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I just want to point out that some Hispanics and Native/Americans with ties to rural areas adopt the country/western culture. For example, there is a large Navajo rodeo in the Farmington area and it is not uncommon to see Hispanics and Native/Americans wearing boots and western style shirts or listening to country music. Rancheros is a type of Spanish country music. Country/western culture is not just a redneck Anglo thing.
Based on what they play on tribal radio I would guess that country is hands-down the most popular music genre in New Mexico's major Native areas, followed by metal, reggae and traditional music. Most Mexican immigrants in NM will probably dress like vaqueros and listen to norteno and banda, which as ABQ2015 points out is pretty much Mexican country music...
Just putting my 2 cents in, El Paso is your best bet for diverse music, not ABQ. Seldom does anyone thats well known goes to ABQ, even if so i doubt it would be worth the 4 hour drive.
Most Mexican immigrants in NM will probably dress like vaqueros...
Can you please explain what you mean by that statement?
From what I've seen of those migrating across the border from Mexico, "MOST" dress just like the rest of us living in the region. Tee shirts, hoodies, jeans and sneakers being the uni-sex favorites.
As for music, I believe that the idea of "country music" being norteno/banda is misleading unless one understands the origins of the genres. For example:
Quote:
Texas-Mexican "conjunto" continues to represent an alternative musical ideology, and in this way it helps to preserve a Mexican, working-class culture wherever it takes root on American soil.
And this: Banda is a brass-based form of "traditional" Mexican music. Scholars of Mexican music recognize that Banda is part of the cultural process of mestizaje, specifically between German and mestizo forms of popular music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros.
Can you please explain what you mean by that statement? [/QUOTE}
Pardon me, I should have said "many." The vaquero look is very popular among Mexican immigrants in New Mexico, particularly among folks from rural parts of Chihuahua or Sonora (of which there are quite a few).
[QUOTE} As for music, I believe that the idea of "country music" being norteno/banda is misleading unless one understands the origins of the genres.
It's certainly not "country" in the sense of sounding anything like American country music. But banda and norteno occupy a very similar place to country music in the culture of rural northern Mexico, and they cover a lot of the same bases thematically: ranches, horses, the ups and downs of working-class rural life, etc.
US country music doesn't really have anything that comes close to the narco tunes that are currently very popular within the broader norteno/banda scene, though. That's a subgenre all its own, and probably thematically more similar to gangster rap than anything else...
It's certainly not "country" in the sense of sounding anything like American country music.
That's what I was driving at, so we're in agreement on that point. While the OP may not like "western" culture, that might not include Mexican folk culture.
As a youth growing up in El Paso, there were a very few of my schoolmates who actually dressed in what we referred to at the time as "western" garb. I was one of them, spending most of my earning money on expensive western shirts with pearl snaps, cowboy boots and Levis. And that was back when western music was distinctly different from what we know today as "country western." As might be expected, my all-time favorite western song is Marty Robbin's "El Paso."
My concern though, is that I am not a fan of country music. I would go so far as to say it hurts my ears. And, I don't like rodeos, cowboy boots/hats, or any aspect of that culture. I do appreciate mexican, native american, and spanish culture, just not the traditional western stuff.
I think you need to go to a Navajo rodeo to dispel some of your stereotypes:
The OP comes off sounding just as intolerant and ignorant as those he/she seeks to avoid.
This thread has been educational for me and I appreciate all the comments. I will admit I was completely ignorant of the multicultural roots of the modern cowboy and the existence of Navajo rodeos. Intolerant is a stretch though. I simply wanted to assess how much country music, rodeos, line dancing, etc is featured in the "Las Cruces lifestyle" because I do not enjoy or appreciate any of that.
If wine tastes like **** to you, we don't want to send you to live in Napa valley right?
If wine tastes like **** to you, we don't want to send you to live in Napa valley right?
New Mexico, and the Las Cruces area, has some award winning vineyards too!
As for "line dancing" - I've found that there is no finer music to dance to than Western Swing! Not all of the dancing is "line dancing" either. A great place to meet new people of the opposite sex - places with dance floors and a live band.
This thread has been educational for me and I appreciate all the comments. I will admit I was completely ignorant of the multicultural roots of the modern cowboy and the existence of Navajo rodeos. Intolerant is a stretch though. I simply wanted to assess how much country music, rodeos, line dancing, etc is featured in the "Las Cruces lifestyle" because I do not enjoy or appreciate any of that.
I didn't think I was going to enjoy "any of that" either (coming from NY and MA) but I was wrong, I did make some friends who took me to a rodeo and CW dancing several times, and I had a great time. You never know. Especially if what bothered you about it is the idea that it was an "exclusively white" thing to do. We are very integrated in NM. Maybe half of our cowboys are Hispanic. But you should know that nobody will kidnap you and force you to learn country-western dancing. I think it would be best to keep an open mind.
Last edited by aries63; 05-04-2016 at 06:41 PM..
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