoamérica, edited by Consuelo Carredano and Olga Picún (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2017), 177. 82 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano,” vol. 3, 86.

26 cabello más sutil from a collection of Spanish songs and El paño moruno, as well as Jota and

Nana from the Siete conciones populares by de Falla.83 On April of the same year he participated as a pianist in a recital of Spanish music broadcast by the same radio station.84

Diaz Conde’s first work as a film music composer was the writing of music for the

Spanish numbers for the movie Cuando viajan las estrellas (1942), which involved the dancer

Raquel Rojas. It was she who introduced the composer to Emilio Fernández. His first work with the director was in the movie Soy puro mexicano (1945) in which, as before, he composed only the Spanish numbers; the background music was composed by Francisco Dominguez. According to Diaz Conde, Emilio Fernández liked his music so much that he invited Diaz Conde to compose the music for his next film Pepita Jimenez (1945), a story based on the Spanish novel of the same name. After this movie Diaz Conde worked on some of Fernández’s productions that, according to Charles Ramirez Berg, “defined Mexico on theater screens around the world.”85 These films included such notable works as Víctimas del pecado, Salón México, La perla, La malquerida, Las abandonadas and Pueblerina, the last a film that earned Diaz Conde the Cannes Music Award in 1949.86

Apparently, Diaz Conde’s close relationship with Manuel de Falla influenced not only his programs as a performer but also his compositions outside the film industry. In April 1951, disappointed that Diaz Conde did not received the Music Award for La Perla in the Arieles

Ceremony, Emilio Fernández and the Film Journalist Association organized a ceremony at

Fernández's home to honour the composer. As part of the event, Diaz Conde presented the

83 “Programación de La hora nacional,” El Nacional, March 14, 1943, Section II, 2. 84 “Sección de espectáculos,” El Nacional, April 18, 1943, Section II, 2. 85 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 93. 86 Catherine Bloch, ed., Premios internacionales del cine mexicano 1938-2008 (México: Cineteca Nacional, 2009), 92.

27 audience four new songs and two piano pieces. The journalist Igor Moreno wrote in the diary El

Nacional: “Of a marked andaluz style […] the songs Solea, Tonadilla, Canción de Cuna and another whose name we have forgotten, reveal that Diaz Conde was a pupil of Manuel de Falla, but he has what it takes to be a composer along with a strong personality that needs to act more in concert halls so his music is known widely.”87 Unfortunately, since most of the scores were lost or remain with the composer’s family in Spain,88 the only way to access to Diaz Conde’s music is through the movies in which he participated. The composer died in Mexico City in

1976.89

Evidently, Francisco Dominguez and Antonio Diaz Conde had different musical experiences before they entered the Mexican film business. While the former was completely immersed in the nationalistic movement after the Revolution, the later came to the country looking for job opportunities and was closer to the European musical tradition. Yet, although these different backgrounds influenced the style in which these composers wrote music to the movies in which they participated, both found a way to portray in musical terms a sense of

Mexican national identity.

In the next three chapters I will analyze three of the most representative examples of

Fernández’s work in order to determine to which extent the orchestral and popular (diegetic and non-diegetic) music of these movies is rooted in the Mexican musical tradition. In addition, I will offer an interpretation of how music interacts with the visual and narrative aspects of the films to portray the Mexican national identity.

87 Igor Moreno, “Actividades musicales de la semana,” El Nacional, April 15, 1951, Supplements, 12. 88 Antonio Díaz Rendón (son of Antonio Díaz Conde), conversation with the author, May 23, 2018, Mexico City. 89 Casares ed., Diccionario del cine iberoamericano vol.3, 190.

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2.2. Music in the Films of Emilio Fernández: Three Case Studies

Emilio Fernández directed his best and most representative national-inflected movies between 1943 and 1949.90 For this reason, I will focus my attention on three movies that belong to this period: Flor Silvestre (1943), María Candelaria (1944) and Salón México (1948). These movies contain a full gamut of Fernández’s main cinematic topics: the Mexican Revolution, the representation of the Mexico’s indigenous people, and the Mexican urban landscape—especially

Mexico City. In addition, these films include musical numbers that are representative of different historical and geographical aspects of the Mexican culture. They also represent clear examples of the work of Fernández’s two principal composers (Francisco Dominguez and Antonio Diaz

Conde) and show how the notion of nationalism persisted despite the differences between their musical styles.

For the analysis of the movies that I selected, I will follow the chronological order in which the films were shot: Flor Silvestre (1943), María Candelaria (1944) and Salón México (1948).

Although the plot of the films suggests that María Candelaria (1944) may be the first to be created,91 it is Flor Silvestre (1943) that marks a turning point in Emilio Fernández’s career, since it was the first time the director worked with the team that consolidated his style (Gabriel

Figueroa and Mauricio Magdaleno). By starting with Flor Silvestre, it is also possible to show the evolution in Fernández's approach to directing cinema.

90 See for example: Emilio García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986 (Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 1987), Julia Tuñón, Los rostros de un mito: Personajes femeninos en las películas de Emilio Indio Fernández. México: Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, 2000, Charles Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015). 91 María Candelaria (1944) was staged in 1909 (one year before the Mexican Revolution); Flor Silvestre (1943) situates the actions right after the triumph of the armed conflict (1910-1911); Salón México develops in Mexico City in the 1940s.

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Chapter 3

Flor Silvestre (1943): Sounds from the Mexican Revolution

Flor Silvestre (1943) was the first movie in which Emilio Fernández worked with the team that consolidated his style. This was also the movie that positioned Fernández as a nationalistic director and gave him recognition among Mexican audiences.1

Flor Silvestre (1943) presents a love story that takes place in 1910, a few days before the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Although the mention of some historical figures and the succession of events in the film suggest some realism, the gestures and traditions of romantic film drama (from the period) dominate the narrative. Despite this, Fernández was able to incorporate a wide range of cinematic moments that convey his nationalistic orientation, especially as it concerns the benefits of the Revolution to Mexicans as a whole. The opening sequence shows the female protagonist (Esperanza) as an old woman. In a long speech, she talks to her son about the haciendas and the old system of land distribution.2 This is followed by a flashback in which she recalls her wedding, which took place in the El Bajío region of the country.3 Esperanza and José Luis get married. They do so secretly because their families would not allow the wedding due to the different social stratum to which the two lovers belong.

Esperanza is the granddaughter of Don Melchor, a peasant who works under the orders of José

1 See, García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 36-45. 2 A hacienda refers to the concept of large landed estates, which originated in Spanish America during the colonial period and which acted as a traditional institution of rural life. The hacienda system was similar to feudal organization. It functioned by keeping the people working on the land and in debt in some way or another so that they could not leave the land on which they were working. In this way the hacendado (hacienda owner), was able to make huge profits off of land worked by others. Haciendas disappeared in Mexico after the Revolution (1910-1921). 3 The Bajío is a region of Northwest-Central Mexico that includes parts of the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Querétaro.

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Luis’s father, Don Francisco, who is the owner of the biggest hacienda of the region. When Don

Francisco learns about the wedding and discovers that José Luis is a revolutionary, he throws his son out of the hacienda. After the Revolution triumphs, Esperanza and José Luis live happily and

Esperanza gets pregnant. However, a group of fake revolutionaries kill Don Francisco and seize the hacienda. Despite Esperanza’s and Don Melchor’s pleadings, José Luis returns to his former home to kill Ursulo, the man who murdered his father. Jose Luis’s revenge triggers the fury of

Ursulo’s brother, Rogelio, who captures Esperanza and her son to set a trap for José Luis.

Ultimately, José Luis is captured and exchanges his life for his family. In the final scene, he is executed by his enemies. Following this, the movie return to Esperanza’s opening monologue, providing a time frame for the action. In this speech she gives praise to heroes of the Mexican revolution who, like José Luis, died to give life to “the Mexico of today in which palpitates a new life.”

Songs are central for the soundtrack of this movie. Except for one, all of them are heard and presented as diegetic music and, despite some original arrangements, the film’s score only develops the melodies of the songs to underline the actions onscreen.4 Here, Fernández and

Dominguez chose five songs that not only match the narrative of the film, but also express the social concerns of the director; they also reinforce the regional and historical aspects of the

Mexican culture. All of the songs of the movie are rooted in the Mexican musical tradition.

However, while some of the them originated in the context of the Mexican revolution, some others belong to a style known as ranchera music. This genre emerged in Mexican cities during

4 For a summary regarding the appearance of music within the film see the chart Flor Silvestre (1943) in the Appendix of this thesis.

31 the 1920s and was mostly composed by musically literate musicians who took advantage of the growth of the Mexican radio to spread their music.5

The term ranchera refers to melodies that, despite of being composed for urban audiences, adopt the elements of the Mexican traditional music to give the songs a ‘rural sound.’

Along with the radio stations, cinema played an important role in the development of the ranchera genre, thanks to the popularity of several singer/actors who appeared in comedia ranchera films (i.e. Tito Guízar, Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante). They used every opportunity to sing below the windows of their amorous desires or the town’s parties. Although ranchera music were performed by several kind of ensembles, ranchera songs were mainly played by mariachi6 groups which, by the 1940s were definitively associated with the genre.7

The first important musical number of the movie occurs during the celebration of El herradero (00:16:33), which refers to a cattle round-up much like a rodeo.8 The song that accompanies this sequence has the same name as the celebration itself: El herradero. The origin of this melody is uncertain. According to the website of the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores

5 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 184-185. 6 The word mariachi refers to an ensemble consisting of violins, harp, sixth-guitar, vihuela, tololoche (four-strings big-size guitar that functions as a double bass) and trumpets, which were not added until the 1930s. Nowadays mariachis are considered the most representative musical ensemble of Mexico as a whole. Nevertheless, mariachis originated in the XIX century in the Mexican state of Jalisco and used to play folk music from that region. By the end of the 1920s, mariachi groups traveled to the capital to try their luck into the radio. As a result, mariachis adopted elements from other regional musical expressions and became a ‘versatile’ type of ensemble, very suitable for the ranchera music. Thanks to this and to the radio stations, mariachis popularized all around Mexico and abroad. Ibid., 182-184. 7 Ibid., 186-187. 8 In Mexico this tradition is also known as the charreada and began when the territory became a colony of the Spanish empire. Every year Spanish law required hacienda owners to round up all cattle for the purpose of branding and collecting taxes. This work was so arduous that, although the Spanish crown restricted Indians and mestizos from riding horses, during the collecting season everybody was allowed to participate. Since it was impossible for the workers of a single hacienda to complete the task in time, hacienda owners used to invite cowboys and farmhands from other haciendas to assist with the round-up. In exchange, the hostess hacienda provided food, drink and music, and organized horse-riding competitions for entertainment. Janet L. Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music (New York: Routledge, 2016), 220.

32 de México (Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico), El herradero was written by Pedro

Galindo (1906-1989), who was a composer, actor, and film producer during the Golden Age of

Mexican Cinema.9 Nevertheless, when Paco Ignacio Taibo I interviewed Mauricio Magdaleno in relation to his work in Flor Silvestre (1943), the scriptwriter declared: “We were looking for suitable landscapes. It happened that the script was very short. So, he [Fernández] said that he would include a song and I wrote it right there. Now it is famous, it is entitled El herradero. I never claimed the copyright and I do not know who is making money of it.”10 For its part, the

Mexican magazine Milenios de México suggests that it was the singer Lucha Reyes (1906-1944) who composed El herradero.11 Since Mauricio Magdaleno was not musically literate, it would appear that Galindo wrote the music to words by Magdaleno. On the other hand, it is unlikely that Lucha Reyes wrote El herradero because she played a more important role as performer than as composer.12 She was already an icon of ranchero music by the 1930s and immortalized several songs in the recordings she did for the recording company RCA Victor between 1935 and

1943.13 One of them was El herradero,14 to which evidently sound effects were added for the movie. Although the date of composition continue to be elusive, all sources suggest that El herradero was written by the early 1940s and, if the anecdote of Mauricio Magdaleno is

9 Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México, “Nuestros Socios y su Obra: Pedro Galindo Galarza,” http://sacm.mx/biografias/biografias-interior.asp?txtSocio=08016 (accessed April 5, 2019). 10 Taibo I, El Indio Fernández, 83. 11 Antonia García-Orozco, “Lucha Reyes la reina del estilo Bravío,” Estudios sobre las culturas contemporáneas vol. XIX, no. 1 (2013): 147. 12 Lucha Reyes (1906-1944) began her career as a light soprano but a throat illness resulted in a change to a deeper, rougher voice. Using her new voice timbre, she created an ‘aggressive’ performing style known as Bravío (brash). Her style challenged the widely established notion of the Mexican submissive woman. This gained her adepts and detractors throughout her career. Reyes was widely broadcasted in the Mexican radio between the 1930s and 1940s and participated as actress and music performer in several movies from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, the last being Flor Silvestre (1943) by Emilio Fernández. For more information about Lucha Reyes see, García-Orozco, “Lucha Reyes la reina del estilo Bravío,” 127-155. 13 Marie Sarita Gaytán and Sergio de la Mora, “Queening/Queering Mexicanidad: Lucha Reyes and the Canción Ranchera,” Feminist Formations vol. 28, no. 3 (2016): 204. 14 García-Orozco, “Lucha Reyes la reina del estilo Bravío,” 147.

33 authentic, the song was created and recorded expressly for the movie, under the supervision of

Emilio Fernández.

El herradero is a strophic song with a refrain at every two stanzas (figure 3.1). It has the rhythm of a polka (example 3.1). This genre was introduced to Mexico during the late nineteenth century and reached great popularity, especially in the Northern part of the country.15 Although polka rhythm was a distinctive of the bandas norteñas,16 it also found expression in the canción ranchera, and therefore in the mariachi ensembles.17

El herradero The Cattle Branding

¡Ay! Qué linda Oh! How beautiful Qué rechula es la fiesta de mi rancho How nice is the party at my ranch Con sus chinas, mariachis y canciones With its pretty woman, mariachis and songs Y esos charros que traen sombrero ancho And those riders who wear a wide hat.

Qué bonita How pretty Esa yegua alazana y pasajera That sorrel and alert mare Pa enseñarles a echar una mangana To teach everyone to throw a lasso Y montarla y quitarle lo matrera And to mount her and train her at her best.

Qué bonita es la fiesta del bajío How pretty is the party of the bay region Ay que linda sus hembras y su sol And oh, how pretty its women and its sun Rinconcito que guarda el amor mío ¡ay! Little place where my heart is kept, ah! Mi vida, tuyo es mi corazón My dear, my heart is only yours.

15 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 16. Between the 1830s and 1840s, a large number of Germans and Czechs immigrated to Texas (which belonged to Mexico until 1848). These immigrants introduced the polka to the territory that now represents the Mexican-Texan border. The musical style and instruments of the European immigrants were adopted and adapted by northern Mexican musicians. One of the most influential musical instruments of the German/Czech musical style, the accordion, became distinctive of the norteño (northern) bands whose music very often displays the 2/4 polka rhythm. Gerald Erichsen, “Does Mexican Music Have German Roots?,” ThoughtCo, entry posted May. 25, 2019 https://www.thoughtco.com/does-mexican-music-have-german-roots-3078101 (accessed July 9, 2019). 16 Bandas Norteñas (Northern music bands) usually include a guitarist, an accordionist and a double bass player. 17 Claes af Geijerstam, Popular Music in Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976), 69-70.

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Y ahora es cuando And now is the moment Valedores a darse un buen quemón You brave men dare to stand for a challenge Que esa yegua que viene del potrero Because that mare who comes from the paddock Sólo es buena pal diablo del patrón Is only good for the brave boss.

Las mujeres The women Han de ser como todas las Potrancas Have to be like all the good fillies Que se engrían y se amansan con su dueño That are arrogant but tame only for their owners Y no pueden llevar jinete en ancas And no other rider can mount them.

Qué rechula es la fiesta del Bajío How pretty is the party of the Bajío region Ay que linda sus hembras y su sol And oh, how pretty its women and its sun Rinconcito que guarda el amor mío ¡ay! Little place where my heart is kept, ah! Mi vida, tuyo es mi corazón. My dear, my heart is only yours.

Qué rechula es la fiesta del Bajío How pretty is the party of the Bajío region Ay que linda sus hembras y su sol And oh, how pretty its women and its sun Rinconcito que guarda el amor mío ¡ay! Little place where my heart is kept, ah! Mi vida, tuyo es mi corazón. My dear, my heart is only yours.

Figure 3.1: Lyrics of El herradero

Example 3.1: El herradero

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The film sequence that contains El herradero, lasting approximately six minutes, shows the common activities of a charreada.18 The animated music totally matches the festive character of the lyrics, which celebrate in a very direct manner the rodeo party, the beauty of the Bajío, the women of that region, the skilled cowboys, the songs and the mariachis. It is important to note that although Lucha Reyes (1906-1944) and the Mariachi Vargas where popular enough to draw the Mexican audiences into the cinema,19 Emilio Fernández did not use their performance of the

El herradero to emphasize the presence of these artists in the film, like a comedia ranchera.

Instead the song and the sequence have the intention of generating a feeling of identity or nationalistic pride in the audience. The musical introduction corresponds to the images of people lighting fireworks from the top of the church, riders gathering cattle, and a charro tying a mare.

When Lucha Reyes sings her first long note, the camera rapidly captures her presence. She wears a china poblana20 outfit and the accompanying mariachis use charro suits. This type of clothing became part of the generally recognized symbols that projected a sense of national identity

18 The charreada is a competitive event similar to a rodeo. See Chapter 3, quotation 8. 19 Silvestre Vargas founded the Mariachi Vargas in 1934. This mariachi band was distinctive for its inclusion of trumpets to the traditional mariachi ensemble. Trumpets gave the Mariachi Vargas great popularity and by the 1940s the ensemble started to be widely imitated. Thanks to this, trumpets became essential to mariachi bands, which became the most versatile performers of Mexican traditional music. In the 1930s Lucha Reyes and the Mariachi Vargas joined their talents and became stars of the recently inaugurated XEW radio station. Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 182-183. 20 According to tale, the china poblana was the daughter of a Mongol king that, during a war with a neighbor country, was captured and sold as slave. In the Philippines she was bought by a merchant who took her with him to New Spain (Mexico from 1521 to 1821). There the china poblana married a merchant from the city of Puebla (which is why she is called poblana). Due to her Oriental origins (china), she used to dress colorfully. Attracted by this, the dwellers of Puebla started to imitate her dressing but added local elements. Gradually, the china poblana attire became traditional for the city of Puebla, and by the late nineteenth century it was adopted as a national symbol of the typical and virtuous Mexican woman. Later, the artistic image of the china poblana became an icon of national identity. Her clothing consisted of a white blouse embroidered with various patterns in the color of the Mexican flag. The skirt was long, with embroidery on the front that reproduced the patriotic symbols: the eagle devouring the snake, perched on a cactus, or the Aztec calendar. Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 208.

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within Mexican society.21 In addition, by the 1940s mariachi ensembles were already considered representative of the whole Mexican musical tradition.22 Yet, the performance of El herradero in a mariachi version may be also a musical association to the territory of El Bajío that belongs to

Jalisco.23 Before the dialogue overlaps the music, the shots of the sequence follow the narrative of the song’s first two strophes. When Lucha Reyes sings, “with its chinas [referring to chinas poblanas], mariachis and songs, and those charros who wear a wide hat,” the camera shows a china poblana and a group of charros arriving at the party. Then, when the song refers to mares

(female horses) tamed by their riders, the camera shows a group of mares entering to the barnyard and another one tied and forced to fall into the ground. In this regard, the song’s lyrics convey a veiled expression of Fernández’s representation of Mexican women. During the Golden

Age of Mexican Cinema women were represented either as positive, virginal and submissive, or as destructive, brave and sexually active.24 Fernández transplanted this notion to his nationalistic intentions. The director always refused to show the smallest degree of sexual behavior in his movies,25 but as a symbol of the nation, he sometimes presented women as beautiful and arrogant.26 Alternately, Mexican women were, as shown by Fernández, also to be submissive and

21 Ricardo Pérez Montfort, Expresiones culturales y estereotipos culturales en México. Siglos XIX y XX. Diez ensayos (México: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología, 2007), 1, quoted in Alegría Alujas, Daymí. “La música cubana en el cine mexicano y la construcción de un mundo ‘real imaginario’: 1940-1952” (M.M. diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012), 80. 22 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 182. 23 See Chapter 3, quotations 3 and 6. 24 Joanne Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 1940-1950 (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1996), 15. 25 Emilio Fernández was so strict in this respect that he would not even show a romantic couple kiss in the lips. Dolores Tierney, Emilio Fernández. Pictures in the margins (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007), 133. 26 This is more evident in Fernández’s movies Enamorada (1946) and Río Escondido (1947). In both cases the female protagonists stand up against the injustices inflected by the villains that devastate small towns. Although Enamorada (1946) presents comic passages in which a certain kind of ‘war of the sexes’ takes place, the protagonist (Beatriz) protects the villagers from a revolutionary who despite his good intentions, acts aggressively and abusively. In Rio Escondido (1947), a schoolteacher travels (commissioned by the Mexican president) to an isolated town of Mexico to provide education to the

37

gentle.27 This is because for the director, Mexican women are “dignified, they wear braids and are submissive.”28 This arrogant/submissive dichotomy is reflected by the song when the lyrics state, “The women / Have to be like all the good fillies / That are arrogant but tame only for their owners / And no other rider can mount them”. Following this argument, women must be arrogant and brave but at the same time willing to be dominated by men. In the movie, the notion of brave women is embodied in Lucha Reyes, whose confident movements and bravío (brash) mode of singing depict the arrogant side of Mexican women. This type of woman is contrasted with

Esperanza, who attends El herradero not by her own will but pressed by José Luis. Esperanza, whose name means hope, represents not only the submissive side of Mexican women, but still more an inner sensitivity of being thought to be typical of people of ‘class.’ Esperanza does not have overt class, but she has inner class. This is a central reason why José Luis is drawn to her, and his family’s inability to even try to see this is one of the big conflicts of the movie—and of

Mexico in the context of the clashing forces at the time of the revolution. This brings José Luis into conflict with his father, even as he (for family reasons) tries to avenge his death later.

Esperanza, the symbol of hope, is hope for a Mexico not based upon hereditary class (the goal of the revolution) and is the (hopeful) image of a new, more sensitive Mexico that will emerge in the future.

indigenous people. There the teacher (Rosaura) discovers that the major of the town closed the school and denies the water to the villagers. After a series of disputes to improve the town’s situation, Rosaura kills the major and the villagers finally liberate from the villain. It is important to note that in both movies the protagonist was María Felix, an actress whose beauty and strong personality gained her the nickname La Doña and the status of diva among Mexican audiences. The label La Doña alludes to the movie Doña Barbara (1943) in which María Felix interpreted a powerful and wealthy woman who controls hundreds of acres of prime ranch land, numerous heads of cattle and horses, and the lives of men and women who live on her land. See, García Riera, Emilio Fernández, 92-104 and 108-126. For a biography of María Felix see for example, Pierre Fhilippe, María Félix. La Doña (New York: Assouline, 2006). 27 Dolores Tierney, Emilio Fernández. Pictures in the margins (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007), 107. 28 Julia Tuñon, “Between Nation and Utopia: The Image of Mexico in the Films of Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 12 (1993): 168.

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While El herradero helps to illustrate Mexican traditions, two other songs work as leitmotifs for the main characters: Flor Silvestre and El hijo desobedente. These are maybe the most commented upon songs within Fernández’s filmography. But these references have been so brief that they fail to address the main issues of dramatic signification. Charles Ramirez Berg considers that both songs comment on the film’s narrative as a Greek chorus.29 But this is not the case here, and the author does not contemplate the songs’ non-diegetic arrangements,30 nor does he comment upon the songs’ importance in relation to the depiction of the Mexican Revolution.

