Cowboy kitsch and Jesus songs from Mexico

It must have been an interesting auction, on 15 January this year at the Louis C. Morton auctioneering firm in Mexico City. A pistol holster changed hands for eleven thousand peso (almost six hundred euro). A black sombrero decorated with silver sold for twenty thousand peso. Other cowboy kitsch was sold as well, including various trajes de charro, the Mexican cowboy costumes worn by mariachi orchestras.
The stuff was from the estate of the singer Miguel Aceves Mejía (1915-2006), also known as the ‘King of the Falsetto’ or ‘El berrendo’ (the spotted one) - the latter because of his grey lock of hair.
Aceves Mejía started out as a mechanic at Ford, but soon quit his job to start a career as a singer. He wanted to sing Mexican songs, but at the time no one was interested, so out of necessity he earned a living singing boleros and other Caribbean music. Some recordings from that era can be found at the wrongly forgotten LP Mis primeras grabaciones.
In 1946, he saw an opportunity. The recording studios were out of use because of a strike of the musicians’ union, but the mariachis were not affiliated to the union and continued working. Aceves Mejía therefore proposed to the RCA recording company to record some Mexican songs with a mariachi trio.
The Mexican repertoire was a huge success and Aceves Mejía threw himself into the rancheras and their heavily accentuated cowboy romanticism. This romanticism expressed itself not only in sombreros and trajes de charro, but also in the somewhat hysterical screams (‘huy-huy-huy’) that according to some were originally used to drive cattle in the right direction. A nice example is Noches tenebrosas (dark nights).



Aceves Mejía recorded ninety albums and over one thousand songs, but he never achieved the same status as his colleagues Pedro Infante en Javier Solís. He claimed that this was because he had not died young: “in Mexico, you can’t compete with the one who manages to die in time”. Apparently, the laws of rock ‘n’ roll apply in Mexico as well. On the other hand, it has to be said that much of Aceves Mejía’s work is not all that interesting.
A sub genre that definitely is interesting are the Jesus, God and Virgin Mary songs. Beautiful examples include El pecador (The sinner), Virgencita de Zapopan (Little Virgin of Zapopan) and El crucifijo de piedra (The stone crucifix). In the latter song, the singer is so sad that even Jesus cannot stand it anymore: “Upon seeing my sadness / the stone crucifix / also started to cry”.
Despite the obvious differences, there is a remarkable analogy with that other cowboy singer, Johnny Cash. Cash could sing the most sentimental Jesus songs and still remain cool. The same applies to Don Miguel. Just watch the clip of Ruega por nosotros (Pray for us) above and judge for yourself.

Previously published in Dutch here