By Akira Boch
This article originally appeared on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival blog as part of the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival programs: Sounds of California and On the Move.
César Castro is a young master of son jarocho, a music genre that originated over 250 years ago in Veracruz, Mexico, combining Indigenous Mexican, African, Spanish, and Arabic influences. César is also originally from Veracruz, but he has lived in Los Angeles since 2005.
When César was thirteen years old, he became obsessed with learning to play the jarana, a small, eight-stringed, guitar-shaped instrument and the primary sound of son jarocho. His love for this traditional form of music led to rejection by some of his peers who were listening to contemporary artists, but because César showed such passion for son jarocho at such a young age, the older masters of the genre took notice.
Continue reading on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival website...