For his part, Emilio García Riera dismisses the songs’ presence for considering that they do not reinforce the dramatic character of the movie.31 In a similar disregarded way, Julia Tuñón only refers to Flor Silvestre, which in her view adds lyricism to the portrayal of the physical and emotional landscape.32 More helpful in this regard are the comments by Janet L. Sturman, who identifies the genre to which the songs belong and recognizes El hijo desobediente as a revolutionary melody— although the author does not address the songs’ function within the movie.33

The song Flor Silvestre gives its name to the film and is the leitmotif of Esperanza. The title of this song refers to a wildflower that despite its beauty belongs to the rural soil. The lyrics of the song (figure 3.2) clearly work as an analogy of the beauty and humble origins of

29 Ramírez Berg, The Classical Mexican Cinema, 123. 30 A Greek chorus is normally on stage and participates on the action. Songs in Flor Silvestre (1943) (especially in their non-diegetic arrangements) are part of an underlying authorial ‘voice’ within the film, whereby there is simultaneously the presentation of dramatic action and ‘realism’, as well as a commentary upon that action through the special medium of music. 31 García Riera, Emilio Fernández: 1904-1986, 45. 32 Julia Tuñón, “Ritos y ritmos urbanos en el cine de Emilio Fernández,” Cahiers d´études romanes No. 19, (2008): 5. 33 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 222.

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Esperanza, whose grandfather is a peasant in José Luís’s father hacienda.34 Flor Silvestre

(example 3.2) is also a ranchera song. It was composed in 1929 by Los Cuates de Castilla,35 and in the movie the song is performed by the Trio Calaveras. Los Cuates de Castilla and El Trío

Calaveras belonged to those groups that performed a type of regional Mexican music that was adapted to the commercial demands of the radio stations. In this sense, although Janet L.

Sturman classifies the song Flor Silvestre as a traditional huapango,36 it is better described (as suggested by Yolanda Moreno Rivas) as a nuevo huapango.37

Flor silvestre Wildflower

Flor silvestre campesina Wildflower from the country Flor sencilla y natural Simple and natural flower No te creen una flor fina They do not believe you are a fine flower, Por vivir junto al nopal because you live near to the cactus.

No eres rosa, no eres lirio You are not rose, you are not iris Mucho menos flor de liz Not even a lily flower Pero adornas al martirio But you decorate the martyr Y al caló haces feliz And make the heat happy

Como tú mi flor silvestre Like you my wildflower Tuve en la sierra un amor I had a love in the sierra Nunca supo de la suerte Which never was lucky

34 The nation’s significance of the song Flor Silvestre, the movie of the same name, and the force of Fernández's national vision is evident in that the image of a wildflower as symbol of the fragility and femininity of the Mexican woman remained, at least during the 1940-1960 period. This notion had a modern incarnation in the ranchero singer Flor Silvestre (b. 1930) (whose original name was Guillermina Jimenez). At the beginning of her career, the singer assumed the role of a revolutionary woman. However, she had a fragile appearance that did not fit the image of a woman warrior. Advised by the radio broadcaster Arturo Blancas, Guillermina Jimenez adopted the title of Emilio Fernández’s Flor Silvestre (1943) as her artistic name because it better expressed her presence onstage. Flor Silvestre married Antonio Aguilar who was also a popular ranchero singer. They used to act together under the nicknames ‘La sentimental’ (the sentimental) and ‘El charro de México’ (the charro of México), labels that expressed the roles they were supposed to play as an incarnation of the typical Mexicans. Flor Silvestre also participated in several movies between the 1950s and 1960s. Agustín Gurza, “Flor Silvestre. Biography,” The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, entry posted March, 2015 http://frontera.library.ucla.edu/artists/flor-silvestre (accessed, July 11, 2019). 35 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 186. 36 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 221. 37 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 45.

40

Y si mucho del dolor But much pain instead

Flor humilde, flor del campo Humble rural wildflower Que engalanas el zarzal You spruce the bridal up Yo te brindo a ti mi canto I offer to you my song Florecita angelical. Angelical flower.

Mientras duermes en el suelo While you sleep on the ground Te protege el matorral Scrubs protect you Y el carrillo y cornezuelo And the check and cornfield Forman tu vaya nupcial Form your nuptial pathway

Siempre he sido tu esperanza I have been always your hope Linda flor espiritual Pretty spiritual flower Yo te he dado mi confianza I have given you my confidence

Florecita del zarzal Little flower from the thicket.

Figure 3.2: Lyrics of Flor Silvestre.

Example 3.2: Flor Silvestre.

41

The huapango is a derivation of the traditional Mexican son, whose origin is in the music that the Spaniards introduced to America by the end of the colonial era (1521-1821). In this regard, the first documented use of the term son in Mexico surfaces in 1766,38 although the first collections of Mexican sones were not published until the mid-nineteenth century.39 The

Mexican son is a ‘mega-genre’ that has many ramifications, depending on the geographical area to which every sub-genre belongs. Although there are over ten kinds of son associated to different regions of Mexico, they are usually divided in two main groups: son jarocho, from the southern Gulf Coast region of Mexico40 and son huasteco or huapango, from the Northeastern- central region of the country.41 The easiest way to distinguish the son jarocho from the huapango is by their typical instrumentation. The typical jarocho groups use a diatonic thirty-two-string harp without pedals, a four-strings requinto played with a plectrum made of a cow’s horn and a jarana, a little guitar that may have five, eight or twelve strings. For their part, huapango groups always include a skilled violin player, a jarana, an ordinary guitar, and a guitar known as huapanguera, which has eight or ten strings.42

Sones are strophic songs, typically in 6/8 or 3/4 meters, that shift their rhythmic accentuations from a two-beat stress to a three-beat stress. This kind of mixed meter called sesquiáltera (conflicting 6/8 and 3/4 rhythm) is the son’s main characteristic (figure 3.3). Singers often improvise verses while performing, adhering to the classic rules of rhyme and syllabic

38 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 104. 39 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 12. 40 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 116. 41 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 42-43. 42 Idem.

42 structure. The lyrics of the sones may address different topics, from rural life to women and love but, they are commonly rich in double meaning and sexual innuendo.43

Figure 3.3: Basic son rhythm.

As an inheritor of the traditional genre, the nuevo huapango conserves the rhythm and metric combinations of the traditional huapango but is considerably slower and abounds in minor chords. Other of its particularities is the use in performance of a highly stylized falsetto at the end of the phrases.44 The transformation of the traditional huapango was product of the urbanization of the genre, which started in the 1920s with the intense migration of musicians to the big cities due to the growing interest in knowing original sones of the country and the growing of the radio in Mexico.45

In the film, the song Flor Silvestre is initially presented in a fragmented way and in variation as non-diegetic music when Esperanza and José Luis get married (00:04:04). Later it is heard (also as non-diegetic music) when José Luis visits his wife after her accident with the carriage (00:23:09) following her altercation with José Luis's family. The first time Flor Silvestre is presented in its full version is during the scene in which José Luis and Esperanza’s grandfather

Don Melchor go to the canteen to have a drink (00:32:20). The song is given by a harmonica as

43 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 106. 44 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 45. 45 Ibid., 46.

43 non-diegetic music. The languid sound of the harmonica expresses the sad atmosphere of the scene. By the 1940s, for a Mexican audience, the song with its words were well known. And the words, and the emotional ambience of the musical ambience of the setting, underscore the dramatic situation.

The lyrics (Wildflower from the country / Simple and natural flower / They [understood as the rich people] do not believe you are a fine flower / Because you live near to the cactus […]

But you decorate the martyr / And make the heat happy) are emotionally cued to Don Melchor’s speech, which revolves around the social differences between poor and rich, and also the virtues of Esperanza: “The social differences do not erase with good intentions, that’s the raw truth. So big is that difference that God himself intended some of us to be poor and others rich. But I tell you José Luis, neither all the money of the Castro family, nor all the money of the other rich people in the world, is enough to build the virtues of my granddaughter as a woman. She is so good, so sweet, so pure that for me she is like a flower; no matter if a wildflower.” José Luis assures Don Melchor that he truly values the virtues of Esperanza and says in a challenging manner, “I will not let anybody to accost my wife, not even my father.” Along with the dialogue and the song, the visual composition of this scene presents the idea that Emilio Fernández had of the Mexican Revolution.

An imaginary line separates the two characters of the scene. Don Melchor, evidently aged, represents the dying-pre-revolutionary cast-of-mind, which does not question the established order. For his part, José Luis shows the energetic attitude characteristic of young people, and represents the emergence of a new-post-revolutionary ideology. José Luis’s father, an hacendado, embodies the regime against which José Luis (the Revolution) must fight to protect the poor (Esperanza), whose virtues come from the Mexican soil.

44

Under the influence of the alcohol, Don Melchor and José Luis decide to go to talk to

José Luis’s father. On their way out, José Luis asks a group of musicians to follow them. These musicians accompany Don Melchor and José Luis’s trip to the hacienda while singing the main song-leitmotif of the movie (00:35:34). The music goes from non-diegetic in the canteen’s scene to (apparently) diegetic during the trip’s sequence. The musicians onscreen give the sequence a tint of realism that is reinforced by the instrumentation. The song is performed only with guitars and voice. This also gives the music a rural sound that matches the images of the Mexican landscape. The repetition of the song (either in instrumental or vocal version) produces a sense of continuity between the two sequences; as if they complemented each other. The initial instrumental arrangement allows Don Melchor to inform the audience of the virtues of the poor people, embodied in Esperanza. Later the lyrics of the song establish a clear relationship between the humble origins of the female protagonist and the semi-desert landscape presented in low- angle extreme long shots: While you sleep on the ground / Scrubs protect you / And the check and cornfield / Form your nuptial pathway. The music links the two sequences and by doing it

Fernández (and Figueroa) is able to juxtapose the expression of two of his cinema’s main concerns: the social inequities at the time of the Revolution and the beauty and virtues of the poor people and the Mexican landscape.46

Despite the stylized way in which they are presented in the film, the two songs discussed to this point are rooted in the Mexican musical traditions and helped to convey the director’s nationalistic concerns. While El herradero adopts the polka style of the Northern Mexico and

46 The seamless move from a non-diegetic performance of Flor Silvestre to a diegetic performance actually represents an authorial intrusion into the sequence, if handled with a measure of taste. That it is included this way here lends an air of pageantry and ‘romantic distance’ to this important moment in the film. As with the other musical moments described above, it is the music that provides the emotional force to the dramatic signification of the scene in the wider sense of portraying Mexican society with emotional nuance.

45 matches the images of a charreada in which the director shows traditional clothing and activities, Flor Silvestre is a derivation of the traditional Mexican huapango and establishes a relationship between the Mexican people and rural soil. Another important aspect is that Emilio

Fernández did not only select music that represents Mexico as a musically homogeneous country, but music that expresses the different regions of the nation. This is more evident if we compare Flor Silvestre (1943) and La Perla (1945), a movie staged in a small town in the seashore. The former exhibits guapangos (Flor Silvestre) and mariachi music (El herradero), genres typically associated to the Northern-central rural regions of the country, like the Bajío.

The later presents sones jarochos (La bamba), music mostly representative of the eastern coast of Mexico.47

The rest of the songs of Flor Silvestre (1943) originated in the context of the Mexican revolution. El hijo desobediente belongs to the genre known as corrido and in the film works as the leitmotif for the relationship between José Luis and his father. The Mexican corrido is a narrative kind of song that tells important events of the people’s life. The origin of the genre is uncertain, but it is usually associated with the Spanish romance because this was the genre

Spaniards supposedly used to comment upon the battles and events they witnessed during the conquest of Mexico (1521).48 Despite this, the first song that for its characteristics is considered

47 See La Perla (1945) by Emilio Fernández (00:25:54). 48 This argument is based on a six-lines strophe that Hernán Cortés’s soldier, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, collected in his chronicle Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain), published for the first time in 1632. According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Cortés’ men sang these verses to tell the vicissitudes of their leader. The lyrics of the song comment upon Cortes’ sad mood after his army was defeated by the Aztecs in 1520. This event is historically known as La noche triste (The sad night). The lyrics of Cortés’ song state: En Tacuba está Cortés con su escuadrón esforzado, triste estaba y muy penoso, triste y con gran cuidado, la una mano en la mejilla y la otra en el costado (In Tacuba is Cortes with his hard-fought squad, sad and very gloomy, sad and with great care, one hand on the cheek and the other on the side. See, Merle E. Simmons, The Mexican Corrido as a Source for Interpretative Study of Modern Mexico (1870-1950) (New York: Indiana University Press, 1969), 9.

46 the first ‘real’ Mexican corrido is El corrido de la pulga, published in 1821.49 Although some corridos were printed in loose paper sheets, they usually were anonymous and passed orally from one generation to other. Corridos constituted a sort of newspaper that informed people about outstanding events of the Mexican daily life. For that reason, it was during the Mexican

Revolution (1910-1921) that the corrido reached its highest point of development as a musical genre. As well as its antecessors, revolutionary corridos were meant for the masses and informed people of battles, murders and victories, or defeats of the different military groups that participated in the armed conflict. Corridos were also composed to praise the military exploits or sacrifice of anonymous soldiers or revolutionary heroes such as Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa. 50

Corridos’ lyrics are built as poems made of quatrains that usually rhyme in the second and fourth lines.51 Although some corridos moved away from the traditional metric patterns, octosyllabic lines distinguish the genre, even nowadays.52 Even though their structure may vary, corridos always follow a story line, often built in four sections. They start with a call to the audience, followed by the description of an event that sometimes has specific name and date, then comes a teaching comment and, finally a farewell.53 The nature of their verses is simple and utilitarian. They do not have literary pretentions and their language is direct and unsophisticated to appeal to common people, the public to which they are composed.54

Musically speaking, corridos are simple songs. In this sense, it is important to remember that corridos were a mass communication media and their point was to help listeners to

49 Geijerstam, Popular Music in Mexico, 53. 50 Casares ed., Diccionario de la Música Española e Iberoamericana vol. 3, 28. 51 Vicente T. Mendoza, El Corrido Mexicano (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1954), 9. 52 Merle E. Simmons, The Mexican Corrido as a Source for Interpretative Study of Modern Mexico (1870-1950) (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1957), 20. 53 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 31-32. 54 Simmons, The Mexican Corrido, 22.

47 remember the stories of heroes or ordinary people. For that reason, their melody and harmony tend to be simple and repetitive,55 and performers usually keep a plain mood of singing, as if they did not pretend to convey any feelings.56 Corridos are usually strophic songs, but they do not adhere to a specific musical form or meter. Regarding this, Vicente T. Mendoza says:

“Besides of being composed most of the times in major mode […] the musical meters that people usually use for it are 3/8, 6/8, 9/8 and 2/4.”57 During the Revolution, corridistas (corridos singers) wandered small towns singing the most recent news, accompanied only by their guitars or harps. However, musicians adapted corridos to the necessities of the radio, television and film industries.58

Yolanda Moreno Rivas divides the history of the corrido in three stages: The first one starts with the Mexican Independence (1821) and ends with the election of Porfirio Diaz as president of Mexico (1876). The second stage goes from this date to the beginning of the

Mexican Revolution (1910) and the last one, from the first days of the armed conflict to the present days.59 According to Mario Arturo Ramos, El hijo desobediente (figure 3.4) (example

3.3) belongs to the second historical stage.60 However, as many other corridos, this song remained in the Mexican public mind, during and after the Mexican Revolution.61

55 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 195. 56 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 35. 57 Mendoza, El Corrido Mexicano, 120-121. 58 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 30 and 37. 59 Ibid., 31. 60 Mario Arturo Ramos, Cien corridos. Alma de la canción mexicana (México: Océano, 2002), 16. 61 In fact, El hijo desobediente must have been very popular by the 1940s because, when some Mexican critics accused the decay of the radio for broadcasting low quality music whose lyrics touched the edge of the obscene, El hijo desobediente was one of the songs that in 1947 the XEX, a small radio station that aimed to be a decent institution, banned from its programs. Moreno Rivas, Historia de la Música Popular Mexicana, 88.

48

El hijo desobediente The disobedient son

Un domingo estando errando One Sunday when they were branding Se encontraron dos mancebos Two young men met each other Metiendo mano a sus fierros Suddenly they reached for their daggers Como queriendo pelear As if they wished to fight.

Cuando se estaban peleando When they were already fighting Pues llegó su padre de uno The father of one of them arrived “Hijo de mi corazón Son of my heart Ya no pelees con ninguno” Please do not fight with anyone now.

Quítese de aquí mi padre Father, get out of here Que estoy más bravo que un león ‘Cause I am angry like a lion No vaya a sacar la espada If you do not go I’ll take out my sword Y le traspase el corazón And with it cross your heart.

Hijo de mi corazón Son of my heart Por lo que acabas de hablar Because of what you just said Antes de que raya el sol Before the sun shines La vida te han de quitar Your life will be taken.

Lo que le encargo a mi padre What I ask of my father is Que no me entierre en sagrado To not bury me in sacred soil Que me entierre en tierra bruta Please bury me in the brutal earth En donde me trille el ganado Where the cattle trample me.

Con una mano de fuera With a hand outside the casket Y un papel sobre dorado And a golden paper on top Con un letrero que diga With a sign that says José Luis fue desgraciado José Luis was disgraced.

El caballo colorado The red horse Hace un año que nació That was born just a year ago Ahí se lo dejo a mi padre I leave it to my father Por la crianza que me dio As payment for breeding me.

De tres caballos que tengo All three horses that I have Ahí se los dejo a los pobres I leave them to the poor Para que siquiera digan So at least they may say José Luis Dios te perdone José Luis, God pardons you.

Bajaron el toro prieto They took down the dark bull Que nunca lo habían bajado Who had never bowed before Pero ahora si ya bajó But who now is already Revuelto con el ganado Turned under with the cattle.

49

Ya con esta me despido And with this I say goodbye Con la estrella del oriente With the star of the east Esto le puede pasar This same story might happen A un hijo desobediente To a disobedient son.

Figure 3.4: Lyrics of El hijo desobediente.

Example 3.3: El hijo desobediente.

El hijo desobediente (The disobedient son) is comprised of octosyllabic verses and presents the story-line structure of the traditional corrido. Although the song was not composed for the movie, the lyrics describe José Luis’s behavior. The protagonist disobeys his father by marring Esperanza, joins the Mexican Revolution, and renounces his wealthy life as son of an hacendado. The song tells the story of a man who keeps on fighting on a duel despite his father’s warnings: Son of my heart / Please do not fight with anyone now. José Luis keeps looking for

50 revenge despite the warnings of his putative father, Don Melchor.62 The son in the song seems not to be afraid of dying and only asks his father to bury his body in ‘common’ soil and give his horses to the poor people to be forgiven: Please bury me in the brutal earth / Where the cattle trample me […] All three horses that I have / I leave them to the poor. These lyrics express the equality aims of the Revolution and at the same time describe José Luis, who wants to be treated as a common person even in his death and is willing to share his fortune with the poor. El hijo desobediente also anticipates the fate of José Luis, whose stubbornness leads him to die as another simple revolutionary: They took down the dark bull / Who had never bowed before / But who now is already / Turned under with the cattle.

In short, it can be said that El hijo desobediente has two main functions within the film’s narrative. As a corrido, the song is a direct association to the historical period in which the actions occur. On the other hand, El hijo desobediente reflects the argument of the movie, which presents the relationship between father and son as a central issue.

The song El hijo desobediente is used in the title music, along with some of the motives that Francisco Dominguez used to fill the gaps between the main musical numbers of the film

(00:00:15). It seems contradictory that, even though the song Flor Silvestre shares its name with that of the movie, this melody does not introduce the film to the audience. The explanation for this likely lies in the desire of Fernández to open the film with gestures that situate the dramatic of context, the world of the Mexican Revolution and the sense of place. Fundamentally, the film is a romantic tragedy. The portentous music of the opening conveying the underlying dramatic stance, with the familiar music of El hijo desobediente included as obvious local color.

62 After the wedding, the priest that married José Luis and Esperanza encourages José Luis and Don Melchor to have a drink like “father and son, as you are now.”

51

Essentially, it is José Luis’s story that forms the basis of the narrative, and it is this story that

Esperanza is telling her son. The inclusion of the music of Flor silvestre as opening music would have (potentially) sentimentalized the dramatic center which, at the beginning is about Mexico great large and not the personal tragedy of the female protagonist. The music for El hijo desobediente is generically Mexican in tone to suggest location, even as the basic story line is also that of the song. In addition, a Mexican corrido would be the best option to evoke the period of the Mexican Revolution. El hijo desobediente is presented (fragmented) several times as non- diegetic music within the film’s narrative. But there are three crucial moments in which the music is clearly associated to the father-son relationship. José Luis returns home totally drunk to supposedly talk to his father. When Don Francisco finds his son at home, he reproaches José

Luis for being a disobedient son. Without letting his son talk, Don Francisco says: “So, you are back. And in such condition. You are a shame to this house. Miserable! Disobedient son! […]

Together with following the Revolution, you dare to come home like this, without the tiniest respect for your family. But before I tolerate this insult, I kill you!” In a fit of fury, Don

Francisco beats José Luis until his mother intervenes. During this scene the orchestra picks up the initial motive of El hijo desobediente and repeats it as a rising sequence (00:38:26). Each new repetition grows in intensity, according to Don Francisco’s emotional state. When the actions get to their sharpest point and Don Francisco kicks José Luis on the ground, the orchestra starts a series of minor mode-descendent arpeggios that reflect the crumbling of the father-son relationship.

The next time El hijo desobediente is played José Luis returns to the hacienda to kill the man who murdered his father. When he gets there, José Luis only finds the musicians that followed the fake revolutionaries. Surprisingly, they stayed in the hacienda and sing El hijo

52

desobediente (01:00:16). As with Flor Silvestre in the ‘landscape sequence,’ the music collapses the diegetic with the non-diegetic. The presence of the musicians adds a measure of realism to the scene, although José Luis seems unaware of the music’s presence as he walks around his former house. The Trio Calaveras sings El hijo desobediente in the stylized manner that characterized the group’s performances, with passages in thirds and with ornaments in the guitar accompaniment. This gives the music a languid character that matches the regret that José Luis expresses by the end of the sequence. The hacienda is empty, and José Luis only finds the portrait of his father which has been shot some scenes before. The sequence and the music end together with a shot of José Luis covering his face presumably to cry.

Later in the movie, José Luis captures the murderer of his father. José Luis takes the man to the cemetery to hang his body over the grave of Don Francisco. The instrumental version of the leitmotif (01:14:36) plays in the orchestra while José Luis says: “Forgive me father, forgive me about everything. Even though I was a disobedient son, I was not a bad son. Here is the one that took your life. He comes to pay his debt, how it is law to pay debts in this land.” Before José

Luis starts to speak, the orchestra plays the melody of El hijo desobediente in the brass section, giving the music a triumphant character, a musical expression of José Luis’ satisfaction for having killed Úrsulo. The incorporation of violin figures underlines the sentimental element of

José Luis’ speech. As a whole, the music reinforces the significance of this sequence as a symbol of reconciliation between José Luis and his father.

In all the sequences analyzed above, El hijo desobediente is transformed according to the plot of the film. It is first heard as an expression of the tense relationship between José Luis and his father, with their different political views. As a diegetic song, the music conveys José Luis’s regret for not being there to protect his father when he needed it. Finally, the music expresses the

53 symbolic reconciliation between father and son. On a more general level, El hijo desobediente carries with it a nationalistic element due to the strong relationship between the Mexican

Revolution and the corrido.

Besides El hijo desobediente, Fernández included La Adelita and La Valentina, two songs that are usually regarded as ‘feminine’ corridos. The reason of this categorization is that these melodies refer to the role of women during the Mexican Revolution. According to Ricardo Pérez

Montfort, both songs were already famous in the north of Mexico before the Mexican

Revolution, but they enjoyed great popularity throughout the Mexican civil war.63 In this respect,

Vicente T. Mendoza refers that the first time he heard La Valentina, was in the voice of the carrancistas troops in August 1914,64 and other military bands from the Revolution also included this song in their repertoire.65

Strictly speaking, neither La Valentina nor La Adelita follow the structure of the traditional corrido and several scholars have simply labeled them revolutionary songs.66

However, Janet L. Sturmann is surely correct to say that both songs have been treated as corridos by performers and listeners alike and are the most celebrated soldaderas (female soldiers) songs even in today.67 Adelita or Valentina are the most common names that Mexican people associate

63 Casares ed., Diccionario de la Música Española e Iberoamericana vol. 3, 28. 64 Venustiano Carranza was a Mexican businessman, politician and military man that participated in the last stages of the Mexican Revolution (1914-1920) to bring down Victoriano Huerta, who seized the power after orchestrating a coup. The people that followed Venustiano Carranza were often labeled as carrancistas. 65 Vicente T. Mendoza, La Canción Mexicana. Ensayo de Clasificación y Antología (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1961), 299. 66 See for example, Vicente T. Mendoza, La Canción Mexicana. Ensayo de Clasificación y Antología (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1961), 296-300. Merle E. Simmons, The Mexican Corrido as a Source for Interpretative Study of Modern Mexico (1870-1950) (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1957), 59. Emilio Casares Rodicio ed., Diccionario de la Música Española e Iberoamericana vol. 3 (Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 1999), 25-29. 67 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 201.

