By Paola Velasco
To close the year, you cannot miss the fourth Festival of Huapango Arribeño and the Culture of the Sierra Gorda, which will take place on Dec. 29-Jan. 1 in the community of Xichú, Guanajuato, and will pay homage to the old huapangueros (people who play huapango, a Mexican folk music genre) and commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the town.
The landscapes of the northern sierra of Guanajuato have unique hill shapes, vegetation, fauna, waterfalls, streams, and rivers. In the midst of all this, verses grow between chords and melodies of violins, vihuelas, jaranas, and guitars. Xichú is a town amid the hills and mountains of those lands. Formerly it was known as the Real de Xichú because of its vast mining potential. Currently, the mines are abandoned, but in this small town, where the Chichimecas used to live, the tradition of composing, cultivated by generations and generations of mountain minstrels, did not disappear.
There, in that mountain range, the son arribeño abounds. It is the traditional music shared by the states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí. Its maximum expression is shown in the duels between huapanguero poets, and they can last for more than 12 hours.
Guillermo Velázquez, leader of the Leones de la Sierra de Xichú, talks about the origins of the festival. “It began in 1983 as an event to recognize old poets, including Antonio Escalante, Tranquilino Méndez, Román Gómez, Tomás Aguilar, and Zeferino Juárez, among others.” Forty years is a long history of musical tradition that will close the year surrounded by music, verses, and a huapanguera party. This 2022-2023 event will be a tribute to Don Polo Estrada and Cándido Martínez.
