Bird of Four Hundred Voices: A Mexican American Memoir of Music and Belonging
By
From the founder of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, a profoundly personal exploration of music’s power to build cultural bridges that last.
“I wish I had studied with Eugene Rodrigeuz when I was growing up. Read this beautifully written book about culture, identity and resilience, and you will know why.” —Linda Ronstadt
From an early age Eugene Rodriguez knew he was captivated by music. But he found himself encountering the same two problems again and again: the chilly rigidity of so much formal music education, and the underrepresentation of Mexican culture in American media. In 1989 he founded Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds), a group that offered music education to Bay Area youth, and that gave pride of place to Mexican musical traditions. Bird of Four Hundred Voices follows Rodriguez as he leads his young students from a California barrio to uncover their ancestral roots. From their home community in San Pablo, Los Cenzontles journey to fandangos in Veracruz, resurrect a lost mariachi tradition, and collaborate with luminaries like Linda Ronstadt, Lalo Guerrero, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Flaco Jiménez, and Los Lobos. Rodriguez’s story offers an honest, deeply personal look at the cultural work that confronts historical oppression and joyously challenges cultural borders. And it is a profound celebration of the powerful influence of Mexico’s musical heritage on American culture.
Reviews
"Eugene Rodriguez’s memoir is a testament to the power of music as a unifying force between different cultures. Through his creation of Los Cenzontles in 1989, Rodriguez defied the rigidity of formal education and championed Mexican musical heritage, revealing how music can transcend boundaries and heal historical wounds. Highlighting collaborations with icons like Linda Ronstadt, Flaco Jiménez and Los Lobos, this book is both a celebration of Mexican culture and a powerful exploration of persistence." Roxsy Lin, Los Angeles Times
"The memoir makes obvious Rodriguez’s zealous energy and efforts to counteract the invalidating of Mexican culture—and community-based youth organizations—in America, it does so through numerous stories of hard-fought battles over decades. [...] The book is an uplifting voyage and a tale well told with resilience, humor and wisdom." Lou Fancher, Local News Matters
Bird of Four Hundred Voices is not only Rodriguez's own story of growing up a Mexican kid in Southern California, and his collaborations with such luminaries as Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos It’s also the story of the Los Cenzontles Center and its efforts to amplify Mexican culture, particularly for Mexican Americans throughout the San Francisco Bay Area." Wallace Baine, Lookout Santa Cruz
"Eugene teaches children the right music for the right reasons, not necessarily to be performers but to explore their own joys and sorrows. And then some might become professionals. I wish I had studied with him when I was growing up. Read this beautifully written book about culture, identity and resilience, and you will know why." Linda Ronstadt
"For many years, I have been hearing of some kind of magic that Eugene Rodriguez was creating across San Francisco Bay, with an institute of serious fun. He named his enterprise after mockingbirds, Los Cenzontles. The mockingbird has no song of its own, but an imitative reverence to collect, to mimic, to preserve. This glorious memoir is unlike other ethnic memoirs I have read because, by eschewing politics in favor of Mexican popular culture, Eugene Rodriguez recollects his own growing appreciation of the play of Mexico within himself. For centuries Mexico has withstood political failures by means of the gathering festival—the union of old and young, the living and the dead, wit and romance, the sombrero's bow and the wise smile of the skull. In hardscrabble San Pablo, California, Eugene Rodriguez records his life's work first as student then as teacher: He has taught young men and women and children to dance and sing with the dead." Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory
"Firmly rooted in tradition and activism, Eugene Rodriguez's Bird of Four Hundred Voices brings us the extraordinary trajectory of one of the most renowned traditional Mexican dance advocates and attests to the tremendous power of cultural affirmation and celebration." —Norma E. Cantú, co-editor of Dancing Across Borders and editor of Chicana Traditions Norma E. Cantú, co-editor of Dancing Across Borders and editor of Chicana Traditions
"A son of so much: activism, history, art, pride, California, Mexico, the world. Each sentence, paragraph, page and story is a fandango for the soul." Gustavo Arellano, L.A. Times columnist and author of Taco USA
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