54 with the women who followed the soldiers in order to feed the them, take care of the wounded, or join in the battle when was necessary.68 It is not difficult to assume that Fernández included these songs because of their popularity among Mexican audiences and because of their revolutionary origins. Yet they are heard only once in the film and are, fundamentally, part of the background color as film music.

Panfilo, Jose Luis’s brother in law, asks the protagonist to join an armed group whose intention is to capture some bandits that use the Revolution to justify their crimes. Jose Luis refuses because Esperanza is pregnant and his son will be born soon. La Valentina (figure 3.5)

(example 3.4) is heard as non-diegetic music after Panfilo leaves Jose Luis’ home (00:50:06). It keeps playing during a speech in which Esperanza tells his husband that despite her happiness for having him at home, she regrets being the cause for him to lose everything he cares about: his family, social position, money, tranquility and revolutionary ideals. She ends with the phrase “I feel that instead of encouragement, I chain you. Often women make men cowards.” José Luis calms Esperanza and assures her that in that moment the most important thing for him is his family. Nevertheless, the music betrays José Luis’ speech when La Valentina turns into El hijo desobediente in minor mode, after Esperanza gets into the house to prepare supper.

La Valentina La Valentina

Una pasión me domina A passion dominates me Es la que me ha hecho venir And that's the reason I've come, Valentina, Valentina Valentina, Valentina... Yo te quisiera decir I want to tell you that:

68 El informador, “Las ‘adelitas’, las otras revolucionarias,” entry posted November 19, 2010, https://www.informador.mx/Suplementos/Las-adelitas-las-otras-revolucionarias-20101119-0203.html (accessed April 6, 2019).

55

Dicen que por tus amores They say that if I love you Un mal me va a seguir Something evil will follow me ¡No le hace que sean el diablo! I don't care if it's the devil ¡Yo también me sé morir! because I know how to die too.

¿Si porque bebo tequila? If it's because I drink tequila Mañana bebo jerez then tomorrow I'll drink sherry, ¿Si porque me ves borracho? if it's because they see me drunk Mañana ya no me ves then tomorrow they won't see me.

Valentina, Valentina Valentina, Valentina, Rendido estoy a tus pies I'm head over heels for you, Si me han de matar mañana if I have to die tomorrow Que me maten de una vez let them kill me already.

Figure 3.5: Lyrics of La Valentina.

Example 3.4: La Valentina.

56

La Valentina has two functions within the movie. First, it is a direct association to the historical period of the film. Second, it expresses José Luis’ strong emotional connection with

Esperanza as he goes off to fight in a war, one in which he is likely to die. The overwhelming image of men leaving women is common to every military situation, but La Valentina is specifically linked to Mexico and indeed to the period of the Revolution. The well-known song expresses (with a hint of comedy, as the speech of an everyday, academically uneducated revolutionary), the bitterness of the scene in which José Luis calms her wife, without knowing the dark fate that awaits him around the corner. More generally, the song reinforces the personal stress of those for whom the Revolution was a life-and-death issue—all part of myth-building by

Fernández in the film. In this respect, the song’s second strophe states: They say that due to your love / bad things will follow me / It does not matter if it is the devil himself / I am ready to die.

The other female song is La Adelita (figure 3.6) (example 3.5). It is played on a mechanical piano during a party the bandits celebrate in the canteen where they hold Esperanza and her son (01:22:24). The song reflects the narrative of the film in that the lyrics express the notion of soldaderas (soldier women) dancing in the barracks of the revolutionary groups: If

Adelita wanted to be my wife / If Adelita was my wife already / I would buy her a silk dress / To take her to dance to the barracks. However, I also believe that the inclusion of La Adelita in this scene has to do with the idea of women following their men, regardless the side they chose within the revolutionary conflict (like the soldaderas did). In this respect, it is important to realize that in the movie, the bandits’ women react like their spouses and laugh at Esperanza’s tragedy, without any trace of ‘feminine’ empathy. The music also provides a tint of realism to the sequence. As discussed before, La Adelita was very popular during the Revolution, and it would not be strange for the different armed groups to use this song to enliven their parties.

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La Adelita La Adelita

Adelita se llama la joven Adelita is the name of the young girl A quien yo quiero y no puedo olvidar The one I love and I can’t forget En el mundo yo tengo una rosa In the world I have a rose Y con el tiempo la voy a cortar. And eventually I’m going to cut it off

Si Adelita quisiera ser mi esposa If Adelita wanted to be my wife Si Adelita fuera mi mujer If Adelita was my wife already Le compraría un vestido de seda I would buy her a silk dress Para llevarla a bailar al cuartel To take her to dance to the barracks

Adelita, por Dios te lo ruego Adelita for God’s sake I beg you Calma el fuego de esta mi pasión Calm the fire of my passion Porque te amo y te quiero rendido Because I love you and I am surrendered to you Y por ti sufre mi fiel corazón And my loyal heart suffers for you

Si Adelita se fuera con otro If Adelita went away with another man Le seguiría la huella sin cesar I would follow her by land and by sea Si por mar, en un buque de guerra By sea in a warship Si por tierra, en un tren melitar By land in a military train

Toca el clarín de campaña a la guerra The clarion calls to war Salga el valiente guerrero a pelear The brave warrior comes out to fight Correrán los arroyos de sangre Rivers of blood will flow Que gobierne un tirano, jamás A tyrant in power, never

Y si acaso yo muero en campaña And if I die in campaign Y mi cuerpo en la tierra va a quedar And if my body lies in the ground Adelita, por Dios te lo ruego Adelita for God´s sake I beg you Con tus ojos me vas a llorar Don´t cry for me

Ya no llores, querida Adelita Don´t cry anymore dear Adelita Ya no llores querida mujer Don´t cry anymore dear woman No te muestres ingrata conmigo Don´t be ungrateful with me Ya no me hagas tanto padecer Don´t make me suffer

Me despido de mi querida Adela I say goodbye now, my dear Adelita Ya me alejo de mi único placer I go away from my only love Nunca esperes de mí una cautela Never expect caution from me Ni te cambie por otra mujer Nor I go with another woman

Soy soldado y la patria me llama I am a soldier and the country calls me A los campos que vaya a pelear To the field to fight Adelita, Adelita de mi alma Adelita, Adelita my soul No me vayas por Dios a olvidar For God’s sake don’t forget me

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Por la noche andando en el campo At night when I walk through the field Oigo el clarín que toca a reunión I hear the clarion calling Y repito en el fondo de mi alma I repeat deep in my soul Adelita es mi único amor. Adelita is my only love

Figure 3.6: Lyrics of La Adelita.

Example 3.5: La Adelita.

All the songs that Fernández and Francisco Dominguez chose for this movie are rooted in the Mexican musical tradition; either as stylization of a specific traditional genre or as music representative of the historical context in which the plot was staged. Additionally, some songs keep some relationship with the geographical area in which the movie develops. This makes evident that Emilio Fernández and Francisco Dominguez did not choose songs randomly but took the time to select music that represented Mexican musical traditions and evoked the real sounds of the Mexican Revolution. Besides this Emilio Fernández used the aesthetic attributes of the songs to infuse dramatism to the movie and to offer symbolic representations of his notion of the nation. In their diegetic form, the songs that represent the protagonists are beautifully

59 displayed, in a highly stylized fashion. Both also produce a pause in the narrative. This totally draws the attention to the songs and the message they try to convey. At a superficial level Flor

Silvestre embellishes a sequence in which the Mexican landscape plays the main role. However, the gentle performance of the song fits the inner sensitivity of Esperanza. The girl (whose name means hope) represents the hope for a more sensitive Mexico in which people are valued for their virtues, regardless their origin or social class to which they belong. Flor Silvestre expresses this notion and by doing it the song addresses the ultimate purpose of the revolution: erase the class differences of the Mexican society. On the other hand, the performance of El hijo desobediente represents a landmark within the film’s narrative, as well as another perspective to

Fernández’s portrait of Mexico. Within the narrative, José Luis’s song marks the crucial point in which the protagonist realizes that his ideals will have a cost: from that moment on his life goes into a descendent spiral that leads him to his death. More generally, the song expresses the cost of the revolution: the life of hundreds of men and women who sacrificed to leave their sons to enter the promised land of an equalitarian Mexico.

Evidently, Fernández relied on the popularity of the songs he chose to create a sense of identity among Mexican audiences. Newly composed songs would lack the social resonance needed by the director for his larger socio/political purpose. In addition, popular songs would draw the audiences into the theaters to cater to the commercial demands of the Mexican film industry. Dominguez contributed to these purposes by using the songs’ melodies as initial motives to compose the film’s score. Thanks to this the orchestral (non-diegetic) music not only comments on the plot (either emotionally or descriptively), but also provides well-known musical references to the audience; it also reinforces the nationalistic ethos expressed by the narrative and visual elements of the film.

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Chapter 4

María Candelaria (1944): The Musical Representation of Indigenous People

4.1. Indigenismo: A necessary parenthesis

Living indigenous populations were almost invisible to the Mexican governments before the

Revolution.1 To counteract this, post-revolutionary regimes pretended to incorporate native groups into mainstream society. Even more, they offered pre-Hispanic culture as a social unifier because, despite the contrasting genetic and cultural heritages of the Mexican society, it represented the authentic essence of Mexican identity.2 Therefore, living Indians were to be treated with respect and dignity, and their traditions were to be valued as the true national past.

This ideology was called Indigenismo and influenced painting, literature, music, and cinema.

In light of the Indigenismo movement, artists and intellectuals consciously rejected

European culture and looked for inspiration in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. In the field of literature, novels like El Indio (1935) and El resplandor (1937) by Gregorio López y Fuentes and

Mauricio Magdaleno respectively, depicted the Indians as undesirable characters. However, these novels attributed the Indians’ defects to the exploitation and abuse they have historically suffered since the Spanish conquest and criticized the mestizo population for its incapacity to accept Indians as equals.3 By the 1940s, essayists such as Héctor Pérez Martínez, Agustin Yañez and Luis Villoro, started to give the ‘Indian issue’ a spiritual character. They argued that mestizos lived an internal struggle because the Indian and Spanish components of their soul were

1 Stephen E. Lewis, “The Nation, Education and ‘Indian Problem’ in Mexico, 1920-1940,” in The Eagle and the Virgin. Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940, edited by Mary Kay Vaughan and Sthephen E. Lewis (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 176-195. 2 Hill, “The Indigenismo of Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández: Myth, mestizaje and modern Mexico,” 4. 3 Doremus, Culture, Politics, and National Identity, 56.

61 against each other. The essayists believed that mestizos would treat Indians more humanely if they understood, accepted, and appreciated the indigenous component of their soul. For that reason, writers tried, on one hand, to explain the mentality of the Mexican people, on the other, to inspire respect and admiration for the ancient and current indigenous culture.4

For their part, Mexican painters started what is now known as the muralist movement.

Commissioned by the first post-revolutionary governments, artists like Diego Rivera (1886-

1957) and José Clemente Orozco expressed their vision of Mexican identity in huge mural paintings to Mexicans, many of whom were still illiterate. Despite the artists’ different styles and ideologies, they shared the common intention of portraying various social and political aspects of

Mexican life, as well as exalting the art and culture of the indigenous past. Regarding the later,

Rivera painted an idyllic pre-Hispanic Mexico, inhabited by a simple and innocent people, who adored a peaceful god, Quetzalcoatl (for example: The legend of Quetzalcoatl, 1930). Hernan

Cortés and the other Spanish conquers were depicted as evil and ambitious, capable of the most horrendous crimes.5 José Clemente Orozco was less idealistic and represented the Indians as only one element that produced the characteristics of the Mexican population (for example: The absorption of the Indian, 1926). He projected a vision of Mexico in which Mexicans should assume themselves to be the mixture of two cultures that contributed to give Mexico its mestizo identity: Spanish and Indian.6

In the case of cinema, Indigenismo was less strongly represented. Only six movies with indigenist themes were released during the 1930s: Janitzio (1934) by Carlos Navarro, El Indio

4 Ibid., 138-139. 5 Elsa Cecilia Frost, Las categorías de la cultura mexicana (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2009), 270. 6 Ibid., 274.

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(1938) by Armando Vargas, La India bonita (1938) by Antonio Helú, La rosa de Xochimilco

(1938) by Carlos Véjar, La noche de los mayas (1939) by Chano Ureta, and El signo de la muerte (1939) by Chano Ureta. It was not until Maria Candelaria (1943), directed by Emilio

Fernández, that a film focusing on the Indians and Indian culture reached wide popularity.7

While Emilio Fernández was not the first to make movies with indigenist themes, he showed a recurrent interest in this topic, and some of his most representative films belong to this genre (La

Perla, 1945; Río Escondido, 1947; Maclovia, 1948). Through the international success of María

Candelaria (1943), he put Mexican cinema on the map. Indigenist films strived to cultivate respect for the Indians by attributing to them dignity, purity, and morality. However, these effort in the realm of the cinema did little for the true social integration of the Indians into wider

Mexican society.

In music, the Indigesnismo inspired two movements: the Aztec Renaissance and the collection of folk music. Both streams were discussed in two national congresses (1926 and

1928) in which Mexican composers debated what constituted the national music. Some of the composers that participated in such discussions were Carlos Chavez, Silvestre Revueltas, Luis

Sandi, Daniel Castañeda, Jerónimo Baqueiro Foster, Pedro Michaca, Vicente T. Mendoza and

Francisco Dominguez (film composer).8

From a musical standpoint, the Aztec Renaissance movement (as it was termed) was led by composer Carlos Chavez, who saw in the ancient Aztecs a source of true Mexican musical identity. Chavez carefully studied indigenous instruments and descriptions of early Spanish

7 Doremus, Culture, Politics and National Identity, 73. 8 Marco Velázquez and Mary Kay Vaughan, “Mestizaje and Musical Nationalism in Mexico,” in The Eagle and the Virgin. Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940, edited by Mary Kay Vaughan and Sthephen E. Lewis (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 100.

63 historians that addressed the sound of Aztec music. He made systematic efforts to evoke pre-

Hispanic music and to include ancient Aztec instruments in his compositions.9 As part of the musical elements that Chavez identified as distinctively Aztec were the use of modal and pentatonic scales. In a lecture entitled La Música Azteca, which Chavez offered in 1928 at the

National University of Mexico, the composer declared: “The Aztecs showed a predilection for those intervals which we call the minor third and perfect fifth. This type of interval preference found appropriate expression in modal melodies which entirely lacked the semitone.”10 The composer restated these ideas several years later in the introduction to the program notes for an exhibition of Mexican Modern Art at the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 1940. As part of the exhibition, Chavez directed some of his works, as well as the music of other Mexican nationalistic composers. In his program notes Chávez explained: “applying this knowledge [a musical system based on octaves, fifths and thirds], they [the Aztecs] obtained their pentatonic scale without semitones,”11 and included the following example (figure 4.1):

Figure 4.1: Diagram included in the introduction of the program notes for the concerts arranged by Carlos Chávez in the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 1940.

9 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 46. 10 Jésus C. Romero, Musica precortesiana (México: Talleres Gráficos de la Editorial Stylo, 1947), 252– 253, quoted in Shawn M. Roberts, “Aztec Musical Styles in Carlos Chávez’s Xochipilli: An Imagined Aztec Music and Lou Harrison’s The Song of Quetzalcóatl: A Parallel and Comparative Study” (Ph.D. diss., West Virginia University, 2010), 65-66. 11 Herbert Weinstock, “Introduction by Carlos Chávez,” program notes for Mexican Music: Notes by Herbert Weinstock for Concerts Arranged by Carlos Chávez (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1940), 8.

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Another characteristic that, according to Chávez, distinguished Aztec music was the use of great variety of flutes, ocarinas,12 and whistles, as well as Aztec percussive instruments such as the Teponaztli and Huehuetl.13

Among the composers interested in the collection of folk music were Vicente T. Mendoza and Francisco Dominguez. Both belonged to the cultural missions sponsored by the Mexican government to collect music and dances from different regions of Mexico.14 Francisco

Dominguez presented his ideas about Mexican folk music to the congress committee in a paper entitled Nuevas orientaciones sobre el folklore mexicano (New Orientations in Mexican

Folklore). In this document he strongly criticized the arrangements of popular vernacular music and accused the composers who followed this practice of not knowing anything about ‘true’

Mexican folklore, since none of them had conducted fieldwork and therefore had never experienced ‘pure’ indigenous music. For Dominguez, compilation was the key composers becoming properly familiar with true Mexican folklore. In his view, after a slow process of assimilation, composers would eventually create individual original work.15 In this sense,

Dominguez’s point of view matches the prevailing Indigenismo ideology of the period, which strove for the glorification of the indigenous past. However, as Clara Meierovich comments,

12 An ocarina is a small egg-shaped wind instrument with a mouthpiece and holes for the fingers. 13 Shawn M. Roberts, “Aztec Musical Styles in Carlos Chávez’s Xochipilli: An Imagined Aztec Music and Lou Harrison’s The Song of Quetzalcóatl: A Parallel and Comparative Study” (Ph.D. diss., West Virginia University, 2010), 66 and 77. Teponaztlis are made of hollow hardwood logs, often fire-hardened. Teponaztlis have two slits on their topside, cut into the shape of an "H". The resultant strips or tongues are then struck with rubber-head wood mallets, or with deer antlers. Since the tongues are of different lengths, or carved into different thicknesses, the teponaztli produces two different pitches, usually near a third or fourth apart. Huehuetl is an upright tubular drum made from a wooden body opened at the bottom that stands on three legs cut from its base, with skin stretched over the top. It can be beaten by hand or wood mallet. 14 Claudia Carbajal, “85 años de la primera escuela de danza en México,” Revista Electrónica Imágenes. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, August 18, 2017, http://www.revistaimagenes.esteticas.unam.mx/primera_escuela_de_danza (accessed June 10, 2019). 15 Alejandro L. Madrid, Sounds of the Modern Nation: Music, Culture, and Ideas in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), 124.

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Francisco Dominguez’s compilations only made evident the lack of authentic indigenous musical features, revealing instead notorious mestizo characteristics.16 This is not strange because indigenous communities were musically influenced by the Spaniards during the colonial era

(1521-1821), and later by French who introduced salon music and bands when they invaded the country in 1861. In fact, bands became the most popular musical form during the Porfiriato

(1876-1911).17 They were a common spectacle in parks and plazas, where people gathered to listen a mixture of regional, national and cosmopolitan repertoires such as opera overtures, polkas, mazurkas, waltzes and marches. Thanks to the facility with which bands moved around the country, indigenous communities also participated of this musical mestizaje. Bands had such influence among indigenous communities that the instruments of these kind of ensembles coexisted with traditional chirimias, reed instruments, and drums.18

The waltz was one of the salon genres that came along with the French occupation (1862-

1867) and most influenced Mexican urban composers and later rural communities. Otto Mayer

Serra remarks that Mexican waltzes exhibited a simple harmonic structure built on relationships of tonic and dominant, with modulations to nearby tonalities. Mexican composers tried to replicate these simple musical gestures, evident from the regular formal structures drawn from the Classicism with their symmetrical melodies comprised of four or eight-measures phrases.

Only here and there did Mexican composers include virtuoso passages and attempt to evoke personal feelings through extramusical associations.19 This element can be seen from titles such

16 Clara Meierovich, Vicente T. Mendoza. Artista y Primer Folclorólogo Musical (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1995), 107. 17 The word Porfiriato refers to the dictatorial government of Porfirio Díaz who ruled the country from 1876 until the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. 18 Velázquez and Vaughan, “Mestizaje and Musical Nationalism in Mexico,” 96. 19 Otto Mayer-Serra, Panorama de la Música Mexicana. Desde la Independencia hasta la actualidad (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1941), 72-73.

66 as Amor (Love), Un sueño en el mar (A dream on the sea), Sobre las olas (Over the waves), etc.

In addition, it was also common to title these pieces with the name of the person to which the music was dedicated, usually the female associates of the composers. For example, Amelia,

Aurora, Eva, and Carmen are the titles that Juventino Rosas—sometimes considered “the most important composer of dance music from the Mexican XIX century”20—gave to some of his waltzes. The continuous association of waltzes with poetic and feminine topics made the genre the best vehicle to express feelings of love. In a general way, it is possible to differentiate

Mexican waltzes from their European counterparts through their intimate melodies, more leisurely pace, languid and yearning character, and muted instrumental timbre.21

Although the waltz found its first Mexican audiences in the salons of the big cities, the rhythm of this musical genre became so significant to Mexico that most of Mexican folk songs from the late XIX century were written in ¾ meter.22 In this respect, Vicente T. Mendoza comments that waltz-like folk songs continued to be composed through the time of the Mexican

Revolution and expanded their reach into rural communities the country during the twentieth century.23 It is important to note that, according to the same Mendoza, waltz-like folk melodies were usually played in a moderate tempo because they became synonymous with the idea of

“sentimental expression.”24

Perhaps the most well-known Mexican nineteenth-century century waltz is the one entitled Sobre las olas (c.1887) (example 4.1) by Juventino Rosas. This waltz enjoyed great popularity in several regions of Mexico since it was composed and exists in arrangements for

20 Ricardo Miranda and Aurelio Tello, La música en Latinoamérica vol. 4 (México: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2011), 121. 21 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 16. 22 Geijerstam, Popular music in México, 72. 23 Mendoza, La canción mexicana, 77. 24 Idem.

67 piano and military band.25 These arrangements made Sobre las olas one of the most popular nineteenth-century Mexican waltzes in Mexico, and internationally.26

Example 4.1: Juventino Rosas, Sobre las olas, mm. 1-32.

The initial section of Sobre las olas is comprised of four eight-measures phrases. The first phrase (example 4.1: mm. 1-8) is mostly in the tonic but ends with a half cadence that prepares the second phrase (example 4.1: mm. 9-16), which is mostly on the dominant and returns to the tonic through a perfect cadence. The third phrase (example 4.1: mm. 17-24) takes the initial eight-measure musical statement but drives the harmony towards the subdominant to begin the last eight-measure phrase (example 4.1: mm. 25-32), which returns to the tonic. For its part, the melody is made entirely of quarter and half notes, which are often extended through ties between the bar lines. There are no big leaps and the melody moves mostly in stepwise. In addition,

25 These arrangements were made by Miguel Ríos Toledano even before the music was sold to Wagner and Levien (music publishers) in 1888. By 1892 this company had published at least four instrumental editions and one vocal version that were distributed not only in Mexico but also the United States and some countries of Europe. Helmut Brenner, Juventino Rosas. His life, his work, his time (Michigan: Harmony Park Press, 2000), 22-24. 26 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 178.

68 chromatic notes are merely ornamental inflections, not the result of modulation. This kind of harmonic and melodic design is characteristic of Juventino Rosas’s waltzes and it is very likely that they influenced the Mexican waltz-like folk songs.27

Juventino Rosas’s influence is evident in Olas que el viento arrastra (c. 1898) (example

4.2), one of the songs that Vicente T. Mendoza included in his anthology, as part of the section dedicated to the Mexican waltz-like folk songs.28 The melody of this song comes from the rural region of Texmeluca in the Mexican state of Puebla. It contains two initial eight-measure phrases

(example 4.2: mm. 1-16) that basically follow the harmonic structure of the waltz Sobre las olas

(I-V-V-I). This includes the tilt to the subdominant in the second half of the melody (example

4.2: mm. 17-32). Olas que el viento arrastra also shows the simple rhythmic design and chromatic infections that characterize the melody of Sobre las olas.

Example 4.2: Anonimous, Olas que el viento arrastra, mm. 1-32.

27 Helmut Brenner, “La obra de Juventino Rosas: Un acercamiento musicológico,” Latin American Music Review/Revista de Música Latinoamericana Vol. 16, No. 1 (1995): 62 and 68. 28 Mendoza, La canción mexicana, 469.

