Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Although my neighborhood is multi-Latinx, on May 5th it’s usually alive with the smoky scent of grilled meat and the sounds of Mexican conjunto norteño music that reminds me of the Slovenian polkas my dad used to play.
My dad always loved polka music, and in his younger years, when polka was hot in the Midwest (yup, I said polka was hot), he sang with a few bands. Later, at about my age, he took up the drums, for what I believe were two reasons: he couldn’t find anyone to sing with, and he wanted to save his musician friend, Al, from alcoholism. Only one of these aims was successful.
He had his own band almost until he died. He used to play in the local park for the 4th of July celebrations. Mexican immigrant families populated many of the same neighborhood that had been the settling areas of Polish immigrants like his family decades earlier, and on Independence Day, both populations came out with their families. I’ve often thought how much these two populations have in common, Catholicism, immigration patterns, work ethic, and folk music. Watching his neighborhood change was not unproblematic for my Dad, who felt less and less relevant as he got older. Still, he loved it when he saw his Mexican neighbors nodded their heads in time to his polkas. This inevitably led to him commenting, “You know, I took Spanish in high school,” reaching for a connection to the changing world around him.
I don’t hear music in my neighborhood today even though more cars whizzed past Tyke and me on our morning walk than have in weeks. But it’s early on a Tuesday morning. Maybe tonight some celebration will trill from my neighbors’ backyards. I’ll nod my head in time, drink a beer, and be thankful for my neighbors, for music, and for celebration.
Enjoy some music today, including a links to Conjunto Norteno La Aurora, Peace for the Ages, an inter-generational collaboration between Stages Theatre (where my sister, Sandy Boren-Barrett is artistic director!! Hey, Sam!) and Alive & Kickin, Brave Combo, and the Linlithgow Male Rugby Club Voice Choir.
–KLB