The French and Mariachis

Erlinda,

I have run into this assertion quite often and it has never been true in my area (except a couple of times)for most people.

I have no idea why this vexing myth continues.

< I was also told we had French blood so the elders were a bit put off when I found no French lineage but Mulato, Spanish? and Yndio.. they insisted there had never been any black slaves in Jerez.. people don't always like what our research shows them. I felt previleged to share the blood of the history of Mexico but not everyone will feel that way.>

------------------------I had the same reaction from some relatives living in Mexico City. They turned out to be Nahuatls only and I did not even continue the discussion with them further after finding the truth in my research.

A female relative became extremely agitated and simply stopped talking to me.
______________________________

For Armando: Re your answer

_________Armando, you are correct here. Please keep pointing that out. I am rather proud of what I am.

________________Correct again!

<...and many gueros have documented ancestry going back many centuries before the French intervention.>

________________True! True! The gueros and redheaded ones as well as the blonds in my family are as far as can be determined are from Spain. No French in sight!

___________________That's about as much probability as there is!

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Armando and other Nuestros Ranchos Members:

----------------------Esta es una "mazorca dificil de desgranar" I just can't figure out why people insist on this myth either!!!

------------------------I asked my Gramps many years ago about the French staying in Mexico (batalla de Puebla and all). He laughed; then he said the there quite a few that had stayed but that they were dead. He was aware of the French myth. Later I read some where that there were about five+ who deserted (I understand there were many more in reality) and stayed in Mexico. Does anyone have any factual information on that?

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< I'm curious to hear what people's thoughts are on this issue of so many people claiming they are French in Mexico.>

__________________________Maybe they are not happy being what they are? Maybe it bothers them to be prietos or in between? Maybe that they are light skinned and have prietos in the family? Social climbing? Who knows, but it seems to satisfy some deep need they seem to have.

I am happy to be the capirotada and revoltura that I am. That makes me Mexican and happy with the Great Spirit who made me so!!
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On the subject of Mariachis

<...[The] word mariachi was in use before the French invasion of Mexico in the 1860s. Shortly after its discovery, the text of this document was published in Mexico City and Los Angeles, and should have laid to rest the marriage theory once and for all. However, old myths die hard, and the public at large and most mariachi musicians themselves continue believing that this uniquely Mexican music owes its name to a foreign source.?

______________________________I have heard that it is because the mariachis themselves want to appeal to the tourist trade and many other unlikely reasons but none make sense.

Prof. Ma Guadalupe Castro Paramo, a seminal researcher of Mexican dance told me that it is more probable that the word mariachi comes from "Maria Arrache", the name given to the Virgin Mary by our ancestors in Mexico. Apparently our ancestors used to take music to the Virgin and it is possible the words became one ending in "mariachi". Prof. Castro Paramo told me that there are several researchers who have already researched the origins of the mariachis and there is a consensus on its origins: mariachis are 100 percent Mexican.

I never pursued deeper knowledge of the subject by I have heard basically the same from other people who are interested in the subject.

This reminds me of what's being said in some circles about the now Saint Juan Diego (that he did not exist and was poor). When I was in second grade in school in Mexicali, B.C. I went to school with a girl who mentioned that her family was descended from the Juan Diego family; being a child I marched myself to her mother and asked about it and she said very seriously that yes they were descended from that family. I wish I had been nosier and found out much more!

Elvira

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