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Olas que el viento arrastra exemplifies the typical connection to water that is frequently associated with waltz-like folk songs, all part of the idea of ‘sentiment.’ In this case, the lyrics refer to a boat that moves aimlessly on the agitated waves of the sea: Olas que el viento arrastra tras proceloso mar/inquieto barquichuelo que azota el huracán (Sea waves moved by the stormy wind/restless little boat whipped by the hurricane). This image expresses the feelings of the narrator, who establishes an analogy with his own desperate situation when he says: Gemido que al espacio, lanzar pudo el dolor/palabras sin sentido, ese soy yo (moaning, a pain launched to space/aimless words, that is me).

Musical Indigenismo sought to recreate the music of both the ancient and the living indigenous people. However, while the Aztec Renaissance was a construction unable to bring to life the sound of the real pre-Hispanic music, the song collectors were forced to engage the

European element within Mexican indigenous music, which by the twentieth century had already permeated the musical expression of the Mexican indigenous communities. Nevertheless, indigenist composers presented the results of their work as the representation of a true Mexican identity and used these musical elements in order to give a (presumed) indigenous sound to their musical compositions. This was also the case of Francisco Dominguez, whose own work and closeness to the Mexican musical nationalism led him to include elements of musical

Indigenismo for the score of María Candelaria (1944).

To a considerable degree, Dominguez’s ideas of how to represent indigenous musical culture came from the theories of composer Carlos Chávez, whom Dominguez knew through his attendance at Chávez’s lecture, The Aztec Music, in 1928.29 Another element upon which

29 Antonio Ernesto Cuadros-Pozo, “A History of Mexican Indians, their Music and Influence on the Music of Carlos Chávez” (Ph.D. diss., California State University Dominguez Hills, 1998), 27.

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Dominguez drew was the song collections of Vicente T. Mendoza: both Dominguez and

Mendoza participated in the national congresses of 1926 and 1928, and both belonged to the cultural missions sponsored by the Mexican government.30

4.2. María Candelaria (1944)

María Candelaria (1944) took Emilio Fernández’s career to the international level. It was the director’s first film with an indigenous theme, and it was awarded the Palme d'or at the Cannes

International Film Festival in 1946.31

María Candelaria (1944) is set in Xochimilco, a semi aquatic landscape near Mexico

City.32 In the manner of a flashback to 1909, this movie tells the story of María Candelaria and

Lorenzo Rafael, two humble Indians who want to get married. Yet, their community excludes

María and prohibits her from selling flowers in her native village because her mother was a prostitute. So, the couple raises a pig, which is their only hope to get the money for the wedding.

Aside from the villagers, María is constantly harassed by Don Damián, who is resentful of María’s indifference and claims that she owes him money; he eventually kills the pig. Don

Damián owns the only store in the town and controls the quinine that the government periodically sends to the Indians. When María falls sick due to the bite of a mosquito, Don

Damián refuses to give Lorenzo the quinine that María is entitled to have. Desperate, Lorenzo

30 Jesus Márquez Carrillo, “Causa perdida. Vicente T. Mendoza y la investigación folklórica en México, 1926-1964,” Estudio. Revista de la facultad de filosofía y letras, BUAP (1999): 99. 31 Julia Tuñón, “Tu mirada me descubre: el ‘otro’ y la reafirmación nacionalista del cine mexicano. En torno al premio a María Candelaria (Fernández, 1943), en Cannes,” Historias 74, No. 2 (2010): 81-98. 32 Xochimilco is a semi-aquatic region that belongs to the rural area of Mexico City. In 1987, Xochimilco was designated UNESCO heritage site because this place is considered the last example of the peasant Aztecs’ way of life. Ancient Aztecs built artificial islands (chinampas) that even nowadays are used to grow flowers and vegetables. People from Xochimilco sell these products to the visitors or local markets.

71 breaks into Don Damián’s store and steals the medicine, along with a wedding dress for María.

On the day of the wedding, Lorenzo Rafael is arrested and given a one-year jail sentence.

María’s only hope to save Lorenzo is a foreign painter who is obsessed with painting “a female Indian of pure Mexican race.” The artist agrees to help Lorenzo in exchange for María’s services as model. María accepts the job but refuses to pose naked for the artist. The climax of the film comes when the painter uses María’s face for one of his works and completes the canvas using the naked body of another model. When the people from Xochimilco see the painting, they believe it is a true portrait of María and initiate a chase that ends with María Candelaria being stoned to death. Lorenzo Rafael, unable to stop the crowd as he is locked in jail, sees his beloved die as she says, “I did nothing wrong. Lorenzo Rafael, I did nothing wrong.”

Andrea Noble argues that María Candelaria is more than a Mexican Indian: she is a symbol of Mexico itself, of the nation’s syncretism and hybrid culture. According to Noble, this is expressed through María Candelaria’s constant visual association to the Virgin of

Guadalupe,33 the most representative example of the different Spanish idols adopted and adapted to the Mexican context by indigenous cultures.34 On the other hand, Joanne Hershfield sees

María Candelaria’s dual entity in relation to La malinche, the indigenous woman that supposedly betrayed her own people by becoming Hernán Cortés’ interpreter and ultimately his wife.

Despite the negative connotations associated to La Malinche, this woman functioned as an

33 Andrea Noble, “If looks could kill: image wars in María Candelaria,” Screen 42 (2001), 80. 34 According to legend, a dark-skinned apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian named Juan Diego in 1531, just ten years after the Spanish destruction of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The vision occurred on a hill that had been the site of a temple dedicated to the Aztec virgin Tonantzin, a goddess of corn who was often depicted carrying her divine son in a cradle on her back. The Catholic Church officially recognized Juan Diego’s vision and allowed a small shrine to be built on Tonantzin’s hill. In 1631 the Catholic church initiated a program to complete the Indians’ evangelization and, because of the Virgin of Guadalupe’s acceptance among the Indians, she was established the as Mexico’s own Indian Virgin.

72 intermediary between the Indians and their oppressors. For that reason, La Malinche as well as

María Candelaria are representatives of Mexican national identity.35 Anne T. Doremus extends this sense of the symbolic to Lorenzo Rafael and asserts that the two protagonists together represent the “national spirit.”36

Despite the different approaches, it is important to note that all the three writers acknowledge that María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael are neither totally Indian nor Spanish, but something in between: Mexicans. For that reason, the two protagonists are different from the other Indians in the film. María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael represent the (presumed) virtues of indigenous people, causing scholars to describe the couple as honorable, beautiful, innocent, pure, and exemplary. In contrast, the villagers from Xochimilco (the other Indians) are described as petty, cruel, intolerant, irrational, and barbaric.37

Regarding the above, María Candelaria (1943) reflects one of the biggest contradictions of the Indigenismo movement. An essential aspect of this ideology was the incorporation of indigenous populations into the Mexican society, which was understood as common people bound by language, character, history and race. This meant for the Indians to become mestizos,

“if not genetically, at least culturally and linguistically.”38 In the movie María Candelaria and

Lorenzo Rafael are different from the other Indians because they represent ideal subjects for integration or, as Matthew J.K. Hill suggest, “mestizos in embryo.”39

35 Joanne Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 1940-1950 (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1996), 60. 36 Doremus, Culture, Politics, and National Identity, 149. 37 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 62. Tierney, Emilio Fernández, 89. Doremus, Culture, Politics, and National Identity, 149. 38 Hill, “The Indigenismo of Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández: Myth, mestizaje and modern Mexico,” 15. 39 Ibid., 41.

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The protagonists’ European side is expressed by their skin color. In this regard, Dolores

Tierney notes that María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael are interpreted by actors whose skin is light and whose features are not indigenous. Beyond being a requirement of the star system, this reflects the valorization of whiteness as part of the Indians’ integration to the Mexican society.

This notion was expressed by the first post-revolutionary secretary of education, José

Vasconselos. In his text La raza cósmica (The Cosmic Race, 1925), he offers a utopian vision, in which a cosmic race would emerge from the mixing of the best qualities of the existing four races. The problem with The Cosmic Race is that it suggests that ‘black’ races should aspire to merge with ‘white’ races in order to rid off of their defects.40 This notion survived in the views of several post-revolutionary governments and, although there was an expression of the desire to reach the level of development of the United States or Europe, it also acquired racial connotations.41 Although the movie pretends to put forward how damaging the European tradition of representation (the painter) was for the Indians, Fernández could not avoid establishing the protagonists’ closeness to their European heritage through racial differentiations.

In short, the movie exposes what Mexico is or aspires to be after the Revolution: the mixture of the best parts of the two cultures that conform to the idea of ‘nation.’ This explains why the story is told in the manner of a flashback to 1909, one year before the outbreak of the armed conflict. The year 1909 could be seen as the last phase of a Garden of Eden; a time before the Revolution where the simplicity and purity of being Indian is still possible. But, as this is on the eve of the armed conflict, the tensions and challenges are already there. The moment in time pictured in the movie takes on a special resonance, since the date of 1910 is symbolic. The

Revolution ushers in a new era that brings many good things—but the garden of the past, of a

40 Tierney, Emilio Fernández, 76. 41 Ibid., 86.

74 certain kind of simplicity and idealism of ‘the Indian’ is gone forever. Even Indians have to embrace a ‘new Mexico.’ As Joanne Hershfield suggests, through crossed historical references,

María Candelaria becomes a martyr to Mexico’s death (the Spanish conquest) and rebirth (the

Mexican Revolution).42 In the last scene, there is a rebirth of Mexico as a unified nation in the body of María Candelaria, the personification of the new Mexico as the Virgin of Guadalupe, a symbol that unites all elements of Mexicanness.

Regardless the inherent contradictions one may find in the story of María Candelaria

(1943), the music of the film reinforces the elements Emilio Fernández chose to present as his notion of the Mexican nation: the brilliance and rationality of María Candelaria and Lorenzo

Rafael as individuals, the irrationality of the villagers from Xochimilco, the hybrid entity of the protagonists, and the negative elements of the European culture. The score is mostly orchestral and follows the musical conventions of classical Hollywood films of the late 1930s and 1940s.

Francisco Dominguez provided leitmotifs for each of the main characters, and these themes are transformed in the tradition of Max Steiner and Erich Korngold according to the characters’ circumstances, feelings, or states of mind. Together with the general approach to scoring the film, Dominguez infused his music with a nationalistic character that matches Emilio

Fernández’s intentions.43

Francisco Dominguez used three main leitmotifs in his music to this movie. The first theme is built on an A-minor descending pentatonic scale (example 4.3). The use of the pentatonic scale, presumed to be drawn from the Aztec Renaissance, signals the pre-Hispanic

42 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 60. 43 For a summary regarding the appearance of music within the film see chart María Candelaria (1944) in the Appendix of this thesis.

75 aspect of the indigenous people.44 Regarding this, Jacqueline Avila considers that the pentatonic leitmotif represents María Candelaria, her feelings, and the villagers’ actions against her. 45

However, I would argue that the theme does not move exclusively around the protagonist and has a broader meaning as a leitmotif for Indians as a whole. But, as I will demonstrate later, the

44 In the early seventeenth century missionaries and explorers began to write native North American melodies in European music notation. Eighteenth and nineteenth century scholars published transcriptions of American Indian music and composers created arrangements that reflected current ideas about Native Americans. Regardless of their background and orientation, transcribers of American Indian music have exerted a vigorous influence on popular conceptualizations of native music and culture. Arrangements of American Indian music have tended to emphasize style traits selected to signify primitivism. These traits are the use of open fifths in the bass part to represent a drumbeat, inverted dotted notes as melodic ornamentation, pentatonic scales, and heavily accented duple meters. Such clichés in popular representations of native music have contributed to the construction and perpetuation of cultural stereotypes (Lindsay Levin, XXX). This ‘Indian’ musical trope can be found in Dvorak’s music written in the New World (String Quartet No. 12 ‘American,’ 1893) to suggest American indigenous people as opposed to those of European descent. It has been employed in Hollywood movies too to reference ‘Indians’ (Fort Apache, 1948), as well as in the music of Broadway musicals such as Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (1946), where the Indians are all given modal tunes of a minor mode type. In the case of Mexico, the musical representation of the Indians has one main referent: Carlos Chávez. By the 1920s popular canciones (songs) had become the main form of musical nationalism and, despite some Debussy-inspired experiments, the romantic musical language was still very influential among Mexican composers. This was expressed by Chávez himself in a letter he sent to Edgar Varese whom he met in New York in 1923: “Here [Mexico] people hardly know of the existence of Debussy; they do not know Mussorgsky and even less what happened after Debussy” (Saavedra, 117). Chávez shared with the American composers the idea of moving away from European musical standards to find his own voice and his music adopted a language closer to the neoclassicism and primitivism. “Primitivism as a way of combining the modernist and the non-European was unprecedent in Mexico… This gave Chávez the potential to signify the national… music that evoked not the mestizo present but the indigenous present or, even better, the pre-Hispanic past” (Saavedra, 112-113). Aztec music did not survive the Spanish conquest and, although Carlos Chávez grounded his theories and compositional process in the accounts of early Spanish historians and the analysis of surviving Aztec instruments, he could not escape from the generalized notion of ‘Indian’ music to represent the ‘primitive’ or pre-Hispanic musical world. This is evident in the composer’s major Aztec-inspired works (El fuego nuevo, 1921; Los cuatro soles, 1925; Sinfonía india, 1935; Xochipilli, 1940), in which ostinatos, driving repeated notes, and pentatonic scales are crucial to give the music an ‘Indian’ sound (see in this regard, Cuadros-Pozo, 32-39). There is no information in relation to Dominguez’s influences as film composer but by the 1940s Carlos Chávez was a major figure in the Mexican political and musical environment. Francisco Dominguez (who was also immersed in the Mexican musical nationalism) could have easily drawn the Indian trope from Chávez’s music to apply these traits in his work as a film composer. See, Victoria Lindsay Levin ed., Writing American Indian Music. Historic Transcriptions, Notations and Arrangements, Recent Research in American Music vol. 44 (Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2002), XXX. Leonora Saavedra, “Carlos Chávez’s Polysemic Style: Constructing the National, Seeking the Cosmopolitan,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 68, no. 1 (2015): 8-118. Cuadros-Pozo, “A History of Mexican Indians, their Music and Influence on the Music of Carlos Chávez,” 32-39. 45 Avila, “Los Sonidos del Cine: Cinematic Music in Mexican Film, 1930-1950,” 133.

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‘Indian leitmotif’ has a double function. On one hand, it represents the inner spiritual qualities of the indigenous people, as embodied in María Candelaria; on the other, it is linked to the irrationality of the Indians, usually (but not exclusively) associated with the villagers from

Xochimilco. These similarities and differences are coded in the music through matters of instrumentation: the brass section is employed to suggest the irrational actions of the Indians, whereas strings and woodwinds evoke their innocence or purity. These musical associations betray the influence of Hollywood because in American films villains are usually represented in music through strings and brass scored in lower registers. In contrast, the (presumed) virtue of heroines is suggested through gently flowing melodies and harmonies that evoke yearning.46

Since María Candelaria is an Indian, Francisco Dominguez employed a pentatonic melody to musically embody her. And the scoring of this melody employs the intimate timbre of the woodwinds to express her pure soul.

Example 4.3: María Candelaria. Indians leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack).

The instrumentation also establishes contrasts in time. Dominguez marks the temporal distance between the sound of pre-Hispanic and post-Hispanic Indians immediately after the title music. A series of close-ups of pre-Hispanic statues conclude with the image of an indigenous

46 See, Timothy E. Scheurer, Music and Mythmaking in Film: Genre and the Role of the Composer (North Carolina: McFarland and Company Inc., 2008), 116-121. James Buhler, David Neumeyer and Rob Deemer, Hearing the Movies. Music and Sound in Film History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 16.

77 woman standing next to a stone mask that resembles her face (00:02:15). Joanne Hershfield is right to see in this sequence Fernandez’s intention of linking the pre-Hispanic past to the present.47 To musically represent the past (embodied in pre-Hispanic statues), Dominguez abandons the sound of the orchestra and plays a pentatonic melody in a high-range flute, accompanied by a marimba and other percussive instruments that evoke those used by the ancient Aztecs (example 4.4). In contrast, the use of the full orchestra suggests the world of living Indians, such as María Candelaria and the villagers from Xochimilco, Indians whose lives have been influenced by European traditions.

Example 4.4: María Candelaria. Music of the “pre-Hispanic figures” scene (transcription from the soundtrack).

Before this musical flash back, the title music seems to summarize the whole plot in the manner of a Hollywood film (00:00:00). The brass section plays the Indian leitmotif to set the underlying mood of the movie. The pentatonic design of the theme immediately announces an

Indian story in a fanfare-like fashion. The solemn character of the leitmotif’s first statement anticipates the tragic fate of María Candelaria, who will succumb to the irrationality of her own people. The instrumentation changes gradually, as the music begins to focus upon inner ‘space’ of Maria's emotions. The string section, harmonized with consonant harmonies, suggests the holiness and purity of María Candelaria. The woodwinds in unison then evoke María’s

47 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema Mexican Woman, 55.

78 indigenous origins. These elements are encased in freely composed music of a sad and intimate character that matches the sorrow that the protagonist suffers (almost in solitude) throughout the movie.

After a short transitional passage, the orchestra plays the leitmotif that represents the love between María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael. The love motive is written in a 3/4 meter, in the style of a waltz-like Mexican folk song (example 4.5). This is evident in the simple rhythmic design, composed of half and quarter notes, the regular phrases, and the passing chromatic notes within tonic and dominant harmonic relationships. The selection of this genre for the love motif is representationally linked to the sentimental expressions of rural peoples that are associated with waltz-like Mexican folk song, as described previously. This ‘Mexican sound’ conveys the idea of the love between two Mexican people, people who are also Indian. And in characterizing the love couple this way, the music speaks to nation’s hybrid social/racial context. The bright timbre of the trumpets along with the major mode of the love motive also expresses what

Lorenzo means to María, since he is the light of happiness in her life. The final music of the opening credits reinforces what the music has already suggested: we are about to see a Mexican

“tragedy of love.”

Example 4.5: María Candelaria. Love leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack).

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The next time the Indian leitmotif is heard in the film, the theme establishes for the viewer/listener the connection between the music and the lead female character. Early in the film Don Damián sends one of his workers to collect the money that María Candelaria owes him.

As the worker calls the protagonist’s name, the camera shows María Candelaria and the leitmotif for the Indians is heard as soon as she stands up to meet the man. When she hears the bad news about her debt, María decides to sell flowers “whatever happens.”

Immediately after, María picks flowers from the garden behind her hut. Transitional waltz-like music links this scene to another of María Candelaria floating through the canals of

Xochimilco in a canoe full of flowers to sell. Woodwinds dominate the sound of the orchestra.

As the title music anticipated, the woodwinds’ intimate timbre conveys María’s ‘sensibility’ and inner feelings. The music has a yearning character that matches the images of María picking flowers and paddling. When the villagers hear the singing with which María announces her products, they run to their canoes to create a blockade (00:12:15). Maria’s pregón (street cry) may be interpreted as a Selling leitmotif, since it is also heard as non-diegetic music several sequences later when the couple tries to sell flowers in a marketplace outside Xochimilco

(00:26:29). However, in its diegetic form, this street cry expresses the uniqueness of María

Candelaria. In this respect, it is important to note that only the protagonists are allowed to

‘invade’ the diegesis with their music and when they do, María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael express the purity of their being. As Jacquelin Ávila notes, María Candelaria sings “in a high soprano register, more reminiscent of a singer trained in the art music tradition rather than a folkloric singing style.”48 This contrast the street cry of the Indian woman who spreads the word about María’s nude. She also sells flowers, but her singing is more like an annoying untuned

48 Avila, “Los Sonidos del Cine: Cinematic Music in Mexican Film,” 133-134.

80 recitative. María’s high-register well-tuned voice conveys a sense of the inner sensitivity that the other Indians do not possess.

Violin tremolos under María’s singing announce the imminent conflict as she moves closer to the canoes that block her way. Long shots of María paddling alternate with extreme long shots of the villagers’ canoes, which increase in number at every new extreme long shot.

The leitmotif for the Indians is repeated several times, and with each cut the brass section adds more instruments, with the music adopting a more agitated character. When Maria stops rowing and confronts the villagers, medium-distance shots reveal her disappointment and defeat before the intolerance of the people from Xochimilco, who look at her with undisguised contempt. The instrumentation of the theme, which reaches its thickest texture when María is face to face with the villagers, goes from a brass-dominated orchestra to the woodwinds section by itself, thereby becoming much more intimate. Lorenzo appears in this scene and orders María to return to her chinampa. As she paddles back, a lonely flute suggests María’s total defeat in face of the intolerance she has encountered as her leitmotif, the melody playing for the last time.

Regarding this sequence, Jacqueline Ávila argues that the gradual crescendo and addition of instruments accentuate the sensation of expansion produced by the camera framings. In her view, the musical expansion also conveys the oppression the villagers exert on María

Candelaria.49 Although Ávila’s first interpretation is correct, I believe that more than oppression, the gradual addition of (mostly brass) instruments expresses the deplorable-irrational side of the indigenous people, which sharpens when they feel empowered by the strength of the group. As I discussed before, the instrumentation expresses the double-sided behavior of the Indians. Brass instruments correspond to the Indians’ irrationality, while woodwinds suggest their virtuosity-

49 Idem.

81 rationality. An example of this is the ‘blockade sequence,’ but this is also evident in two scenes in which the essentially virtuous and rational protagonists lose their temper before the injustices they suffer. When Lupe throws rocks at María’s hut, in a fit of anger she pushes her rival into the water. Since María’s first reaction reflects confusion, the initial statements of the Indian leitmotif are played by the woodwinds; but as María Candelaria gets closer to Lupe, the orchestra grows in intensity and the brass section picks up the theme. Violin tremolos add drama to the scene, and the Indian leitmotif is varied in the way it did during the ‘blockade sequence.’ The orchestra lessens only to allow Lupe’s words to be heard before she is pushed into the water: “I deserve Lorenzo Rafael more than you… Is not my fault that you are what you are.”

Lorenzo Rafael also shows his irrational side when he breaks into Don Damián’s store to steal the quinine that would cure María. The brass section plays the Indian leitmotif as soon as

Lorenzo sees the quinine through the window. When he breaks the glass, the music takes on a triumphal character, as if Lorenzo Rafael is enjoying his symbolic revenge. The Indian leitmotif alternates between low strings and brass, which dominate in the orchestra when Lorenzo breaks the cabinets that contain the quinine. Here the brass section sounds still louder when the protagonist decides to take the dress that María would wear in her wedding.

After the blockade incident, Lorenzo tries to convince Don Damián to accept his vegetables to pay María’s debt. However, Don Damián ignores Lorenzo so that Lorenzo is forced to return home without an answer. When María hears Lorenzo’s canoe approach her chinampa, she hurries to meet him. The orchestra announces this meeting with the Love leitmotif, which is heard for the first time within the film. Several sequences after, the idea of the lovers’ union is expressed once more by the Love leitmotif, but this time the theme is heard diegetically. Lorenzo Rafael returns home at night and plays the Love leitmotif in a reed-flute

82 outside his hut (00:32:54). The music wakes up María who hurries to meet Lorenzo in the middle of the night.

