Yu and Me(x)
Do you have a niche interest that you won’t shut up about, and occasionally manage to shoehorn mentions of — whether it’s the history of water-slide disasters, or worm taxonomy — into unrelated conversations or short periods of silence? If the answer is yes, I suggest you commit to your passions and sacrifice yourself to the scrutiny of an even wider public. Venting your thoughts and feelings about your obsession is a great way to help others learn about something new and to give suspicious strangers the excuse they need to avoid you completely.
From childhood show-and-tell to the salon (this kind, not the hair one), we’ve recognized the importance of sharing and discussing what interests us with others. You don’t have to like someone to learn from them; conversely, watching friends or acquaintances talk about subjects that interest them gives you a greater insight into the speaker (even if you are not as thrilled about the subject matter as they are).
On the official (and more about telling than socializing) end of public sharing you have gatherings like Nerd Nite Austin, part of a global chain of similarly nerdy nites taking place all over. New to me, The Austin Salon is, apparently, another venue for presentations and discussion, and which hosted an event as recently as this May. For a more intimate and quaint salon experience, feel free to eschew public spaces entirely and take things into the home. Based on this idea of mixing education and recreation, I found myself yakking about Yu-Mex in front of about 20 people two weeks ago.
Other presentations at this event — let’s just call it a salon with a party bumper — included talks-with-slides regarding the host’s first trip to a Wu-Tang Clan concert; a pointed discussion about what the Quetzalcoatlus truly was; a poetry reading; and more. Impromptu tight fives after the main presentations featured reminiscences about a participant’s philosophy professor father and an introduction to all of the famous people who have lived in Kansas City, Missouri (a lot!).
As mentioned, I spoke about Yu-Mex, which was a musical moment during the 50s and 60s in the former Yugoslavia that had its direct, unabashed foundation in Mexican culture. I’m going to share what I’ve learned about this genre, but before I go any further, you may be curious as to how I first learned about Yu-Mex. Well…I don’t remember. There’s no conclusive entry point that I can recall that led me to learn about this hybrid, but learn about it I did.
Josip Tito Politics With a Tito Puente Sound
The year is 1948, and Yugoslavia’s president Josip Broz Tito and the USSR’s Joseph Stalin are going through a nasty breakup. In the wake of the split, Yugoslavia turned away from the Eastern Block and looked elsewhere for support, both materially and culturally. Writing at The Greasy Pen, Otis Chevalier asserts that it was one of Tito’s generals, Moša Pijade, who came up with the idea to import revolutionary Mexican culture into Yugoslavia to supplant the music, film, and other products that would have previously come from the USSR.
It is entirely possible that this was Pijade’s idea. Pijade "served as first deputy prime minister and, during his time at the zenith of Yugoslav politics, championed policies aimed at modernizing Yugoslavia’s cultural and educational systems, ensuring that they reflected socialist values while accommodating the region’s diverse heritage," according to the Jerusalem Post. However, Jonny Rate at Roads & Kingdoms calls the direct influence of Pijade in focusing on Mexico's cultural production a "popular legend," and I can’t find direct confirmation that Yu-Mex was directly Pijade’s brainchild.
Silver Screen, Golden Voices
Either way, the first salvo in the battle to bring Mex to Yu was delivered by celluloid, and not through a guitarrón mexicano. The Mexican film Un Día de Vida, released domestically in 1950, arrived one or two years later in Yugoslavia (as Jedan dan života) to an incredible reception. Wikipedia quotes a former Belgrade publication saying that the film "was the most watched film in Yugoslavia in the last fifty years."
The movie, directed by Emilio Fernández, takes place during the Mexican Revolution, and while the revolutionary themes resonated with Yugoslavian audiences, the attendant Mexican culture also found purchase in many of their lives. After listening hard to mariachi and ranchera music, Yugoslavians by the trajinera-load began adopting the sound and look of their recent-ish southern friends, dressing in Mexican garb and manifesting their own take on Mexican music.
Yu-Mex, as a musical genre, often sounds traditional enough to my ears (I'm not an expert) until someone starts singing in what is distinctly NOT Spanish, but Serbo-Croation. For a few examples, hear musicians Nikola Karovic and Slavko Perovic sing "Mama Huanita"; the Trio Tivdi doing "Sombrero;" and my favorite — the low-register croon of Nevenka Arsova intoning "Bravo! Bravo! Braaaaaa-vo!" — on "Hrabri torero."
Yu-Mex fizzled at the beginning of the 70s, and the country of Yugoslavia dissolved in 1992. Undoubtedly some part of a wider strain of "Yugonostalgia," the Yu-Mex resurgence nonetheless still seems mostly marginal...but that could possibly be due to my inability to speak either Spanish or Serbo-Croatian (or any other language besides English, frankly). What limited interest there is in excavating Yu-Mex is thanks in surprisingly large part to one guy — Slovenian writer Miha Mazzini wrote a book set in a Yu-Mex-obsessed Yugoslavia entitled "Paloma Negra," and he created a film about Yu-Mex as well.
My personal, self-appointed charge is to spread crumbs of Yu-Mex amongst strangers and friends, hoping to entice others who have answers or even better questions about this strange, pan-continental musical movement based on the promises of revolution. Oh, speaking of cultural exchange, on the same night of the salon/party, I was informed that “Fiddler on the Roof” is huge in Japan.
In an era where things seem to be getting dumber and dumber, I urge you all to gather and create an opportunity to learn about something new and thought-provoking (especially if it's about dinosaurs). At worst, a party might break out, and now you have the perfect soundtrack.
