Viva Meksiko!

Here's a little something referred to us by our friend Dan, which we're posting for the enjoyment of Burro Hall's Yugoslavian community (it's bigger than you'd think.) A historian and musician, only Dan could have come across this site, dedicated to preserving the golden age of Yu-Mex music. At first blush, of course, it seems logical; both peoples are peaceful, easy-going and fun-loving. Actually, no less an authority than Rebecca West once wrote, "Here in Mexico I often feel as if I were among Slavs. There is an intelligent population, which uses words as if it were highly literate, even when it is illiterate, and is readier than the Westerner to switch from the concrete to the abstract...Both love to pretend they boil in despair." But still: Slavs in sombreros? As the Yu-Mex website explains:

In 1950 Yugoslavia was on the brink of the war with the Soviet Union. And it was not on the best terms with United States either. Government faced two problems: the possibility of the 3rd World War starting right there and then and, second, if you've quarreled with both America and Russia – what do you show at the cinemas? They discovered Mexico and their singing melodramas about the revolution. The people embraced them and [the] Mexican craze swept the nation. Soon fake mariachi bands were playing all over the country.

Sadly, the Yu-Mex craze was short-lived; I would love to have organized a mariachi pilgrimage to the Guca Festival this year.

There's audio samples at the link, as well.