Besides the nationalistic value of the waltz-like melody, visual elements play an important role in the construction of Fernández’s notion of the indigenous world. The flute that

Fernández chose for this sequence resembles the kind of instruments Dominguez found during his trips around Mexico (figure 4.2).50 This suggests that Francisco Dominguez drew some ideas from his field work, and Emilio Fernández listened to the view of his composer. Beyond this,

Dominguez expressed the notion of Indian-ness by the kind of music that emerges from the instrument. The lonely melody in a rubato tempo suggests the minimal technique of an amateur or ‘primitive’ player. This, along with the sound of crickets singing in the night, gives this sequence a tint of realism that the Mexican press perceived as the representation of true Mexican indigenous identity.51

The success of Lorenzo Rafael’s sequence comes from the distance the flute marked in its relationship to the Western European musical tradition. From my point of view, the sound of crickets, the timbre of the instrument and the rubato tempo suggesting an amateur performer, are factors that also play an important role in the perception of this sequence as the representation of

Mexican indigenous people. In addition to María’s street cry, Lorenzo Rafael’s performance

50 Francisco Dominguez, Luis Sandi and Roberto Téllez Girón, Investigación folklórica en México vol. 1 (México: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1962), 130 and 184. 51 Alfonso De Icaza from the magazine El Redondel wrote after the premiere of María Candelaria in 1944: “Everything sounds to Mexican and therefore to the glory of Mexico. Distinctive here is the expressive music by Francisco Dominguez, especially expressive in certain passages, like that in which Lorenzo Rafael plays sadly his primitive instrument.” For his part Ángel Lázaro, a Spanish reporter from the Excélsior dairy, went even further and marked the nationalistic value of this flute in comparison to classic Greek models: “Nor Dionysus nor Apollo: nor the flute of the satyr, nor the one of the pastor of Garcilaso. No. The flute that this Indian plays in the night to call his beloved is the flute with which an entire race used to express under the stars, religiously, its attitude to life. Is the voice of the land.” García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 50-51.

83 expresses his uniqueness. By being the only Indian in the movie who plays an instrument,

Lorenzo Rafael symbolically conveys the inner sensitivity of his soul. Besides, the performance of a waltz-like melody in his reed flute expresses a synthesis of European influence and an indigenous essence.

Figure 4.2: Pictures included in Francisco Dominguez’s report on the composer’s fieldwork in the State of Sonora, Mexico (1933).

The Love leitmotif comes back later in the movie but, unlike Lorenzo Rafael’s sequence, it appears as non-diegetic music (00:38:30). The theme is preceded by a long passage that accompanies a sequence in which Maria and Lorenzo take a romantic paddle in Lorenzo’s canoe, as the couple usually did on nights when the moon is full. The music contains three sections that correspond to the changes on the narrative: ‘Introduction,’ ‘Waltz section’ and, ‘Love leitmotif’.

The sequence starts with a medium close-up of the water (00:36:12), whose undulation is suggested by tremolo violins. Then there is a dissolve to a long shot that shows the canoe entering to the canal, with the figure of Lorenzo reflected in the water. María Candelaria picks flowers absently while Lorenzo observes her, spellbound. The passage that accompanies the beginning of this sequence (‘Introduction’) (example 4.6), is the same with which Dominguez expressed the transition from the cinematic ‘real world’ to the painter’s imagination (00:08:22).

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According to Julia Tuñón, the use of the flashback from the memory of the painter endows the film’s narrative with an “ethereal, timeless and lyrical tone.”52 As in the stroll’s sequence, the first shot of the painter’s daydream shows the watery soil of Xochimilco, with the camera framing the scene to expose the landscape. In both cases the characters are entering into an

‘ethereal, timeless’ state of mind, produced by the notion of the idyllic Xochimilco. The painter also enters to this world by saying, “she used to live near here, in a chinampa full of flowers.”

María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael are wordless, but when they decide to take a trip in the canoe, the landscape becomes the main character.

The musical ‘Introduction’ expresses the notion of an ‘ethereal, timeless’ dream-like state of mind, as well as the aquatic and floral character of Xochimilco. Francisco Dominguez evokes this unearthly and aromatic sensation through unprepared harmonic transitions and an uneven rhythmic articulation. In this respect, although this ‘Introduction’ is comprised of regular eight- measure phrases, the harmony moves through distant harmonic regions, and Dominguez never prepares the transitions to the new tonalities.53 Regarding the rhythm, the melody is made of sixteenth notes and triplets that, if listened to casually, might pass for a waltz. However, despite the triplets, this section is written in a 4/4 meter. The juxtaposition of triplets and eight notes produces a not very grounded rhythmic sensation that conveys the notion of being suspended on unearthly thoughts. This, along with the unprepared harmonic transitions and the timbre of the celesta that accompanies the melody in the woodwinds, endow the music with a magic ethos that

52 Julia Tuñón, “María Candelaria,” in The Cinema of Latin America, edited by Alberto Elena and Marina Díaz López (London: Wallflower Press, 2003), 45. 53 The first phrase alternates between E-major and C-major chords (example 4.6: mm. 1-2). The second phrase seems to establish a tonic in A minor and moves to sub-dominant (D-minor) and dominant (E- major) chords but the harmony never reaches the new tonic (example 4.6: mm. 3-4) and the next phrase starts on a G-minor chord that alternates with an A-major chord (example 4.6: mm. 5-6). The harmony shifts to A-minor to start the next phrase (example 4.6: mm. 7-8). This phrase presents a B-major chord that works as a dominant to finally reach the tonic, which is colored by a sixth interval in the upper voice of the chord (example 4.6: m.9).

85 places the viewer in the emotional space of the characters. While in the painter’s sequence the musical ‘Introduction’ is transformed into the Indian leitmotif to introduce the protagonist, the last chord of the ‘Introduction’ to the canoe scene becomes the beginning of the ‘Waltz section,’ now in a ¾ meter. The camera marks this transition with another close up of the water and the couple continues the stroll (00:37:02).

Example 4.6: María Candelaria. María’s canoe stroll (Introduction) (transcription from the soundtrack).

Dominguez’s ‘Waltz section’ resembles a Mexican waltz-like folk song (example 4.7).

As with Olas que el viento arrastra, this musical passage is comprised of two eight-measure phrases, in which long notes produce a rhythmic caesura that marks the internal sub-phrases. In addition, the melody contains chromatic notes, and the rhythm is entirely shaped simple rhythmic figures (quarter, half and dotted half notes) that are often extended through ties across

86 the bar lines. The harmony is simple (tonic, subdominant and dominant), a simplicity that matches the simplicity of the Mexican waltz-like folk songs. Dominguez employs the same instrumentation he used in the ‘Introduction’ (flutes, clarinets, strings and celesta) in order to maintain the ‘ethereal, timeless’ atmosphere.

Example 4.7: María Candelaria. María´s canoe stroll (waltz section) (transcription from the soundtrack).

It is important here to remember that, although Mexican waltz-like songs typically express the sentimental expressions of rural peoples, they are sometimes also associated with the movement of water. In this sense, while the Love leitmotif alludes to María Candelaria’s and

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Lorenzo Rafael’s sentimental expressions, the ‘Waltz section’ also expresses the aquatic character of Xochimilco. But the waltz that characterizes Xochimilco is not a glittering Viennese waltz like On the Beautiful Blue Danube. Instead, Francisco Dominguez writes an intimate

Mexican waltz-like folk song to represent in music a landscape that is distinctively Mexican. In this respect, Xochimilco represents a corner of pre-Hispanic Mexico inhabited by both criollos and mestizos. With this waltz-like folk song, Xochimilco represents the fusion of the two worlds that comprise the greater Mexico.

Fernández takes a long time to show this landscape. After all, the original name of the movie was Xochimilco.54 The special beauty of this place is even more evident in the first shot in which the waltz music accompanies the sequence (00:37:06). This shot lasts almost the first sixteen-measures of the waltz before cutting to another shot of María, whose voiceover thanks the full moon for illuminating the night sky. The camera pans, following Lorenzo’s canoe. The extreme long shot allows the audience to see the sky full of clouds, the mountains in the background, the trees vertically crossing the sky, and the chinampas, and the flowers floating over the canal reflected in Lorenzo’s canoe. After that, the camera cuts to a low angle that evokes María’s gaze looking the ahuehuetes: the long-shaped trees native from Xochimilco. The focus upon the landscape of Mexico finds the perfect complement in the waltz-like music drawn from the Mexican cultural heritage.

The final musical section of this sequence corresponds to the ‘Love leitmotif’ (example

4.8) which appears again as non-diegetic music. The harmonic design of this section continues the simplicity of the ‘Waltz section.’ The first phrase moves back and forward between the

54 Tuñón, “Tu mirada me descubre: el ‘otro’ y la reafirmación nacionalista del cine mexicano. En torno al premio a María Candelaria (Fernández, 1943), en Cannes,” 87.

88 subdominant and dominant chords of A major and reaches its tonic only at the end of the first phrase (example 4.8: mm. 1-8). During the second phrase (example 4.8: mm. 9-16), A major becomes the subdominant, and the phrase follows the same harmonic and melodic design of the love leitmotif’s first phrase.

Example 4.8: María Candelaria. María’s canoe stroll (Love leitmotif) (transcription from the soundtrack).

The love leitmotif closes the idyllic time the couple spends together and represents the climatic point of the whole sequence. María is bitten by a mosquito (00:38:24) and the two lovers dismiss this event without imagining the repercussions it will have later in the movie. The music replicates this lack of concern with a short introduction to the Love leitmotif, which plays immediately after the moment when Maria is bitten. María is lying on the canoe, while Lorenzo is standing to paddle. The medium close-ups seem to evoke the gaze of the characters. Low angle close-ups of Lorenzo correspond to Maria’s gaze, while high angle close-ups of Maria appear to come from Lorenzo’s perspective. María initiates the intimacy of the moments as she asks: “Do you really love me Lorenzo Rafael?” Lorenzo Rafael answers with a shy smile, and María is convinced: “Yes, you really love me.”

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In a later scene, Lorenzo Rafael is thrown in prison for stealing the quinine that would cure María from the illness the mosquito transmitted to her. Desperate, María visits the painter, who in exchange for his help, asks the couple to allow him to paint a portrait of María. After the canvas is completed using María Candelaria’s face on another model’s nude body, a resident of

Xochimilco recognizes María Candelaria in the portrait and quickly rushes back to the village to inform their residents about the sinful painting. As she runs back to Xochimilco, the Indian leitmotif accompanies her, anticipating the violence that will soon take place (01:27:16). The leitmotif sounds once each time there is a new shot of a villagers running back to the painter’s studio; the orchestra gradually adds more instruments to grow in intensity. When the villagers reach the studio and see the portrait, the brass section plays the Indian leitmotif. The music, now heard at a fortissimo level, matches the reaction of the villagers who after the initial astonishment, claim that María Candelaria must be thrown out from Xochimilco because her presence is a shame for the community.

This event triggers an irrational chase that starts with the image of María’s rival furiously ringing a bell to encourage the villagers to capture her. The images of a group of Indians running

(torches in hands) after a defenseless woman are suggested by music that quotes the Indian leitmotif several times, mostly in the brass section. Jacqueline Avila has already identified the main variation of the original leitmotif (figure 4.3), one that accentuates the drama of the sequence through a more agitated rhythm. However, she has omitted two important issues. At certain points during the sequence, Dominguez sacrifices the pentatonic character of the music in favor of long passages of descending chromatic figurations played mostly in the strings. This happens most notably in the scene in which María shrinks before the image of the multitude invading her chinampa (01:36:56). A pervasive chromaticism in the music conveys the

90 anguished soul of the character in the face of intolerance from her own people and the real menace of death.

Figure 4.3: María Candelaria. Main variant of María Candelaria’s leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack by Jacqueline Avila).

On the other hand, there is still another leitmotif that interweaves with that of María

Candelaria in order to represent the causes of the protagonist’s tragedy. This leitmotif belongs to the painter who, in his advantaged position of ‘white man’ interferes with the life of the Indians, without knowing that his actions will trigger a catastrophe. In this sense it is important to remember that it was because of the painter’s obsession that María gets stoned. The Painter leitmotif (example 4.9) sounds several times in the movie. First (a fragment), when the artist sees

María for the first time and pays an Indian to follow her (00:28:00). Then, when he visits María to ask her if she would allow him to paint her; scared, María hides inside the corn fields until the painter leaves her hut, evidently disappointed (00:55:24). Still another time, when María

Candelaria escapes from the studio, where a model tries to undress the protagonist (01:25:40).

And, ultimately (in variation), when it is heard during the final sequence in which the people from Xochimilco chase María with blind intolerance (01:30:18). In this case the Painter's leitmotif interacts with that of the Indians and its variations, as well as the figurations marked by chromatic descendent.

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Example 4.9: María Candelaria. Painter leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack).

From my point of view, the appearance of the Painter's leitmotif, along with that of the

Indians, expresses the composer’s intention of representing the two main sources of María’s tragedy. On one hand the painter; on the other, the most primitive side of the indigenous people, who are easily blinded by the values imposed by tradition. The Painter’s leitmotif encodes the tragedy that the presence of the artist brings to María’s life. The artist’s theme is built on a natural minor scale on E. It has a descending melodic design whose drama is stressed by the string-dominated orchestra, the normal scoring of the Painter leitmotif. Further, in the context of this sequence, the musical characteristics of the Painter leitmotif mark a contrast between the world of the Indians and that of the painter. The Indian leitmotif always retains its pentatonic characters, a signal of the Pre-Hispanic heritage of María and the villagers from Xochimilco. By contrast, the Painter's leitmotif does not evoke any nationalistic musical genre, and is built on a scale that is closer to the Western musical tradition. The harmonic design of the painter’s leitmotif is more complex than that of the Indians. While the Indian’s leitmotif is accompanied by intervals that retain its pentatonic character, the painter’s theme uses complete subdominant,

92 tonic, and dominant chords. These differences stress the origin of the artist who, according to

García Riera, symbolizes the outsider criollo (that along with the doctor and the priest) are tacitly convinced of his paternalist position among the Indians.55

The furious crowd finally reaches María. When Lorenzo Rafael finally gets to her, the

Indian leitmotif sounds in the brass section, apparently announcing the protagonist’s death at the hands of the villagers (01:34:58). With her last breath of life, María looks at Lorenzo while the

Love leitmotif sounds in the woodwinds. María pronounces her last words, “I did nothing wrong.

Lorenzo Rafael, I did nothing wrong.” The love leitmotif transforms into an angelic chorus to indicates that María Candelaria no longer belong to the earthly world. The last scene of the film shows Lorenzo Rafael taking María Candelaria in his canoe down the Canal de los muertos

(Canal of the Dead): her body is surrounded by flowers, a direct association with the Virgin of

Guadalupe. The Love leitmotif is heard one last time in a choral version to make evident that the love of the characters reaches beyond death. A final tutti quotation of the Indian leitmotif in the original key, along with the painter’s voiceover (“This was the story of María Candelaria”) announces the end of the film, and with it a return to the present, leaving the story world in which the narrative took place.

For all its stylizations and contradictions, María Candelaria represents a true effort to portray symbolically the essence of the Mexican people. But it needs to be recognized that the music stands a type of filmic conceit: it is a construction of musical images that, within the conventions of film music of the time, represent the idea, the constructed image of Mexico. It is not an actual historical reconstruction of the music of the indigenous past. Here Dominguez writes as a film composer, not an ethnomusicologist. Nevertheless, Dominguez was remarkably

55 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 62.

93 successful in creating a sonic space that fulfilled Emilio Fernández expectations, drawing freely from his experience as musical collector and his temperamental closeness to the Indigenismo movement. In this regard, the music of María Candelaria contained, in filmic terms, images of

Mexico that contributed substantially to the success of the film, one that in its time made it an iconic example of the Mexican nationalistic cinema.

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Chapter 5

Salón México (1948): The Musical Life of Urban Centers

Salón México (1948) was the first of only two of Fernández’s incursions in cabaret topics. This lack of interest was because the director did not feel comfortable in that terrain.1 But a boom in urban cinema induced the producer Salvador Elizondo to commission Emilio Fernández to make

Salón México (1948).2 Despite the new urban setting, Fernández continued to express his nationalistic concerns in cinema. As in the other film previously discussed, Fernández successfully merged visual and sonic elements to convey different aspects of the Mexican culture.

Salón México (1948) strives to recreate the nightlife of Mexico City during the 1940s. In fact, Salón México was a real place. It was inaugurated in 1920 in a building called Pensador

Mexicano in the core of Mexico City. This venue was divided in three rooms, whose names made reference to the kind of people that were supposed to dance in each section; dancers were also permitted to move among the different rooms. El Sebo (tallow) was meant for poor dancers,

La Manteca (fat) for the middle class, and La Mantequilla (butter) for the elite.3

The central figure in the film is a woman about thirty years old named Mercedes, who works as fichera4 in the Salón México. She is devoted to her sister Beatriz and uses all her

1 Meyer ed., “Testimonios para la historia del cine mexicano”, vol. 3, 33. 2 García Riera, Emilio Fernández, 133-134. 3 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 225. 4 Ficheras were bargirls whose labor was to incite the clients to drink. These women received a token (ficha) for each drink they could sell. To achieve their goal ficheras chatted and danced with the clients, although they often practiced the prostitution too.

95 income to pay the tuition of an expensive internship to the school where her sister studies.

Beatriz is an excellent student and does not know what her sister does for living. Mercedes is connected to Paco, a pimp who works at the Salón México, and upon their winning a dance contest, he takes all the money of the prize. Mercedes steals the money to help pay for her sister's tuition, only to be abused by Paco when he discovers the theft. But Mercedes is also admired by

Lupe, a humble policeman who also works at the Salón México. Seeing Mercedes abused, he intervenes to rescue her and becomes her protector. Beatriz is befriended by the principal of the school. During a tea party, Beatriz meets Roberto, a war hero, and also the son of the principal.

Beatriz and Roberto fall in love and decide to get married. When they announce their intention to

Mercedes, she decides to abandon her job in the cabaret and start a new life with Lupe, who has recently declared his love. However, Mercedes is blackmailed by Paco, who has escaped from jail: unless Mercedes agrees to run away with him, Paco will tell Beatriz the truth. In the powerful conclusion, Mercedes stabs Paco, but Paco shoots Mercedes as he is dying. Mercedes dies too.

Very generally, the film explores the atmosphere and culture of urban salon culture in

Mexico during what was contemporary life in Mexico City during the immediate post-war period, a time when older traditions, newly emerging urban culture, and crime all intersected.

Something in the manner of Casablanca, Sálon México tells a love story in the time of conflict, drawing noir-like techniques mixed with overt melodrama. All these elements are dramatically encoded through the music, which (like Flor Silvestre) contains popular songs and dances from

96 the period, as well as a rich level of underscore music that, broadly speaking, draws upon

Hollywood traditions with respect to musical characterization.5

The diegetic music heard at the night club is performed by Son Clave de Oro a popular dance band (orchestra) seen on screen during the musical numbers of the film. How this ensemble came to be chosen for the film is complex. According to the musician José Matías,

Acerina y su Danzonera was Fernández’s first choice.6 This is not strange since Acerina y su

Danzonera was a regular performer of the Salón Mexico for thirty years, from 1927 to 1957.7

However, when Las mulatas de fuego (a an all-woman orchestra known to Fernández) told José

Matías about the movie, José Matías called Fernández arguing that he had the most famous orchestra of Mexico. Fernández told José Matías that his band would have to play danzones. ‘It does not matter,’ Matías replied. After a rehearsal with Fernández, the director told José Matías,

‘Acerina would earn 36 thousand pesos. If you take them, the movie is yours.’8 This anecdote stresses the active role Fernández played in the selection of music and musicians for his movies.

But more important, it makes evident that Fernández was concerned to include several danzones in the soundtrack. This sonic symbol, an indication of salon culture in Mexico City at the time,

5 For a summary regarding the appearance of music within the film see chart Salón México (1948) in the Appendix of this thesis. 6 Merry Mc Masters, Recuerdos del son (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1995), 62, quoted in Daymí Alegría Alujas, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano y la construcción de un mundo ‘real imaginario’: 1940-1952” (M.M. diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012), 119. 7 Cristobal Díaz Ayala, The Díaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music (Florida: Florida International University, 2001), 2. 8 McMasters, Recuerdos del son, 62, quoted in Daymí Alegría Alujas, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano y la construcción de un mundo ‘real imaginario’: 1940-1952,” (M.M. diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012), 119.

97 was clearly an attempt (in the manner of Flor Silvestre) to ground the atmosphere of the film in contemporary culture, the modern Mexican danzón typical of urban Mexican culture at the time.9

In all of this, there is a transnational element that must be engaged as well. The danzón was originally a Cuban musical genre.10 According to Yolanda Moreno Rivas, the danzón entered Mexico via the coastal states of Veracruz and Yucatán.11 However, Gonzalo Martré suggests that a danzón was heard in Mexico as early as 1884 in the Teatro Principal de la

Ciudad de México, when several Cuban bands performed in Mexico City.12 Regardless of how it happened, the danzón became popular in Mexico in the decade between 1895 and 1905, and it was common to hear danzones in any kind of celebration.13 Gradually, Mexican musicians started to create their own danzones and by 1919 the first recording with pieces expressly called

Danzones Mexicanos appeared. 14 Through recording, and later the radio, the danzón spread all around the country and the genre became part of the Mexican musical tradition.15

Despite its Cuban origin, there is no substantial difference between Mexican and Cuban danzones. Musicians from both countries intermingled, especially through the considerable

9 Daymí Alegría Alujas, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano y la construcción de un mundo ‘real imaginario’: 1940-1952” (M.M. diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012), 119. 10 Typically, it is thought to have originated in Matanzas, Cuba, a city about one hour from Havana. As a musical genre it is a more popular style adaption of the traditional Cuban contradanza that arrived in Cuba following the Haitian slave insurrection from 1791, and which saw the coming to Cuba of many French- speaking black (ex) slaves. In Cuba, negros and mulattos added the cinquillo rhythm and percussive instruments that characterize the danzón. Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 233. 11 Ibid., 236. 12 Gonzalo Martré, Rumberos de ayer. Músicos cubanos en México (1930-1950) (México, Veracruz: Instituto Veracruzano de Cultura, 1997), 11. 13 Moreno, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 237. 14 Martré, Rumberos de ayer, 12. 15 Yolanda Moreno Rivas talks about “the nationalization of the danzón:” Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 238. Janet L. Sturman assures that, of the genres Cuban introduced to Mexico, the danzón was particularly “adopted and adapted by Mexicans by their own:” Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music 224. Gonzalo Martré considers that, “it was in the area of the danzón where Mexican composers snatched the supremacy to Cuba; the danzón is more Mexican than Cuban:” Martré, Rumberos de ayer, 150.

98 immigration of Cubans to Mexico between 1920 and 1950.16 Gonzalo Martré, for example, reports that at least thirty eight Cuban musicians moved to Mexico between 1930 and 1950, where they established careers based in Cuban musical forms. To this group belongs Consejo

Valiente ‘Acerina’ and Tiburcio Martinez ‘Babuco,’17 musicians that created danzoneras that often performed in the Salón México.18

The danzón structure is designed to retain the interest of the dancers during a considerable period of time. To achieve this goal, danzones alternate two main sections. The first one has an introductory character and is usually written in minor mode. The second part is often in major mode and displays the traditional Cuban cinquillo (figure 5.1). Then the music returns to the introductory part before the beginning of the closing section.19 Yet, the alternation between the first and second parts may continue as long as the performers and dancers desire. The final section of the danzón often shifts to a montuno (figure 5.2). Here the tempo is faster, and the music adopts an improvisatory character, always keeping a syncopated accompaniment pattern, designed to enliven and conclude the dance.20 In its classical formation, the danzón is an elegant dance and retains something of a stylized propertied of the original contradanza. Accordingly, a good danzón dancer is the one that does not move very much and remains within a reduced space. Women used to use fans to simulate a flirtation with their dance partners.21

16 According to Magali Martín Quijano, the oppressive governments of Gerardo Machado (1925-1933) and Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958), along with the unstable period between these two regimens, encouraged several Cubans to flee their country for Mexico. Magali Martín Quijano, “Migración Cuba- México,” Centro de Estudios de Migraciones Internacionales (2005), 2. 17 Martré, Rumberos de ayer, 8-9. 18 Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 238. 19 Ibid., 234. 20 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 226. 21 Omar David Molina Santos, “El contrabajo en la orquesta charanga: danzón, mambo y chachachá” (Bachelor diss., Universidad Francisco José de Caldas, 2018), 19.

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Figure 5.1: Basic cinquillo rhythm.

Figure 5.2: Basic montuno rhythm.

Besides danzones, Emilio Fernández included other Cuban music, orchestral arrangements, and melodies that represent particular aspects of the Mexican culture. These different musical elements provide an important thread in the construction of the film’s narrative.

