Chicago band playing Mexican folk music celebrates 30 years

CHICAGO (CBS) — During Hispanic Heritage Month, CBS News Chicago is focusing on the sounds of Old Mexico.
A Chicago band is celebrating 30 years of reviving and popularizing music that dates back hundreds of years.
Playing outside a building in the Pilsen neighborhood was a bit of a homecoming for the Mexican folk group Sones de Mexico Ensemble. The band, which performed for CBS News Chicago’s cameras, played its first show at the location some 30 years ago.
“I’m very surprised that Sones de Mexico is still around after 30 years,” Juan Dies, co-founder of the group.
The Ensemble started out by playing a concert at an exhibit in Pilsen in 1994. The interest in the group was immediate.
“There was a gap in Chicago’s music scene for the specific type of music that we’re playing,” Dies said.
Since then, the group has evolved into a nonprofit organization that offers concerts and classes to promote “son” music, or regional, rural folk music from Mexico.
For example, one song they played originated from Mexico’s east coast. Dies estimated it’s more than 100 years old.
“This song talks about mermaids and creatures from the ocean, sailors setting off to the ocean and maybe never coming back,” he said.
Dies said such songs are a comfort to immigrants, serving as a reminder of their home country.
“It’s important to keep these traditions alive,” he said. “It’s almost a mental health for immigrants.”
That was the case for Irekani Ferreyra, who after listening to son music as a child in Mexico City, went on to join the band.
“You always miss your country, and I learned this music over there,” Ferreyra said. “I used to go to fandangos and play.”
He said he’s proud of the music he plays, just like Dies is proud of what he’s accomplished in 30 years of the Sones de Mexico Ensemble.
“It is about bringing this music from rural Mexico, that is not even popular in mainstream Mexico, to the United States, a foreign country, and play this music at Carnegie Hall or play this music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,” Dies said. “I feel like almost a vindication of a music that’s been ignored.”
The Sones de Mexico Ensemble is having it’s 30th anniversary gala on Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art near 19th Street and Wolcott.