About Paulino Leyva, Director
I was introduced to Mexican folklore in grammar school, in a remote village in a valley surrounded by mountains in the State of Durango Mexico. We’d dance for a mother’s day, outdoor celebration on the school plaza (large concrete slab). Probably the entire village of a couple hundred attended, to celebrate all moms and cheer on their small children. We only briefly rehearsed the dances leading up to the event.
My family moved to the states at the end of sixth grade. Finished junior high, high school, then found folkloric dancing again while attending college. I jumped at the opportunity to dance. Learned new regions and performed on various stages. I also fell in love with banda (big band, acoustic) music, which was integral to Mexican folklore, but it also came on the scene of modern music at popular radio stations and ballrooms. The Mexican country music if you will.
With friends from the ballroom scene, the banda scene, we started talking about forming our own band, only talk at first. Then more serious with talks of the style of music, the number of elements. My best friend said he’d only go in if it was a full size banda, 16 musician plus. So we pitched it to friends from the folkloric dance company. We needed numbers, and they had rhythm. None of us were musicians.
With close friends and their friends, we recruited 25 teens and young adults, and an expensive music teacher. We started classes in a friends garage. No instruments for a year, only music theory and solfeo. During that first year, we organized our class schedule, leadership structure, discipline, and dues for classes. Some members quickly dropped out and we also recruited new friends. After a year with solfeo and theory, we went out and purchased our instruments, and about a year after that with just about 17 young men, we were out performing. We were the first band in the genre to ever start in Chicago (the suburbs) with musicians fully formed in Chicago (and suburbs).
Within a few years, we were one of the premier local bands, and expanding our sound. We performed in every ballroom known to us, hundreds of weddings/quinceañeras, festivals, and radio and tv events. Traveled to other states, some of which received us as celebrities. It was the best part time ever. Getting payed to play music while dancing on a stage.
We contemplated going all in, full time, taking a big risk. By then, some of us had a wife and children, and good, stable jobs with benefits. I and others stepped aside, taking with us a life skill and life friends.
I still play music as a hobby and passion and keep in touch with my banda friends. I went back to dancing, went full circle, and knowing music gives me a whole new level of appreciation for the music of Mexican folkloric dance.
I seek to plant the seed of passion for Mexican folkloric music and dance in new generations, starting with my own three daughters and any parent that wants to give this invaluable gift to their own.