In this regard, music becomes a factor is presenting the sharp dichotomy between good and evil.22 Daymi Alegría has already noted that music establishes a sonic division between the

(diegetic) dark, hedonistic atmosphere of the dancing hall and the music heard during the scenes at the women’s college that Beatriz attends. In Alegría’s view, Cuban music symbolizes the sordid and libertine behavior cultivated at in the Salón México. By contrast, (non-diegetic) orchestral music represents the ethical and moral attitude expected at the school.23 In a basic level, Alegría’s considerations are correct, but there are other, more complex ways how music operates within the film’s narrative as it concerns the representation of Mexico as a nation.

22 García Riera considers that Salón México contrasts Fernández’s vision of “Mexico as it should be” against “Mexico as it should not be”: García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 138. For her part, Joanne Hershfield talks about a series of alternations between darkness and light, good and evil, and mother and whore. The later dual being embodied by Mercedes who sacrifices her life to provide her little sister: Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 91. Dolores Tierney suggests that Salón México is more complex than a model of simple oppositions but notes, for example, that while prostitutes wear high heels, all the women of the College for girls wear flats to signal their respectable status: Tierney, Emilio Fernández, 131. 23 Alegría, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano,” 117-120.

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Almendra, Nereidas, and Juárez no debió morir are specific, then-popular danzones heard at the Salón México. But, crucially, Nereidas and Juárez no debió morir also serve as the leitmotifs for the main characters. Nereidas is associated with Mercedes (example 5.1).

Example 5.1: Nereidas (mm. 1-9): Mercedes leitmotif.

Why this should be so is unclear, but an answer may be found in the title of the piece:

Nereidas alludes to the daughters of Nereus—sea nymphs that used to help sailors in trouble.24

The notion of nymphs may have some relationship with the beauty of the women who, like

Mercedes, work as cabareteras in the Salón México. Further to this line of thought, it is possible to see Mercedes as a type of nymph, trying to guide her sister to a safe shore, far away from the underworld she inhabits. This idea is further strengthened in the speech Beatriz makes during the closing ceremonies at her school, where in a speech on heroism she instances work of mothers.

Beatriz argues that there is heroism in every sacrifice, such as the hidden, obscure and anonymous heroism of mothers, “who revolves in the underworld, among misery and

24 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 225.

101 desperation, to give the world to their children.” As Joanne Hershfield suggests, Beatriz is unknowingly describing her sister’s role.25

Since in Beatriz words, every sacrifice may be understood as heroism (“the one who sacrifices for the others welfare is a hero”), Lupe is also a hero. The policeman sacrifices his safety when he decides to protect Mercedes, even though she does not agree to become Lupe’s wife. Besides, Joanne Hershfield notes that, although Lupe is strong, he is “subservient when relating to the authority of the upper class. He is completely moral. And he places the welfare of the nation above his own life.”26 Lupe’s sacrificing and moralistic attitude is musically expressed by the danzón, Juárez no debió morir (example 5.2).

Example 5.2: Juarez no debió morir (vocal section): Lupe’s leitmotif.

25 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 94. 26 Ibid., 98.

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Here, the danzón laments the assassination of Benito Juárez, a former Mexican president that has become symbol of the highest moral and patriotic values.27 In this sense, although

Daymi Alegría and Janete L. Sturman are correct in suggesting that Fernández included Juárez no debió morir to generate a sense of national identity, the soundtrack also establishes a direct relationship between the danzón Juárez and Lupe, who describes himself as a “poor and honest man; the last representative of the law.” 28 By becoming Lupe’s leitmotif, Juárez no debió morir conveys, in a veiled, moral way, a suggestion of ‘the national’ as desirable image. In this regard, one might note the portion of the song which states: Juarez did not have to die, if he had not died, another rooster would sing to us, and the mother country would be saved. In the context of the film, it is as if the piece is sung to the audience, broadly implying that if there were more people like Lupe (anonymous national heroes), Mexico would be a better country.

Both danzones position Mercedes and Lupe as heroes because they are good or ‘true’

Mexicans. In this respect, Joanne Hershfield considers that musical numbers acquire a racial connotation that has to do with the representation of the Mexican identity. Cuban dark-skinned women perform rumbas,29 whereas lighter-skinned mestizo Mexican women perform danzones.

This is because the excessive sexuality expressed by the Cuban rumba performers does not represent mestizo Mexican women.30 Dolores Tierney sees this issue differently, however, and suggests that the danzón is problematic as a national symbol because of its Cuban origins.31

However, she fails to take into consideration the appropriation of the genre by Mexican composers, or the heroic, nationalistic, and moralistic connotations associated with Nereidas and

27 Alma Silvia Díaz Escoto, “Juárez: la construcción del mito,” Cuicuilco Vol. 15, No. 43 (2008):53. 28 Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 226. Alegría, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano,” 131. 29 For a definition of rumba see Chapter 1, quote 9. 30 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 103. 31 Tierney, Emilio Fernández, 136.

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Juarez no debió morir. Further to this point: these particular two danzones were composed by

Mexicans.32 Following Hershfield, it is probable that Fernández took danzones to be representative of Mexican culture, but not specifically to women’s sexuality. This is because danzones have a double symbolic value both to musically embody the characters of Mercedes and Lupe, but also to represent the virtues of Mexican people more generally.

In this respect, I consider that besides women’s sexuality, Cuban music signals the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Mexicans. According to Hershfield, Afro-Cuban women performing rumbas, express the notion of racial otherness.33 The author also defines Paco as “all that is wrong with Mexico: the lower-class male’s rejection of his indigenous roots, his adoption of foreign dress and mannerisms.”34 Central to the negative perception of Paco is his adoption of

‘other’ behaviors, not typical of Mexicans. For that reason, the pimp’s low actions occur when non-Mexican (Cuban) music invades the atmosphere. In this regard, it is important to note that,

Tierney and Hershfield center their discussion on the scene of a dark semi-naked woman dancing in the middle of an animated audience.35 Yet, music that is not danzones sounds in different sequences associated with Paco and not to Cuban dancing women. The scene with the dark girl alternates with the image of Mercedes when she asks Paco for her share of the money. Another rumba sounds when Paco forces Mercedes to get out of the Salón México to take her to the hotel

32 The danzón Almendra was composed by the Cuban musician Abelardo Valdés in 1938. Although the composer wrote over one hundred danzones, Almendra became the most representative of his production. In fact, it was the success of this piece which encouraged Abelardo Valdés to create his own orchestra, which he also named Almendra. Valdés’s orchestra was so popular in Cuba that it was broadcasted one hour per day in Radio Progreso. Thanks to the radio, Valdes’s music reached Latin American audiences outside the island: Díaz Ayala, The Díaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music, 71. Nereidas was written by the Mexican composer Amador Pérez Torres (1902-1976) in 1944: Moreno Rivas, Historia de la música popular mexicana, 239. The Mexican composer Esteban Alfonso García (1888- 1950) composed Juárez no debió morir in 1916: Sturman, The Course of Mexican Music, 226. 33 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 103. 34 Ibid., 98. 35 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 103. Tierney, Emilio Fernández, 135.

104 in which the pimp maltreats her. The Cuban song La montura sounds the first time Paco proposes Mercedes to participate in his illegal business and, Meneito and Sopa de pichón musicalize Paco’s second attempt to getting the protagonist in trouble. Following the good-bad

Mexicans argument; while Cuban music musicalizes bad Mexicans personified by Paco, the nationalistic danzones belong to Lupe and Mercedes because, as good Mexicans, they only participate of the underworld to support Beatriz.36

Beatriz represents the opposite of the underworld inhabited by Mercedes, Lupe and Paco.

She is innocent and educated; enclosed in a luminous space, she represents the morality of the

Mexican society. Joanne Hershfield calls her, “an idealized virgin […] the future of the womanhood in Mexico.”37 To musically represent this, Antonio Díaz Conde wrote a leitmotif that totally contrasts the syncopated rhythm of the Cuban music and danzones that represent

Paco, Lupe, and Mercedes. Beatriz’s leitmotif (example 5.3) is made of long notes in a slow tempo, scored in horns, violins and tubular bells that give the music a solemn character.38 Daymi

Alegría has identified the Beatriz leitmotif as the musical representation of the internship because, in her view, this theme is exclusive to the actions within this educational place. 39

Nevertheless, although she is right in that the music matches the luminous, ethical and moralistic character of the educational institution, Beatriz leitmotif trespasses the boundaries of this place

36 Along with its ‘foreign’ connotation within the movie, Cuban music works as a background to drive home the ‘drama’ of the foreground action—in this case, the violence associated with Paco. The festive atmosphere produced by the Cuban music contrasts the undesirable behavior of the pimp. This potentializes the image of Paco as an annoying character; someone who must be banned from the Mexican society. 37 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 94. 38 The diatonic C major basis of the theme and its vaguely chorale-like manner suggests Beatriz's purity, and the harmonic shift (example 5.3: measure 9), with its harmonic ‘bloom’ invokes something ‘transcendental’ as the future of Mexico imbodied in Beatriz. 39 Alegría, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano,” 120.

105 and sounds at every time the ‘good Mexicans’ do something in favor of Beatriz’s goal of becoming a graduate.40

Example 5.3: Salón México. Beatriz leitmotif (transcription from the soundtrack).

As well as in the other films analyzed in this text, the title music summarizes the plot of the movie. Trills, timpani beats, and a brass-dominated orchestra set the tone of the movie: intense, dramatic, and ultimately tragic (00:00:00). The central leitmotif of the opening is that of

Mercedes. This is developed both musically and dramatically in tension-filled sequences to portray the stressful existence of Mercedes in the film, and more generally the underlying tensions surrounding the Salón Mexico as a place and psychological location for the film

(00:00:12-00:01:08). Violent chords and whole-tone scales suggest the darkness of evil that constantly harasses Mercedes (00:00:16), but the music leads ultimately to a quick close in C- major which transforms into Beatriz leitmotif (00:01:09). This shift in the music conveys

40 For example, after robbing Paco’s wallet Mercedes gets home and prepares her ‘decent’ clothes to visit Beatriz next morning. Beatriz leitmotif is heard as Mercedes irons her clothes (00:12:40) and, once again, when she leaves her home totally dressed up to visit her sister (00:13:44). Beatriz leitmotif is also heard as Lupe opens a cab’s door for the ladies outside the internship. In this case the music is more linked to Lupe’s actions than to the internship (00:17:42).

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Mercedes’ hope in education to provide her sister a better life. Additionally, it express that at the end Mercedes’s sacrifice payed off.

Antonio Diaz Conde links the title music to the danzón Almendra (diegetic) (00:01:42), which introduces the audience into the nightlife of the Salón México: the girls arriving into the dance hall, the orchestra playing, and several couples dancing with restrained movements, as it is usual for the danzón. The (diegetic) music also links the shots that present the argument of the movie. Paco and Mercedes participate in the Gran Concurso de Danzón of the Salón México.

Mercedes begs Paco to give her the money if they win the contest. Paco knows they will because the pimp has previously rigged the results. But when Mercedes and Paco are declared winners,

Paco keeps the money and leaves Mercedes only the cup as a prize.

Almendra is the only danzón of the movie that does not work as a leitmotif. In my view, the inclusion of Almendra as part of the title music, must have been Fernandez’s intention to introduce the typical sound of the Salón México to the audience, because by the 1940s Almendra was already part of the repertoire of several danzoneras (danzón orchestras).41

When Paco and Mercedes discuss about the prize money, the orchestra plays a Cuban rumba (00:06:00). It keeps playing from inside the Salón México when Mercedes follows the pimp to the hotel across the street. The music grows in intensity at the moment when the camera

‘goes inside’ the dance hall to show an Afro-Cuban woman dancing frenetically, the rumba establishing a relationship between ‘dark’ Cuban music and Paco’s ‘dark’ (undesirable) behavior. Desperate to pay Beatriz’s tuition, Mercedes steals from Paco the prize money they earned in the danzón contest. Lupe, who is outside the Salón México, sees Mercedes drop the

41 One of these orchestras was Acerina y su Danzonera, which used to perform in the Salón Mexico from Thursday to Monday and recorded its version of Almendra in 1949. Alegría, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano,” 119. Díaz Ayala, The Díaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music, 5.

107 wallet she stole from Paco and decides to interrogate her about the incident. However, the next morning, when the policeman discovers that Mercedes is with her sister, he changes his mind and pretends to be a friend stopping by to say hello. Immediately after, Lupe calls a cab for the two girls and the orchestra plays Beatriz leitmotif (00:17:42). This theme signals that Beatriz is free to go forward in her intentions of becoming a graduate. In a wider sense, this suggests a

‘moral’ Mexico, since a good Mexican (Lupe) will protect the nation’s interest: the moral and educational future of womanhood in Mexico.

The next sequence in which Mercedes and Lupe meet, starts with a shot of the banner that announces the Salón México (00:22:10). Nereidas (Mercedes leitmotif) starts to play

(diegetically), and within this shot the camera tilts to show Mercedes walking down the street to get to the dance hall. As usual, Mercedes finds Lupe at the entrance. When they meet, Mercedes thanks the policeman for not betraying her in front of her sister and assures Lupe that she is willing to pay for her offence before she confesses, “I robbed Paco’s wallet, the one you were holding. Now you know why I wanted the money.” When Lupe understands Mercedes’s situation, he praises the sacrifice she makes for her sister and, contrary to Mercedes’s fear, he tells the fichera, “go to work so you can earn the money you need for your sister.” Nereidas

(Mercedes leitmotif) ends at the moment in which Mercedes throws a thankful look to Lupe before going to work. During this sequence the music is heard in its original version, as if it was played by any of the orchestras that used to perform in the Salón México. The initial impression is that the danzón Nereidas is heard because it fits the general atmosphere of the dancing hall.

However, the interaction between the character’s dialogue and the song, which adapts its solo sections to the length of the sequence, makes it evident that Nereidas underlines Mercedes’s sacrifice and her willingness to do whatever it takes to support her sister. This notion is

108 reinforced by the following sequence, in which Nereidas accompanies one of the most dramatic scenes of the film.

When Paco discovers that he has been robbed, he takes Mercedes by force to the hotel that is across the street. The initial motive of Nereidas is heard as non-diegetic music (scored for in brass) as Paco pushes Mercedes into the room (00:27:05). The orchestra repeats the same motive in violin tremolos to add suspense to the score and the music grows in intensity before the brass section picks up the motive once more fortissimo. During this sequence Paco beats

Mercedes savagely while she screams desperately “not in the face, Paco.” This phrase clearly expresses Mercedes’s cast of minds. Mercedes’s sacrifice becomes heroic because she is willing to take any kind of punishment for her sister.

Lupe, who saw the couple enter the hotel, hears the noises upstairs and hurries to help

Mercedes. Nereidas (Mercedes leitmotif) shifts to a short motive of the danzón Juárez no debió morir (Lupe leitmotif), exactly at the moment in which Lupe reaches his hand to Mercedes and tells her, “clean your face and go.” Juarez sounds in the strings in a tender manner (00:28:53).

This underscores Lupe’s attitude to Mercedes. In contrast, the music adopts a dramatic character as soon as Lupe turns to Paco, with whom the policeman will have a savage fight (00:29:14).

The juxtaposition of both danzones during the hotel scene makes evident that Nereidas corresponds to Mercedes’s heroism, encoded here as sacrifice, while Juárez no debió morir symbolizes Lupe’s heroic attitude, as protector and savior of the defenseless.

Lupe shows his heroic attitude once more in the movie, with the music reinforcing the dramatic action. After the incident in the hotel, Mercedes returns to the Salón México and sits at a table and cries over her misfortune. The orchestra plays precisely Juárez no debió morir

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(Lupe's leitmotif) (00:31:58). Lupe comes along and comforts Mercedes by saying, “from now on I will be like your shadow, to take care of you so you can accomplish the huge sacrifice you have imposed yourself.” The music continues during Lupe’s speech, which makes an unexpected shift when the policeman declares his love to Mercedes. He states that he is willing to marry her and offers his job and savings to Mercedes. Mercedes explains to Lupe that although she appreciates the gesture, she knows that his income as policeman would not be enough to pay all her financial responsibilities. Unsatisfied with Mercedes’s answer, Lupe replies that Beatriz’s graduation will free the cabaretera from the burden that keeps her working in the Salón México.

Then, moved by his feelings of love Lupe assures Mercedes: “I will wait for you, until you are free.” As soon as the dialogue ends, the orchestra performs the choral section of the danzón

Juárez no debió morir, while the camera shows Lupe’s resignation face and Mercedes’s crying.

The next morning, Beatriz is having a tea party at the school. The principal waits for his son Roberto and the students gossip about his achievements as a war pilot. Joanne Hershfield describes Roberto as a well-educated criollo, assertive but polite, “the future of male power in

Mexico.”42 Beatriz and Roberto are meant to be together because she is “the future of the womanhood in Mexico.”43 Roberto is presented as Beatriz’s natural companion, and as a couple they will give birth to the virtuous Mexicans of the future. The music announces this encounter with Beatriz's leitmotif when Roberto, her future husband, appears on screen (00:42:46).

Beatriz’s leitmotif is given to a solo horn, heard over violin tremolos. When Roberto’s mother runs to hug his son, the lonely horn turns into a full orchestra (all this music is non-diegetic, underscore music). Behind mother and son, the students clap excitedly. Shy, Beatriz does not dare to greet Roberto. It is not until the principal encourages Beatriz to get closer that Roberto

42 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 98. 43 Ibid., 94.

110 and Beatriz exchange their first words. And at this point, Beatriz's leitmotif is heard in the violins as a type of musical seal to their union (00:45:22).

Cuban music underscores the next two sequences. In both cases Paco tries to convince

Mercedes to participate in his illegal business. It is important to note that, after Paco threatens to tell Beatriz the truth about, Paco dances happily with another bargirl (00:52:12). Paco is the only one of the main characters who, under the rhythm of Cuban music, enjoys what García Riera calls “Mexico as it should not be.”44

The next time Paco and Mercedes meet, they fight to death. Obviously, Mercedes cannot attend Beatriz’s graduation. Beatriz's leitmotif sounds in a minor mode to convey the sadness of the new graduate because of the absence of her sister. But the full orchestra plays the theme in major mode when Roberto appears to hug his future wife (01:27:37). The music expresses the fulfilment of Mercedes’s hopes, as embodied in Beatriz. She has finally graduated and will marry a respectable man with whom Beatriz will produce the virtuous Mexicans of the future. By the end of the movie, Lupe returns to his work at the Salón México, and from inside the hall he listens the danzón Juárez no debió morir (Lupe's leitmotif) (01:29:30). Before crossing the threshold of the cabaret, he looks to the sky, in reverence to Mercedes, and to continue his duty as representative of the law: the hero of the defenseless. The orchestra takes the melodic line of

Juárez’s choral section and develops it as the closing music of the movie (01:30:21); as if the orchestra was playing a final reminder: If there were more people like Lupe, Mexico would be a better country.

44 García Riera, Emilo Fernandez 1904-1986, 138.

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Joanne Hershfield rightly mentions that in Salón México (1943), “Parks, museums, cinemas, and city streets are meant to signify the space of national identity.”45 This is reinforced by the music that sounds in such spaces. Beatriz and Mercedes visit the National Museum of

Anthropology. The music announces this event with horn fanfares, followed by strident chords in the brass section. All this is accompanied by steady rhythms in the timpani that simulate

‘primitive’ music (00:19:44). Here, Díaz Conde tried to represent the Aztec statues held by the

National Museum of Anthropology. However, unlike Francisco Dominguez in María Candelaria

(1944) (see page 90), Antonio Díaz Conde preferred the sound of the Western traditional orchestra instead of simulated Aztec instruments. One reason for this could be that the Spanish composer was not immersed in the Mexican nationalistic movement. Another possibility is that, unlike Francisco Dominguez, Antonio Diaz Conde was not trying to link the Mexican pre-

Hispanic heritage to living indigenous populations but to modern Mexican women of the 1940s, like Beatriz and Mercedes. In any case, both composers adapted their music to Emilio

Fernández’s nationalistic intentions.

After their visit to the Museum of Anthropology, Beatriz and Mercedes attend the celebration of the Mexican Independence. This sequence starts by showing the buildings that surround the central plaza of Mexico City: El Palacio Nacional, La Catedral Metropolitana, El

Palacio del Ayuntamiento and El Edificio de Gobierno. At this point, Fernández includes one of the most representative activities of the Mexican independence celebration: El grito (the shout).46

The non-diegetic music that links these shots is a military motto that Mexicans know as El toque de bandera (the flag motto) (example 5.4) (00:21:09). This motto originated in 1932 when the

45 Hershfield, Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 101. 46 Every September 15th at midnight, the Mexican president stands in the main balcony of the Palacio Nacional to shout Vivas for the Independence of Mexico. Hence, this celebration is known as ‘the shout.’

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Secretary of War organized a contest to create the official music of the Mexican civic and military ceremonies.47 Evidently, the specific visual and sonic elements of this sequence were meant to generate a sense of unity and identity among Mexican audiences. This is reinforced by the composition of the images. Mercedes and Beatriz agitate little flags along with their compatriots, who fill Mexico City’s central plaza. The non-diegetic music, as a symbol of the state, seems to unify not only the film sequences, but the people that gathered to enjoy the patriotic spectacle.

Example 5.4: Toque de bandera.

The music that accompanies the scenes in which Lupe walks Mercedes home also expresses the Mexican identity (00:56:40 and 01:21:48). However, the nationalistic value of this music does not come from the melody itself but from the timbre with which it is played. The instrument that sounds in the movie is a portable organ that activates by turning a lever. German immigrants introduced these instruments to Mexico in the 1800s. Initially, portable organs sounded in circus and parlors but after a while the owners started to rent the instruments, so

47 The winner of the governmental contest was Pio Manzanares whose motto became reglementary and mandatory since 1934. In 1956, sponsored by the Secretary of War and Education, the schoolteacher Xóchitl Angélica Palomino added lyrics to El toque de bandera and from that moment on this motto became a regular chant in Mexican elementary schools. Graciela Cruz Hernández, “Xóchitl Angélica Palomino y Contreras,” Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Políticas, Económicas y Sociales, entry posted February 28, 2018 https://institutohistorico.org/xochitl-angelica-palomino-contreras/ (accessed May 1, 2019).

113 people could earn some money by playing them in the streets of the Mexican cities. By the mid-

1900s the popularity of the organs had grown considerably, and players started to shift from

German polkas to Mexican popular music.48

Por un amor (c. 1940) (example 5.5) is the melody that is heard on the portable organ.

This song by Gilberto Parra belongs to the ranchera genre discussed previously, and it was popular since it was broadcast on Mexican radio. Alegría has described the sound of the portable organ simply as the leitmotif of La Vecindad.49 However, I believe that Por un amor represents

Lupe’s love for Mercedes. The lyrics of the song (figure 5.3) convey the notion of someone suffering for an unrequited love. The beloved has gone and left a bitter pain to the one singing. In this sense, the song matches Lupe’s situation. He loves Mercedes, who does not accept him for being poor. Although he does not know it yet, he will be left with an even bitter pain, for on the night Mercedes dies, she agrees to marry him. By using a portable organ for Lupe’s love leitmotif, Fernández references the sound of Mexico City. In addition, this music perfectly expresses the emotional essence of Lupe in his dramatic situation. Portable organs are popular urban entertainments and as such, they are clear symbols to represent the love of someone from the slums of Mexico City, someone that defines himself as “a nobody.”

48 Organ grinders are still part of the urban Mexican landscape and their presence and sound is considered traditional of the streets of Mexico City. Azam Ahmed, “Mexico City’s Organ Grinders, Once Beloved, Feel Shunned,” The New York Times, September 12, 2016 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/world/americas/mexico-city-organ-grinders.html (accessed April 28, 2019). 49 Alegría, “La música cubana en el cine mexicano,” 134. Vecindad is a Latin American term for a building containing several (often low-income oriented) housing units. Originally a form of housing created through the subdivision of vacated elite housing in historic centers in Mexican cities, where rooms around a central yard were let to families who shared facilities (such as lavatories or kitchens) with the other tenants.

