Unless you're from Veracruz, Mexico, or a historian of Mexican music, the songs emanating from the Mexican Cultural Center in Santa Ana might be something of a mystery. Although Latin American in flavor, the melodies and rhythms aren't typical folkloric music, mariachi or trios romanticos.
The dozen or so musicians are playing son jarocho, a 400-year-old Mexican genre that blends indigenous, Spanish and African styles into foot-stomping, hand-clapping songs often with ad-libbed lyrics.
Five years ago, several Santa Ana High School students formed the band Son del Centro after becoming intrigued by a genre that even their immigrant parents knew little about.
Since then, Son del Centro has become one of a handful of bands in Southern California to specialize in the son jarocho style, giving the musicians a part in preserving a Mexican tradition that has struggled to survive outside the rural sections of Veracruz.
In doing so, the band has also added to Mexican culture in Santa Ana, which is often in surprisingly short supply despite the large immigrant population, many locals say.
"We could have played the guitar. We could have had a [rock] band. But coming together to learn son jarocho was more than that," said Luis Sarmiento, one of the founding members of Son del Centro. "We are preserving a culture and building community."
The nonprofit group, which now includes college students and professionals, also appears on weekends in plazas in downtown Santa Ana, at the farmers market, at immigrant festivities and immigrant rights demonstrations. Its earnings -- from concerts and CD sales -- pay a good chunk of the Mexican Cultural Center's monthly $7,000 rent.
None of the band members are from Veracruz, but that doesn't really matter, said Robert Garfias, an ethnomusicologist at UC Irvine, adding that groups such as Son del Centro were helping to lead a revival of son jarocho.
"There is a renaissance of the music from Veracruz," he said. Young people "are no doubt still playing mariachi, but son jarocho is for those who want to get a little closer to the roots of Mexico. It's less flashy than mariachi and less stereotypical. There's a certain purity and beauty to it."
The group plays with several instruments from Veracruz, including the jarana, a small guitar-shaped, eight-string instrument that plays rhythm; the requinto, a small, six-string guitar-like instrument that plays melody; and the leona, a bass guitar. Percussion includes a tambourine and the beating of a box, which is not a part of traditional son jarocho.
