Some music doesn’t just ask to be heard, it creates spaces, summons presences, transforms communities. Son Jarocho, born three centuries ago in the mixed-heritage ports of Veracruz, Mexico, is one of those musics. Emerging from the collision of African rhythms, Spanish strings and indigenous languages, it has passed down through generations in fandangos, those nocturnal gatherings where décimas are improvised on the spot, where dancers stomp on the tarima until the wood itself vibrates, where the line between musician and audience dissolves completely.
La Flota y el Son embodies this living tradition. The Vega family of Boca de San Miguel, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz has been one of Son Jarocho’s most important guardians for five generations. Musical excellence and vast stage experience define this extraordinary family.
Three musicians have gathered around Enrique “Quique” Palacios Vega, a pivotal figure in the Son Jarocho revival movement. Stephanie Delgado, whose powerful voice and jarana playing carry the imprint of the Los Tuxtlas mountains; Sofía Retana, whose zapateado (percussive dance) adds a dizzying rhythmic layer to the group’s performances; and Juan Domingo Rogel, a cajón and pandero player who transforms Son Jarocho’s traditions and sonic texture with his saxophone.
This concert, programmed as part of Día de Muertos, is no coincidence: in Mexico, the dead aren’t mourned in silence, they’re invited to dance. And Son Jarocho, with its infectious polyrhythms and songs that sound like conversations, is the perfect soundtrack for this celebration where life and death meet face to face.