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Por un amor Because of one love

Por un amor Because of one love Me desvelo y vivo apasionado, tengo un amor I can't sleep and I live impassionate, I've got a love Que en mi vida dejo para siempre That left in my life forever Amargo dolor bitter pain

Pobre de mi Poor of me Esta vida mejor que se acabe, no es para mi It's better if this life comes to an end, it's not for me Pobre de mi, pobre de mi Poor of me, poor of me Cuanto sufre mi pecho que late, tan solo por ti My chest suffers because it beats only for you

Por un amor Because of one love He llorado gotitas de sangre del corazón I've cried little blood drops from my heart Me ha dejado con el alma herida sin compasión It has left my soul wounded, mercilessly

Pobre de mi Poor of me Esta vida mejor que se acabe, no es para mi It's better if this life comes to an end, it's not for me Pobre de mi, pobre de mi Poor of me, poor of me Cuanto sufre mi pecho que late, tan solo por ti My chest suffers because it beats only for you

Figure 5.3: Lyrics of Por un amor.

Example 5.5: Por un amor: Lupe’s love leitmotif.

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The night Mercedes agrees to marry Lupe, the Salón México celebrates a posada.50 Here

Fernández takes advantage of the film’s plot to recreate a Mexican tradition in which music plays an important role. Posadas consist on two main activities. A procession depicting the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem the night before the birth of Jesus, and a social gathering in which traditional Mexican food is served and a piñata is broken by children.51 The dialogue of the representation (known as letanías) (figure 5.4) is sung by the participants. The origin of Las posadas song is unclear, but this melody is part of the collective repertoire of the

Mexican people and important Mexican composers, like Manuel M. Ponce, have used it for their compositions.52 Las posadas is a strophic and mostly syllabic song of a recitative fashion. It comprises two sections. The first one, in ¾ meter, corresponds to the verses sung during Joseph and María’s pilgrimage (example 5.6). When the Holy couple is allowed to enter to the host house all the participants sing the second part of Las posadas (Entren santos peregrinos)

(example 5.7), which is in 4/4 meter and has a more animated character.

50 Las posadas (the inns) are parties that Mexican Catholics celebrate during the nine consecutive nights immediately before Christmas Day (December 16-24). This celebration originated at the beginning of the Colonial period (1521-1821), when the Spanish evangelizers substituted a long-term Aztec ceremony that celebrated the arrival of Huitzilopochtli (god of war) for a series of celebrations that prepared the birth Jesus. Curiously, the Aztec celebration was held around the same time of Christmas and the Spanish religious did not have too much trouble to impose their festivity. Gradually, they included fireworks, candy, villancicos and later, piñatas. Las posadas survived several Mexican historical periods and got to the twentieth century without substantial changes. National Geographic en Español, “¿Cuál es el origen de las posadas en México?,” December 9, 2009, https://www.ngenespanol.com/culturas/origen-de-las- posadas-en-mexico-2/ (accessed May 1, 2019). 51 For the procession the participants (usually relatives, friends or neighbors) organize in two groups. One group plays the parts of Joseph and María, who wander from one pre-designated house (or section of a house’s yard) to another where they seek shelter. The second group stays inside the house (or houses) to play the part of the Bethlehem’s dwellers. The symbolic Holy Couple is repeatedly turned away until they are finally permitted into a pre-designated home in which the party takes place. Mary MacGregor- Villarreal, “Celebrating las posadas in Los Angeles,” Western Folklore Vol. 39, No. 2 (1980), 72. 52 See for example, Luis Francisco Gaytán, “An Introduction to the Piano Music of Manuel M. Ponce” (Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University, 2014), 43.

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In the movie, Fernández remains close to the real atmosphere of Las posadas (01:14:16).

The sequence starts outside the Salón México, with an extreme long shot of people lighting fireworks. The music is diegetic and comes from the interior of the Salón México. On the edge of the entrance stairs, Mercedes expresses her concerns to Lupe about Beatriz’s engagement with

Roberto; she finally agrees to marry Lupe. Inside the dance hall, clients and ficheras participate in the procession that enacts Joseph and María’s journey. As it is still common in some regions of Mexico, two employees are dressed as the Holy Couple. ‘María’ is riding a donkey that

‘Joseph’ pulls when the ‘Bethlehem dwellers’ close their door to the foreigners. Like in the real posadas, some participate in the singing of the music, while others drink or eat Mexican dishes.

This is the case of Roberto who laughs with his friends at the sardonic comments of the manager.

The music provides a measure of realism to the sequence because, as it is usual in a posada, people sing out of tempo, with a raw vocalization, and in most of the cases sing in an out-of-tune fashion. In addition, the sequence of Las posadas expresses the notion of Mexicans’ unity under religion. In this sequence, upper and low social classes coexist in the same place. The respectable-wealthy criollo Roberto momentarily shares the same space of the prostitutes and robbers that frequent the Salón México.

Las Posadas The inns

Peregrinos Pilgrims

En nombre del cielo Pray give us lodging, dear sir, in the name of heaven. All day os pido posada, since morning to travel we’ve given. Mary, my wife, is pues no puede andar expecting a child. ya mi esposa amada. She must have shelter tonight. Let us in, let us in!

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Posaderos Innkeepers

Aquí no es mesón, You cannot stop here, I won’t make my house an inn. I do not sigan adelante. trust you, your story is thin. Yo no puedo abrir, You two might rob me and then run away. no sea algún tunante. Find somewhere else you can stay. Go away, go away!

Peregrinos Pilgrims

Venimos rendidos Please show us pity, your heart cannot be so hard. desde Nazaret. Look at poor Mary, so worn and so tired. Yo soy carpintero We are most poor, but I’ll pay what I can. de nombre José. God will reward you, good man. Let us in, let us in!

Posaderos Innkeepers

No me importa el nombre, You try my patience. I’m tired and must get some rest. I’ve told déjennos dormir, you nicely, but still you insist. pues que yo les digo If you don’t go and stop bothering me, que no hemos de abrir. I’ll fix you, I guarantee. Go away, go away!

Peregrinos Pilgrims

Mi esposa es María; Sir, I must tell you my wife is the queen of heaven, es reina del cielo, chosen by God to deliver his Son. y madre va a ser Jesus is coming to earth on this eve. del Divino Verbo. (Oh heaven, make him believe!) Let us in, let us in!

Posaderos Innkeepers

¿Eres tú José? Joseph, dear Joseph, oh how could I be so blind? ¿Tu esposa es María? Not to know you and the virgin so fine! Entren peregrinos, Enter, blest pilgrims, my house is your own. no los conocía. Praise be to God on his throne! Please come in, please come in!

Todos (Entren santos peregrinos) All (Enter, enter, Holy Pilgrims)

Entren santos peregrinos, peregrinos, Enter, enter, holy pilgrims, holy pilgrims. reciban este rincón. Welcome to my humble home. Aunque es pobre la morada, Though ‘tis little I can offer, os la doy de corazón. all I have please call your own.

Figure 5.5: Lyrics of Las posadas (letanías).

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Example 5.6: Las posadas.

Example 5.7: Las posadas (Entren santos peregrinos).

The Salón México was called as ‘The Cathedral of the Danzón.’53 For that reason, danzones were a natural choice for a movie staged in this venue. Nevertheless, Emilio Fernández was able to stress the nationalistic value of the danzones by using pieces that carried specific meanings for the Mexican people. Even more, the director matched the symbolic charge of these pieces with the main characters of the movie—those that struggle to accomplish the aspirations of the nation. Symphonic and Cuban music complete this notion by means of contrast. These

53 Adriana Pacheco, “El salón de baile en la época de oro del cine mexicano: espacio de conflicto entre el estado laico y la sociedad católica,” Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana 42, No. 2 (2013), 36.

119 genres symbolize both Mexico as it should be and Mexico as it should not be. In addition, Emilio

Fernández never wasted any opportunity to include sequences that depicted specific aspects of the Mexican culture and, true to his style, used music successfully to convey his message to the audience. In the case of Salón México (1948), Díaz Conde and Fernández employed music to evoke the sound of the most representative urban area of Mexico: Mexico City.

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Final remarks

In this thesis I have tried to demonstrate that music was crucial for the articulation of the nationalistic cinema in the films of Mexican director Emilio ‘Indio’ Fernández (1904-1986).

Regardless of the genre to which his movies belong (revolutionary, indigenist, or urban), Emilio

Fernández chose music that was representative of the Mexican culture. But this was not limited to the musical numbers performed onscreen. Following Emilio Fernández’s evident intentions, composers Francisco Dominguez and Antonio Diaz Conde created non-diegetic music that underscored the emotions and actions of the main characters, but also expressed aspects of their

Mexican personality. In treating this musical sound track this way, Fernández contributed to the establishment of ‘sonic symbols’ as part of a wider nationalistic purpose in film.

In Flor Silvestre (1943), Emilio Fernández and Francisco Dominguez, sonically transport the audience to the world of the Mexican Revolution—the period in Mexican history from about

1910 to 1920. They accomplished this by including three corridos in the film’s soundtrack: El hijo desobediente, La Valentina and La Adelita. The corridos are considered the most representative musical genre of the Mexican civil war period, and as such they carry a nationalistic message that matches the aims of Emilio Fernández’s cinema. In addition, although the remaining songs of Flor Silvestre (1943) originated within the context of the Mexican

Golden Age of Cinema, Fernández chose music that produced a sense of identity among

Mexican audiences, and also expressed his social concerns. In this respect, while El herradero praises the beauty of Mexican traditions, Flor Silvestre expresses the virtues of the poor people.

Equally important is the fact that Emilio Fernández was able to adapt historically inflected songs to the requirements of a commercial film. As a point of criticism as it concerns the handling of the dramatic element, it might be said that the soundtrack of Flor Silvestre (1943) fails to depict

121 clearly the contrast between the rich and poor, a central element in the larger dramatic purpose of the film. The songs of the movie comment on the films’ narrative, either as diegetic or non- diegetic music, but the music does not sonically contrast low and upper class, or good and bad within social classes as effectively as the following film: the celebrated María Candelaria of

1944 or the still later Salón México of 1948. This suggests that Flor Silvestre constitutes an early stage in Fernández' development as a director, one in which he first worked with the unit that eventually consolidated his nationalistic view of Mexican cinema following his initial success.

One reason for this may be that in order to achieve a commercial success, it was necessary for

Flor Silvestre (1943) to rely on comic elements that interfered the film’s dramatic narrative.1 To this must be added that Flor Silvestre (1943) was Emilio Fernández’s first ‘experiment’ with the team that launched his career to the fame. Maybe the lack of sophistication was product of the natural learning process.

In María Candelaria (1944), Francisco Domínguez expressed more clearly the symbols that, in the director’s view, represented the Mexican national identity. To do this, the composer relied on the musical Indigenismo, which involved the creation of a musical representation of pre-Hispanic music, as well as the collection of melodies from the indigenous communities of

Mexico. Francisco Dominguez musically represented Mexican pre-Hispanic Indians by employing pentatonic scales and instruments that evoked the (presumed) sound of Aztec music.

By contrast, the sound of the traditional symphonic orchestra performing pentatonic-based melodies belongs to the already existing trope of the ‘musically primitive’ as encountered in

Hollywood films, here mapped on to the local Mexican context. More importantly, the composer used the orchestral instrumentation to distinguish between the protagonists (who represent the

1 García Riera, Emilio Fernández 1904-1986, 45.

122 virtuous-rational side of the Indians) and the villagers from Xochimilco (who personify the deplorable-irrational behavior of the indigenous communities). The tender sound of strings and woodwinds belongs to María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael because they are virtuous and rational; deep horns and tremolo strings musicalize every irrational behavior, usually associated with the villagers from Xochimilco. Besides the Indians, Francisco Domínguez musically represented the outsider criollo. In this case, the music worked as an oppositional agent that emphasized the painter’s European origin. To do this, the music abandoned the pentatonic themes of the Indians and adopted a more ‘Europeanized’ sound through diatonic harmonies and conventional scales. For its part, the waltz-like folk song served to musically represent the syncretism of the Mexican culture. Xochimilco is a geography that survived and adapted to the changes that came along with the Spanish conquest. Francisco Dominguez expresses this notion through the evocation of the waltz-like folk song, a genre that acquired a distinctive Mexican tone, despite its European origins. The composer employed such waltz-like folk songs to musicalize the love between María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael, because these characters possess the virtues of the two cultures that as symbol constitute a Mexico based in the integration of different racial elements.

For Salón México (1948), Fernández and Díaz Conde chose and (the later) composed music that expressed the dichotomies exposed by the film’s narrative and visual elements.

Cuban-inflected music musicalizes the underworld of Mexico City, and served as the musical representation of the ‘bad Mexicans’ as embodied in Paco. Solemn symphonic music represents the upper-class world of Mexico City and the future of the nation as personified by Beatriz and

Roberto. In the middle are Mercedes and Lupe, who as good Mexicans strive to survive the temptations of the underworld they inhabit in favor of the nation’s development. To express this,

123 the director and the composer, used different danzones as the leitmotifs of the protagonists.

Danzones were the best option in terms of the atmosphere and dramatic purpose, since they not only fit the environment of the dancing hall, but also carry a nationalistic value as a musical genre more broadly adopted by Mexican composers as their own. In addition, the danzones of the movie express specific aspects of the Mexican culture and the characters’ heroic behavior through their texts and their associated underlying ideas: Juarez no debió morir, for example, refers to a former Mexican president who became the symbol of the highest morality and patriotism. For its part, Nereidas refers to the daughter of Nereus (in the film associated with

Mercedes), who helped sailors in trouble to get to a safe shore. A further element here is that the director took advantage of the film’s plot to include sequences in which celebrations of the urban landscape move to the dramatic foreground to become (temporarily) the main character. On these occasions, Diaz Conde incorporated sounds specific of the Mexican culture and urban places.

One example is El toque de bandera (flag motto), typically performed during the celebration of the Mexican Independence Day, Las posadas (the inns) song, and the use of the portable organ that accompanies Lupe every time he leaves Mercedes at her home. All these musical elements constitute symbols of Mexican identity, if with differing nuances.

Finally: it can be said that the representation of the Mexican national identity was a crucial aspect of Emilio Fernández’s approach to cinema. At this point in the study of his films, most of the studies addressing this topic center their attention only on the narrative and visual aspects of the director’s movies. By addressing Emilio Fernández’s notion of nationalism from the perspective of the film musicology, this thesis attempts to fill this gap in the literature that explores the work of Fernández.

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In this thesis I have tried to show that the music of Fernández's films employed a rich mixture of both diegetic and non-diegetic music. While in the earlier films, the national element was largely conveyed through the incorporation of existing songs, in the later films, especially

Sálon México, this was expanded to include non-diegetic music of remarkable subtlety and sophistication. The musical score thus became an effective means through which to present an integrated sonic expression of Mexican national identity. The more extended discussion of the non-diegetic elements of the musical scores to these three films is thus in keeping with contemporary discussions of this topic within the wider field of film music studies more generally. It is hoped that this work provides an approach to the study of film music that may be a valuable tool for the study of Mexican film musicology, an approach that to date has been largely dominated by studies focusing only on the life and work of popular singers from a historical perspective. It is thus the hope that this thesis will open the path for further discussions regarding the treatments of nationalism in Mexican film music.

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Filmography

Flor Silvestre (Emilio Fernández, CLASA Films Mundiales, México, 1943).

María Candelaria (Emilio Fernández, CLASA Films Mundiales, México, 1944).

Salón México (Emilio Fernández, CLASA Films Mundiales, México, 1948).

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Appendix

The Coordination of Screen Narrative and Music in the Movies Analyzed in this Thesis

Flor Silvestre (1943)

Timing Dramatic Sequences Summary of Dialogue Principal Musical Features

(00:00:15-00:02:12) Title music. No dialogue. Dramatic style opening, incorporating the popular song, El hijo desobediente, and concluding with march- like gestures. (00:02:13-00:03:52) Setting up of the Esperanza tells her son Neutral non-diegetic music, flashback through about her marriage to his vaguely pastoral in nature. which the story is told. father and about the love As the scene changes to the of the land— the land past and the marriage where she was born and ceremony, the music will be buried. incorporates Flor Silvestre (non-diegetic). (00:03:53-00:05:50) Esperanza and José Esperanza: “We are from Flor Silvestre (non-diegetic) Luis get married such different social (beginning at 04:04) during secretly. classes that your family the marriage ceremony. The will never accept me. Are music merges with the you sure you want to leave following scene with José everything behind? Will Luis’s mother and Don you lose everything to Melchor. marry me?” (00:06:51-00:16:32) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. No music. sequence without music: (1) visit of the military official to José Luis's father; (2) José Luis and Esperanza at home; (3) visit of the two (comic) servants to José and Esperanza’s home. (00:16:33-00:22:39) El herradero José Luis: “Esperanza is Performance of El herradero celebration: a Mexican now my wife… I will not (by Lucha Reyes) at the rodeo with a mariachi allow anybody, not even rodeo. (diegetic music). band. Esperanza and my father, to aggravate my José visit José Luis's wife.” family at the rodeo and are rejected. Confrontation between José Luis and his father.

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(00:22:40-00:25:29) Esperanza, distraught at José Luis: “You and I will Dramatic ‘desperation’ having been rejected by face the world, if it is music, followed by lyrical her husband's family, necessary.” versions of Flor Silvestre rides off frantically in a (non-diegetic) as José Luis horse and carriage. The visits his wife following the carriage overturns and accident. she is thrown to the ground. José Luis visits Esperanza after she has a carriage accident. (00:25:30-00:28:42) Doña Clara visits Doña Clara: “If you want ‘Suspense-like’ variation of Esperanza to persuade to give back the tranquility El hijo desobediente (non- her to quit José Luis. to a house that lost it for diegetic) as Doña Clara your fault, let him go.” enters to Esperanza’s house (ending at 26:30 as Doña Clara starts her speech). (00:28:43-00:32:19) Esperanza recognizes Esperanza: “Since he is Lyrical variation of Flor that she and José Luis very high and I am very silvestre (non-diegetic) as belong to different low, I thought my duty Esperanza starts to talk about social classes. Yet, she was to conquer through her feelings for José Luis. confesses to Doña love and sacrifice a The music turns dramatic Clara the love she feels position that would not ‘desperate’ as Esperanza for José Luis and her shame before him.” faints at the end of the intentions to be with sequence. him, despite the sacrifice this represents. Doña Clara understands that Esperanza really loves José Luis and ask her forgiveness. (00:32:20-00:35:32) Don Melchor and José Don Melchor: “The social Original tune of Flor Luis chat in the canteen differences do not end Silvestre (non-diegetic) about social classes and with good intentions […] played by a harmonica in the virtues of she is so good, so sweet, rubato tempo and a languid Esperanza. so pure that for me she is character. like a flower, although a wildflower.” (00:35:34-00:38:04) Totally drunk, Don No dialogue. Performance of Flor Melchor and José Luis Silvestre (by Trio Calaveras) go to the hacienda to (apparently diegetic) as Don talk to Don Francisco. Melchor and José Luis ride to the hacienda. (00:38:26-00:39:40) Don Francisco finds Don Francisco: “You are a Dramatic music that turns José Luis totally drunk shame to this house! into a ‘suspense-like’ and in a fit of fury Disobedient son!” variation of El Hijo savagely beats his son desobediente (non-diegetic) for being part of the (beginning at 00:38:51). The Revolution and music gradually grows in marrying Esperanza. intensity according to Don Francisco’s emotions.

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(00:39:41-00:47:00) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. Military-type music linking a sequence without very series of shots of images distinctive music: (1) from the revolution the two servants ask (beginning at 00:42:52). The Don Francisco music extends to the scene in permission to leave the which the military official hacienda to follow José arrives to Don Francisco’s Luis and take care of hacienda. Neutral music of a him; (2) a series of pastoral nature at the shots of images from sequence of the main the revolution; (3) the characters’ country life military official tells (beginning at 00:45:26). Don Francisco about the triumph of the revolution and warns him about the bandits that are plundering the haciendas of the region; (4) José Luis, Esperanza and the (comic) servants live happily in the country. (00:47:01-00:52:50) Pánfilo asks José Luis Esperanza: “Because of Original tune of La Valentina to join the group that me you have lost (non-diegetic) (beginning at will defeat the fake everything. Family, social 00:50:06). The melody turns revolutionaries. José position, money, into El hijo desobediente Luis refuses because tranquility, and now this… (non-diegetic) (in minor his son will be born for me you are going to mode) as José Luis stays soon. Esperanza regrets sacrifice your biggest outside his home pensively. she does not encourage dreams. I feel that instead The music extends to the him to follow his of giving you strength I next sequence in which Jose revolutionary ideals. In chain you. Sometimes Luis’ father tells his workers the next sequence, Don women make men to be alert because the Francisco tells his cowards.” bandits, Rogelio and Úrsulo, workers to be alert are committing crimes in the because the bandits, area. Rogelio and Úrsulo, are committing crimes in the area. (00:52:51-00:55:41) José Luis cannot sleep José Luis: “Tomorrow we Lyrical version of Flor and stands pensively will go to the town to see a Silvestre (non-diegetic) outside his home. doctor… you deserve the (beginning at 00:54:35) as Esperanza asks him to best.” the couple chat about their get into the house and son. they talk about the birth of their son. (00:55:42-00:56:44) José Luis receives the José Luis: “I have to go to Dramatic ‘suspense’ music news about his father the hacienda; they’ve just incorporating El hijo who has been killed my father.” desobediente (non-diegetic murdered. music).

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(00:56:46-01:00:06) The bandits plunder the Rogelio: “You go to our Military-type arrangement of hacienda. They shot land immediately so you El hijo desobediente (non- Don Francisco’s feel better.” diegetic) as Úrsulo’s troops portrait. Úrsulo and invade the hacienda. Rogelio meet. Rogelio Military-type music as the orders his brother to two brothers meet. rest because he is very sick. (01:00:07-01:03:11) José Luis gets to the No dialogue. El hijo desobediente hacienda and sees his performed by the Trio father’s portrait, Calaveras (apparently recently shot. The only diegetic) (beginning at people left are the 01:00:16). musicians. (01:03:12-01:04:25) José Luis visits her José Luis: “Mother, how Dramatic ‘sorrow’ mother who is really could all this happen?” arrangement of El hijo affected for Don desobediente (non-diegetic). Francisco’s death. (01:04:26-01:14:35) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. Dramatic ‘sorrow’ music as sequence without very José Luis buries his father distinctive music: (1) and returns home. The music José Luis buries his turns ‘gentle’ when father; (2) José Luis Esperanza shows his son to returns home and meets José Luis. Bells and choral his son recently born; music is heard (non-diegetic) (3) Esperanza, and later as Úrsulo hides from José Don Melchor, ask José Luis and tries to escape from Luis to forget about the devastated town. revenge but he insists and leaves his house; (4) José Luis captures Úrsulo who tries to escape from the epidemy that devastates the town. (01:14:36-01:16:12) Úrsulo dies from his José Luis: “Forgive me ‘Triumphalist’ arrangement sickness. José Luis dad, forgive me about of El hijo desobediente (non- hangs the bandit’s body everything.” diegetic). The same melody over his father’s tomb. turns ‘sentimental’ as José Luis symbolically reconciliates with his father. (01:16:13-01:18:26) Rogelio interrogates Rogelio: “Where is Dramatic ‘desperation-like’ Esperanza at her home him!!!... I know he is variation of Flor Silvestre while his troops try to around here. My brother’s (non-diegetic) (beginning at find José Luis. blood stains his hands!!!” 01:17:48) as Esperanza tries Esperanza tries to to escape from Rogelio. escape but she is recaptured by Rogelio (01:18:28-01:22:23) José Luis wanders the Blacksmith: “Rogelio has Dramatic ‘sorrow’ music country land trying to spread the voice. If you incorporating a variation of

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find Esperanza. A don’t show up soon he will Flor Silvestre (non-diegetic) blacksmith tells José kill your wife”. as José Luis looks for Luis that Rogelio Esperanza. captured Esperanza to set him a trap. José Luis asks Pánfilo for help but he refuses because the bandits over number his men. José Luis decides to rescue Esperanza by himself. (01:22:24-01:24:58) The bandits hold a Rogelio: “I will revenge Performance of La Adelita party in the canteen the life of my brother (diegetic) in a mechanical where they retain Úrsulo… If José Luis does piano that is in the canteen. Esperanza. not fall in my trap I will The music stops as Rogelio kill you along with your says “shut up that thing!!!” boy.” Dramatic ‘desperate’ music (beginning at 01:24:36) as the bandits laugh at Esperanza’s tragedy. (01:24:59-01:26:16) Rogelio’s troops escort José Luis: “Go Esperanza. March-like music in a José Luis to the wall in Find Pánfilo so he look mickey mousing fashion as which he will be shot. after our son.” José Luis and the bandits Esperanza pleas for walk through the streets of José Luis’ life. the town. Dramatic ‘sorrow’ music as Esperanza pleas for José Luis’ life. (01:26:07-01:28:51) The bandits prepare Esperanza: “Please do not Military drums as the bandits shoot José Luis and kill him. For God’s sake prepare to shoot José Luis. Esperanza makes a last do not kill him.” Dramatic ‘sorrow’ music as effort to save José Luis. Esperanza pleas for José Luis’ life and the bandits shoot him. (01:28:52-01:29:51) The plot returns to the “The blood spread in so Dramatic ‘hopeful’ music ‘present’. Esperanza many years of fight by incorporating Flor Silvestre tells her grown son the men that, like your father, (non-diegetic) as the plot sacrifices his father believed in the good and returns to the ‘present.’ made to get the land in justice. Over this land which they now live raises the Mexico of today freely. in which palpates a new life.” (01:29:52-01:32:00) Closing music No dialogue. Dramatic ‘hopeful’ music (non-diegetic) as the credits appear and Esperanza and her son lose in the horizon.

