Cruz Mejía Arámbulo. flock of voices
He had the simplicity and frankness of the north, of mere Sinaloa. Heart of a garden where he grew flowers and transformed them into loving, supportive music, adding to dreams, utopias and realities. Cruz was an intermittent composer, exact guitarist, poet of the radio and of life and today I tell you: “you are missed a lot,” and your flock of voices will be missed in the tune of living memory.
Ismael Colmenares, Maylo
C
How many popular and traditional musicians found in Radio Educación a home where they could cook their projects and offer them, warm and alive, to the radio listening public? How many record productions have made possible the dissemination of our music, ignored by the music industry?
…The microphone connected to a console,
and the console connected to
a transmitter, it is a way of
spread the voice […] and our voice,
small as it may be, thanks to the radio,
reaches any part of the world
and I think it is already reaching other planets too.
The 20th century gave us radio writers whose school we must continue. “For me, Radio Educación is still a school,” said Cruz Mejía Arámbulo, who knew that doing radio is creating a community. There are few left who know that public radio is not about recording, transmitting and even the other; that presenting a group or performer means presenting a community, a conglomerate of culture, worldview, organization, memory and knowledge. The commitment of a net radio broadcaster follows the essential guidelines of community radio stations: building from and for the people. Tell and sing their stories, spread them.
Cruz Mejía arrived at Radio Educación on October 9, 1974, seeking to express his thoughts and listen to those of others. The program “Who sings?”, which for decades was produced with impeccable quality and success, is not only a matter of transmitting songs and thoughts collected in long wanderings; It is a double task: prior to dissemination, establishing true links with musicians, their families, their towns, needs and desires; its identity features, its history and ways of work and organization, to apprehend the essences contained in the song of each region. On the other hand, there is a pedagogical dimension that transmits traits of commitment and coherence; ethical and organizational secrets that are not learned in schools. Comprehensive work as a real public service; values and virtues inherited from the generations that take over the enormous and complex task. Hence, as audiences we applaud the broadcast of “Who sings?”, but we are not satisfied. The reception and affection that Cruz built with love and enthusiasm sustains our expectation that not only will it be broadcast, but that the program will continue, as a fundamental and identity project of Radio Educación and heritage of Mexican radio.
May what dear Cruz taught us well be continued with attachment to that human spirit, free and aware of its vision, much broader than an administrative cycle or a political situation.
Let us continue the cultural task following Cruz’s example: naturalness and authenticity as essential aesthetic values; solidarity and commitment to the musical community and audiences. Patience and love in the development of each program, always privileging quality over quantity and with caution in the face of technologies:
Technology is wonderful, but sometimes we don’t know how to take advantage of it, and this has led to a lot of laziness. “I’ll record the interview by phone, why am I going there…” If it’s a three-minute participation, okay, but for a one-hour program, I don’t agree to do an interview by phone.
Not only did he leave lessons on the radio; we have more than 400 songs with a political, social and community message; his historical radio soap operas; pending reissue of his wonderful books: The growing2009; The radiant radio, 40 years in the bowels of radio2024; In a not so strange world. How to see the one who does not see (neither show off nor hide)2024, Oralibrura. And carved pages. Notes for making songs. Just there so as not to be upset2018, personal edition. We do not forget their worthy and consistent support for the settlers of Tulpetlac, the UVyD-19, the Navachiste cultural foundation; as advisor to the EZLN on the Indigenous Rights and Culture table, days for peace with justice and dignity, in October 1995.
Last September 27, Radio Educación was filled with music and memory, for the beloved patriarch of Mexican cultural radio. The musician Alejandro Montaño, from the Huasteco trio Gorrión Serrano, dedicated some heartfelt tenths to Cruz:
The floor creaks
I feel broken
It is not a fictitious calamity
When I heard the news
I felt like an earthquake
The floor shook and I scored
My throat became knotted
The pillar fell
It comes forward
Will there be anywhere to grab me?
I can’t stop wondering
And who will say “who sings to us”?
I will forever hug myself
To your country song
And in the dark of the morning,
I promise I will sing
I will follow your example
Learning day by day
The projects that were
We will continue, Yes then!
We’ll see you later,
See you later, Cruz Mejía.
*Author of Song of Fire
