Smithsonian - Perishable Pundit

song," and slower, romantic bolero. When the chanchona strikes upits catchy dance rhythms and the singers launch into lyrics lacedwith local sentiment, it pulls people out of their normal routineand marks an emotional sense of special occasion. In the rest of ElSalvador, the chanchona marks the Oriente region as a distinct place,with its associations of country life and rural poverty. As millionsof Salvadorans migrated to the United States during and after thecivil strife of the 1970s and 1980s—today about one out of fourSalvadorans lives outside El Salvador—the music came to take onadded meaning. Just as Salvadorans uprooted from their homelandlost their self-grounding sense of place as they relocated to U.S. citiessuch as Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington,D.C., in their newly adopted homes music took on a more intensesense of "home." Indeed, for many Salvadorans, especially those fromOriente, only a few seconds of the chanchona's music evoke a feelingof "being home" nearly as well as taking a several-thousand-mileplane ride back to El Salvador. In Washington, D.C., home to overa hundred thousand Salvadorans mainly from Oriente, the chanchonahas emerged as a prominentsymbol ot Salvadoran presence.The group Elíseo y su ChanchonaMelódica Oriental has performedevery Friday and Saturday nightsince 2001 at Judy's Restaurantin Washington, D.C.The group'sleader. Elíseo Gutiérrez, took upthe music of the chanchona in hishometown of San Alejo, La Unión,El Salvador, learning mamly fromhis father and brothers. At Judy's,his seven-member group performsa range of music that appeals toclientele from El Salvador, Honduras,Guatemala, Mexico, and other LatinAmerican countries. When theyplay for local Salvadoran weddings,birthday parties, and other celebrations,focus is on the cumbia andcanción ranchera repertoire favored among Salvadorans.While in many Latino communities music is a magnet that pullspeople together around familiar ideas of shared values and experiences,it is also used to construct new, forward-looking ideas otcommunity and mutuality of purpose. In Chicago, the group Sonesde México takes threads from many distinctive regional styles otMexican music, weaves them into contemporary sounds and freshcompositions, and creates a new musical fabric that is at once tradi-When peopleendow musicwith meanings,associations, andvalues, they lendit power — powerto communicate,to moveus, to transformour frame olmind and ouremotions.Karol Aurora de JesúsReyes sings with hermentor Miguel SantiagoDiaz during a recordingsession for the GrammynominatedJibaro Hastael Hueso: MountainMusic of Puerto Rico byEcos de Bonnquen.[51]NUESTRA MÚSICA MUSIC IN LATINO CULTURE