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María Candelaria (1944)

Timing Dramatic Sequences Summary of Dialogue Principal Musical Features (00:00:00-00:02:14) Titles No dialogue. Dramatic style opening, incorporating Indian leitmotif and the Love leitmotif. (00:02:15-00:02:42) A series of close-ups No dialogue. Pentatonic melody played by a of pre-Hispanic statues flute and percussive concluding with the instruments that evoke the image of an indigenous sound of Pre-Hispanic music woman standing next as the camera shows the pre- to a stone mask that Hispanic statues. resembles her face (00:02:43-00:07:08) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. No music. sequence without music: A painter talks about his work to a group of reporters. One of them asks the painter about the canvas of a beautiful female Indian he painted years ago. (00:07:09-00:09:05) Reluctantly, the painter The painter’s flashback An ‘ethereal’ musical shows the canvas of starts when he says: “She ‘Introduction’ (beginning at María Candelaria to used to live close here, in 00:08:21) presents the idyllic, the insistent reporter. Xochimilco, in a chinampa aromatic world of Xochimilco. The painter starts to full of flowers.” The Indian leitmotif sounds as narrate the story of María Candelaria appears María Candelaria in onscreen. the form of a flashback. María Candelaria appears onscreen for the first time. (00:09:06-00:10:56) Extended dramatic José Alfonso: “Total… No music. sequence without fifteen pesos eight cents.” music: (1) José María Candelaria: “I will Alfonso informs María sell flowers, whatever Candelaria that Don happens.” Damián demands his money back; (2) María decides to sell flowers. (00:10:57-00:12:14) María Candelaria picks No dialogue. Woodwinds-dominated flowers from her orchestra plays ‘linking music’ chinampa. Then she (¾ meter) (non-diegetic) of a paddles on the canal on yearning character as María a canoe full of flowers. picks flowers and enters into the canal. (00:12:15-00:13:05) María Candelaria María Candelaria’s street María Candelaria sings a street

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keeps paddling and cry (lyrics): “I sell my cry (Selling leitmotif) sings to offer her flowers, picked from my (diegetic) as she paddles products. chinampa. I bring roses and through the canal. carnations, picked at dawn.” (00:13:06-00:15:48) The Indians create a Lorenzo Rafael: “María Brass-dominated orchestra blockade to stop María Candelaria! Return to the plays Indian leitmotif (non- Candelaria. Defeated, chinampa!” diegetic) as María Candelaria the protagonist gets closer to the blockade. observes the villagers The woodwinds pick up the from Xochimilco who Indian leitmotif as María look at her with realizes she will not pass. contempt. Lorenzo Rafael orders María Candelaria to return to her chinampa. (00:15:49-00:16:52) Lupe (María’s love Lupe: “you won’t be happy Woodwinds-dominated rival) tells Lorenzo because that is a bad orchestra plays ‘linking music’ Rafael that María is not woman, like her mother.” (3/4 meter) (non-diegetic) of a convenient for him. yearning character (beginning Without saying a word at 00:16:17) as María and María and Lorenzo Lorenzo paddle back to their return to their chinampa. chinampas. (00:16:53-00:18:55) Extended dramatic María Candelaria: “We No music. music without music: both were born here, and Worried about her we have always lived here. safety Lorenzo This is our land.” proposes to María to move outside Xochimilco. She refuses to do so because Xochimilco is the land they were born. Then Lorenzo decides to offer his vegetables to Don Damián as payment for María’s debt. (00:18:56-00:20:52) Lupe throws a stone to Lupe: “I deserve Lorenzo Woodwinds play the Indians María’s house and Rafael more than you… is leitmotif (non-diegetic) as breaks her image of the not my fault that you are María laments for the saint’s Virgin of Guadalupe. what you are.” image. The brass section picks In a fit of fury María up the Indian leitmotif pushes Lupe into the (variation) as María confronts water. Lupe. (00:20:53-00:24:30) Indians carry Don Damián: “Come on. ‘Mexican’ folk-like (2/4 vegetables from their Hurry!!!”. meter) (non-diegetic) music canoes to Don Doctors: “This is the (ending at 00:21:35) is heard Damián’s store. quinine for the whole as the Indians carry their

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Doctors give a pack of week.” vegetables. quinine to Don Damián for he to distribute among the Indians. Lorenzo tries to talk to Don Damián but the store’s owner totally ignores Lorenzo and denies the quinine he is entitled to have. (00:24:31-00:26:08) Lorenzo lands in Lorenzo: “I will have to go Orchestra dominated by María’s chinampa after somewhere else to sell my strings and woodwinds plays trying to talk to Don vegetables.” the Love leitmotif (non- Damián. María hurries María: “Let me go with diegetic) as María hurries to to meet him. Lorenzo you, I don’t want to be meet Lorenzo (ending at decides to sell his alone.” 00:25:16). vegetables outside Xochimilco and María offers to go with him to see if she can sell her flowers. (00:26:09-00:26:27) María picks flowers to No dialogue. Woodwinds-dominated sell outside orchestra plays ‘linking music’ Xochimilco (¾ meter) (non-diegetic) of a yearning character. (00:26:29-00:26:52) María and Lorenzo get No dialogue. Woodwinds (non-diegetic) to the marketplace. play the ‘selling leitmotif’ as María and Lorenzo get to the marketplace. (00:26:53-00:28:32) The painter sees María. Painter: “Follow them. Strings-dominated orchestra He offers money to Hurry!!!... This is the plays Painter’s leitmotif Lorenzo to paint his model I was looking for.” (fragment) (non-diegetic) wife. Lorenzo refuses (beginning at 00:28:03) as the and the couple returns painter asks an Indian to to Xochimilco. The follow María and Lorenzo. painter asks an Indian to follow María and Lorenzo. (00:28:33-00:30:04) María and Lorenzo No dialogue. Woodwinds play ‘linking return to Xochimilco. music’ (¾ meter) (non- diegetic) of a yearning character as Lorenzo and María return to Xochimilco (00:30:05-00:31:35) Lorenzo meets the Priest: “The blessing of the Bells, strings and choral priest at the church. animals is tomorrow. Tell ‘angelical’ music announce The priest tells María Candelaria to come the visit of Lorenzo to the Lorenzo to assist to the with you.” church. celebration of the blessing of the animals. (00:31:36-00:36:11) Lorenzo Rafael returns Lorenzo Rafael: “Would Lorenzo plays the Love

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home at night and you like to take a stroll as leitmotif (diegetic) (beginning plays a reed flute we do every full moon?” at 00:32:54) on a reed flute. outside his hut. María hurries to meet him. Lorenzo invites María to take a canoe stroll as they do every full moon. (00:36:12-00:39:01) María Candelaria and María Candelaria: “Do you Long musical passage Lorenzo Rafael take a love me Lorenzo Rafael? comprising three sections: The canoe stroll. María … Yes, you love me”. ‘ethereal’ musical reflects upon her love ‘Introduction’ is heard (non- to Lorenzo Rafael. The diegetic) as the camera shots Mexican landscape the flowery canals of plays a main role Xochimilco. A ‘Waltz-like during this sequence. section’ is heard as María’s voice over reflects upon her feelings towards Lorenzo. The Love leitmotif is heard as María asks to Lorenzo, “Do you love me Lorenzo Rafael?” (00:39:02-00:41:12) The villagers from No dialogue. Sound of church bells, farm Xochimilco take their animals, reed flutes and farm animals to the percussive instruments (non- church so they receive diegetic) as the crowd the blessing from the gradually gathers outside the priest. church. (00:41:13-00:47:33) The villagers try to Lupe: “If she [María] Horns and low-register strings kick María Candelaria doesn’t leave, the blessing play the Indian leitmotif as the out of the church. The won’t have any effect… villagers approach to María priest intervenes and let’s kick her out!” Candelaria. sermonizes the Priest: “[to the Indians:] villagers. Don Damián Nobody has the right to tries to take the piggy harass María Candelaria… away from María but [to Don Damián:] When I the priest stops Don have the money and God Damián and promises provide I will pay you.” to pay María’s debt. Don Damián: “Damn Don Damián promises Indian, he will pay!!!” revenge. (00:47:34-00:53:01) María Candelaria feels Lorenzo Rafael: “Stay and Woodwinds play ‘linking sick and stays at home if you still feel sick music’ (¾ meter) (non- while Lorenzo starts a tomorrow, I will call the diegetic) of a yearning trip outside shaman-woman.” character. This transforms into Xochimilco to sell his the Indian leitmotif as Lorenzo vegetables. However, leaves his home. The theme Don Damián shoots the repeats and the music grows in pig. When Lorenzo intensity as Don Damián hears the shots, he shoots the pig. returns and finds the

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pig death. María Candelaria faints and Lorenzo hurries to get the shaman-woman. She recommends Lorenzo to get the quinine. (00:53:02-00:55:07) Lorenzo tries to get the Don Damián: “There is no No music. quinin for María but quinin for you!!! Get Don Damián throws out!!!” him out from his store. (00:55:08-00:57:12) María is sick at home. Painter: “I am here because Strings-dominated orchestra The painter visits I want to paint you… plays the Painter’s leitmotif María to convince her please don’t run.” (beginning at 00: 55:20) as the to model for him. painter calls María’s name. María hides until the painter leaves her hut. (00:57:13-01:03:13) María gets worst and No dialogue. Dramatic ‘suspense’ music suffers hallucinations. transforms into Love leitmotif Desperate, Lorenzo as Lorenzo knocks Don breaks into Don Damián’s door. The Indian Damián’s store and leitmotif is heard as Lorenzo steals the quinin. sees the quinin and breaks the window to steal the medicine. The Indian leitmotif adopts a ‘triumphalist’ character as Lorenzo breaks into the store and grabs a dress for María Candelaria. (01:03:14-01:07:56) Lorenzo prays to the Lorenzo Rafael: “Holy Woodwinds play La Virgin of Guadalupe Virgin of Guadalupe, I guadalupana theme (non- for María Candelaria’s offer my life in exchange of diegetic) (beginning at life. A doctor sent by hers.” 01:04:34) as Lorenzo Rafael the painter visits María prays. and saves her. (01:07:57-01:10:12) María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael: “Father, Strings-dominated orchestra Lorenzo Rafael get take care of her.” plays the Love leitmotif married. However, (beginning at 01:09:26) as Don Damián interrupts María hugs Lorenzo goodbye. the ceremony to denounce Lorenzo and the Indian is arrested the same day of the weeding. (01:10:13-01:12:03) María cries desperately María Candelaria: “I cannot A solo bassoon plays the in the church and stand it anymore. I feel like Indian leitmotif as María cries. recriminates the Virgin shouting till my throat is for all the tragedies dry.” that she and Lorenzo suffer. The priest

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scolds María for being so rude with the saint. (01:12:04-01:13:05) María asks the Virgin María Candelaria: “No, I ‘Mexican’ folk-like music (6/8 of Guadalupe to don’t want to make the meter) (non-diegetic) is heard forgive her words. Virgin cry. It was my as María regrets about her desperation father.” words. (01:13:06-01:24:02) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. No music. sequence without music: (1) Lorenzo is given one year jail sentence; (2) María asks for help to the painter; (3) the painter pays the jail fee but Lorenzo will have to wait to be liberated because the judge took some days off; (4) María accepts to be painted although Lorenzo is not totally convinced. (01:24:03-01:26:33) María refuses to pose Painter: “There is nothing Strings-dominated orchestra naked for the painter wrong with this María… plays the Painter’s leitmotif and flees out of his Please, don’t go! María (fragment) (beginning at studio. The painter Candelaria!!!” 01:25:40) as another model decides to finish his tries to undress María. painting with the body of another model. (01:26:34-01:28:22) A villager sees the Villager: “Dear holy Virgin Brass-dominated orchestra painting and runs back of Guadalupe! María plays the Indians leitmotif as to Xochimilco to tell Candelaria! Naked!” the villager runs back to the others. The Xochimilco. The Indians villagers see the leitmotif repeats several times painting and decide to and grows in intensity kick María out of according to the emotions town. expressed by the crowd. (01:28:23-01:34:57) Lupe rings a huge bell Lorenzo Rafael: “Oh my Tremolo strings and the brass to encourage the God! They are going to kill section play an agitated villagers to chase her!” variation of the Indians María Candelaria. leitmotif. This interweaves María observes how with descending chromatic the villagers invade her figurations and an agitated chinampa. She runs for variation of the Painter’s her life but the leitmotif. villagers corner María and stone her. Lorenzo Rafael hears María’s pleadings and screams desperately.

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(01:34:58-01:35:32) Lorenzo Rafael María Candelaria: “I did The whole orchestra plays the escapes from jail and nothing wrong. Lorenzo Indian leitmotif as Lorenzo gets to María Rafael, I did nothing finally gets to María. When Candelaria. However, wrong.” María and Lorenzo look for it is too late because the last time, an ‘angelical’ the crowd has already chorus sings an extended killed the girl. Lorenzo version of the Love leitmotif. and María look to the eyes for the last time. (01:35:33-01:36:59) Lorenzo Rafael takes Painter (voice over): “This The ‘angelical’ chorus keeps María Candelaria’s was the story of María singing until the painter’s body down the Canal Candelaria.” voice over announces the end of the Dead. Final of the movie. This matches the credits. entrance of the Indian leitmotif in the brass section, colored by the chorus heard before. The music extends to the final credits.

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Salón México (1948)

Timing Dramatic Sequences Summary of Dialogue Principal Musical Features

(00:00:00-00:01:42) Title music. No dialogue. Dramatic style opening incorporating Mercedes leitmotif (Nereidas) and Beatriz leitmotif. (00:01:42-00:05:00) Mercedes and Paco Mercedes: “I really need The orchestra of the Salón participate in the that money.” México plays Almendra danzón conquest. Paco Paco: “Move well, we’ll (diegetic music) as the camera rigs the results to win see.” shots the banner of the dancing the prize and keeps the hall, the people entering the money despite of venue, and the dancing Mercedes pleadings. contest. (00:05:01-00:07:54) Mercedes follows Mercedes keeps pleading The orchestra of the Salón Paco to the exit door, for the money: “Paco, give México plays an instrumental but Paco gets rid of me at least half of the Cuban rumba while Paco and her. An exuberant money!!!” Mercedes discuss. mulatto woman dances inside the venue. (00:07:55-00:11:59) Mercedes robs Paco’s No dialogue. Dramatic ‘suspense’ music as wallet and drops it in Mercedes grabs the wallet and the street. Lupe sees runs away from the hotel in Mercedes’ actions and which the pimp sleeps. picks up the wallet. (00:12:00-00:13:45) After robbing the No dialogue. Woodwinds play Beatriz wallet Mercedes gets leitmotif (non-diegetic) as home and prepares her Mercedes prepares her ‘decent’ clothes to ‘decent’ clothes to see her visit Beatriz next sister. morning. (00:13:46-00:18:24) Mercedes picks up Lupe: “I only wanted to say The orchestra plays Beatriz Beatriz to take a walk hello, but I can do that in leitmotif (non-diegetic) as around the city. The the hotel.” Lupe lies about his principal of the relationship with Mercedes internship asks and calls a cab for the girls Mercedes to be more (beginning at 00:17:42). present in Beatriz’s life. Mercedes pays the tuition with the money she robed from Paco and promises to do as the principal says. Lupe, who waits outside the internship, overlooks Mercedes’ robbery to hide her secret from her sister. (00:18:25-00:21:09) Mercedes and Beatriz Mercedes: “You won’t Brass-dominated orchestra

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visit Mexico City’s believe how proud I am of plays dissonant chords along Metropolitan you for being the first of with steady rhythms in the Cathedral and later the your class.” timpani to suggest pre- National Museum of Hispanic music, when Anthropology. Mercedes and Beatriz get to the National Museum of Anthropology (beginning at 00:19:45). (00:21:10-00:22:10) Mercedes and Beatriz Mexican president: Viva Drums and trumpets play the celebrate the Mexican México!!! Toque de bandera (Mexican independence day. military motto) (non-diegetic) as the crowd celebrate the Mexican independence day. (00:22:11-00:24:45) Mercedes finds Lupe Mercedes: “I stole Paco’s The orchestra of the Salón in the cabaret after the wallet, the one you were México plays Mercedes incident in the holding in your hands. Now leitmotif (Nereidas) (diegetic) internship and says to you know why I wanted the as the camera shots of the the policeman that she money.” banner announcing the dancing is willing to be hall. The orchestra keeps arrested. Lupe says playing while Lupe and Mercedes that he Mercedes talk. understand her situation and encourages her to keep working to support Beatriz. (00:24:46-00:27:04) The camera shows a Paco: “Don’t think The orchestra of the Salón couple dancing an someone is going to help México plays an instrumental instrumental Cuban you. And be quiet or it is Cuban rumba while a couple rumba. Then Paco going to be worst.” dances. The orchestra keeps forces Mercedes to go playing as Paco threatens outside the Salón Mercedes and forces her to go México. out of the Salón México. (00:27:05-00:31:39) Paco takes Mercedes Mercedes: “Don’t beat me Brass section plays a dramatic to the hotel in front the Paco!!!” version of Mercedes leitmotif Salón México and Lupe: “Clean your face and (Nereidas) (non-diegetic) as beats her savagely. go.” Paco pushes Mercedes inside Lupe intervenes and the hotel room. Brass and recues Mercedes. Lupe strings keep playing Mercedes and Paco fight. leitmotif as Paco beats Mercedes. Lupe leitmotif (Juárez no debió morir) (non- diegetic) is heard in tender strings and woodwinds as soon as Lupe reaches his hand out to Mercedes. Dramatic music (non-diegetic) is heard as Lupe and Paco fight. (00:31:40-00:31:58) A bar girl laughs at Bar girl: “I told you not to No music. Mercedes’ tragedy. mess with Paco.”

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(00:31:59-00:38:33) Lupe talks to Lupe: “From now on I will The orchestra of the Salón Mercedes after the be like your shadow to take México plays Lupe leitmotif incident in the hotel. care of you […] I love you (Juárez no debió morir) He promises to take and I humbly ask you to be (diegetic) while Lupe and care of her and declare my wife.” Mercedes speak. his love to the cabaretera. Mercedes rejects Lupe and cries her misfortune. (00:38:34-00:42:02) Beatriz gives a Beatriz: “There is heroism Military drums and trumpets discourse about in every sacrifice. The one are heard (non-diegetic) as heroism in her school. who sacrifices for others is Beatriz talks about military a hero.” heroism. (00:42:03-00:43:49) The principal waits for No dialogue. The orchestra (horns, strings her son (Roberto) and tubular bells) plays Beatriz anxiously. Roberto and leitmotif (non-diegetic) as his mother meet in the Roberto and the principal internship after the meet. Behind them the girls pilot returns from the clap excitedly. World War II. The girls of the internship receive Roberto with applauses. (00:43:50-00:46:16) Beatriz stays away Roberto: “Who is she?” Strings-dominated orchestra from the group of plays Beatriz leitmotif as the girls, but the principal principal encourages the girl to encourages her to get get closer and Roberto sees closer to Roberto. Beatriz for the first time. Roberto sees Beatriz for the first time. (00:46:17-00:49:34) In the cabaret Paco: “We will work The orchestra of the Salón Mercedes tries to rob a together. You’ll see how México plays El caballo y la client and the bar girl your life change.” montura (Cuban son) is mistreated. Paco (diegetic) while Mercedes is tries to convince mistreated, and Paco proposes Mercedes to her to participate in his illegal participate in his businesses. illegal businesses. When Mercedes refuses Paco tells her that he knows her secret. (00:49:35-00:52:11) Dramatic action Sorted dialogue. No music. without music: (1) Beatriz and tells Mercedes about Roberto; (2) Roberto tells his mother about Beatriz. (00:52:12-00:56:39) Paco insists about Paco: “If something The orchestra of the Salón

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Mercedes’ happens to me is going to México plays Meneito (Cuban participation in his be you fault.” song) (diegetic) and Sopa de illegal businesses. Mercedes tells Lupe: “I am pichón (Cuban song) (diegetic) Mercedes refuses very sad and very scared. It while Paco and Mercedes again. Paco dances is like something bad is speak, Paco dances, and Lupe with another bar girl. going to happen.” walks Mercedes home. In her way out Mercedes finds Lupe and the policeman offers to walk her home. (00:56:40-00:58:27) Lupe leaves Mercedes No dialogue. A portable organ plays Lupe’s at her home (La love leitmotif (Por un amor) vecindad). (non-diegetic) as Lupe leaves Mercedes at her home. (00:58:28-01:03:00) Paco robs a bank. He No dialogue. Dramatic ‘suspense’ music as tries to hide in the villains rob the bank and Mercedes’ house and Paco hides in Mercedes’ she gets arrested along house. with Paco. (01:03:01-01:13:59) Extended dramatic Sorted dialogue. No music. action without music: (1) Lupe intervenes to take Mercedes out of jail but she will have to stay locked during the weekend; (2) Lupe talks with Beatriz and Roberto to ask them to apologize Mercedes for not show up to their meeting; (3) the next Sunday Mercedes, Beatriz and Roberto meet and Roberto expresses his intentions to marry Beatriz when she graduates. (01:14:00-01:21:48) Mercedes realizes that Mercedes: “If you are still Clients and workers of the when Beatriz thinking that nonsense, and Salón México sing Las graduates it is going to I mean something to you, posadas (diegetic). be impossible to keep take me as your wife.” his double life and agrees to marry Lupe. Roberto relaxes with his friends in the Salón México. Mercedes runs off when she sees Roberto in the dancing

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hall and she gets fired. (01:21:49-01:26:13) Lupe walks Mercedes Lupe: “See you tomorrow A portable organ plays Lupe’s home. Paco, who Merceditas.” love leitmotif (Por un amor) recently escaped from (non-diegetic) as Lupe leaves jail, waits for Mercedes at her home. Brass- Mercedes at her home dominated orchestra plays and proposes her to dramatic ‘suspense’ music escape with him to (non-diegetic) as Mercedes Guatemala. When discovers that Paco broke into Mercedes refuses Paco her home. Brass and strings threatens her to tell the play louder (non-diegetic) as truth to Beatriz. Paco Mercedes and Paco kill each and Mercedes fight other. and they kill each other. (01:26:14-01:26:58) Mercedes’ body lays Lupe: “She was going to be Solo flute plays Lupe leitmotif in the morgue. Lupe my wife.” (Juárez no debió morir) (non- and Roberto recognize diegetic) as the camera shows the body. Mercedes’ body. (01:26:59-01:29:29) Beatriz graduates. No dialogue. Strings-dominated orchestra Instead of Mercedes, plays Beatriz leitmotif (non- Roberto appears in the diegetic) as Beatriz receives ceremony. her diploma. Full orchestra plays Beatriz leitmotif (non- diegetic) when Roberto appears in the graduation ceremony. (01:29:30-01:30:40) Lupe returns to work. No dialogue. The orchestra of the Salón Before entering to the México plays Lupe leitmotif Salón México he looks (Juárez no debió morir) up to the sky as a pray. (diegetic). The diegetic music The final credits transforms into non-diegetic appear on the screen. fanfare-like closing music.