You've seen them on street corners and at traffic lights, you hear them when you walk down the street. Today we tell you the story behind the iconic organ grinders of the CDMX.
In the city, music is everywhere. People sing and play the guitar in the subway and in the trucks, the sonideros and the cars passing by with their windows down and their horns blaring. Living in the city means being surrounded by smells, noises and lots of music all the time. Among so much rhythm and melody there is a tradition that has survived since the 19th century: the barrel organs.
When we think of iconic and undoubtedly "defeño" images, perhaps the Chapultepec Castle, the tortas de tamal, the CU Central Library or the classic barrel organ, whose handle is turned by an individual dressed in khaki from head to toe, come to mind. However, just as there was a CDMX before Bellas Artes and the jacarandas of the avenues, there was also a time without organilleros. That was until the end of the 19th century when German immigrants brought the tradition with them from the other side of the world.
After arriving in the city, many barrel organs, played by their respective organ grinders, filled the halls, fairs and circuses of the city, playing popular songs of the time, many of them (paso doble, waltz and German polkas) famous in Germany, France and the rest of Europe; and it would not be until the mid-twentieth century when they would begin to play traditional Mexican music like the "Adelita" or the "Cielito Lindo". Turn after turn the cylinder turns and reads the notes that then travel through pipes to the flutes that let out the melodies of the short repertoire of the barrel organs, which usually always play the same 7 or 8 songs recognizable to Mexican ears.
Organ grinders have been a growing presence in the city since they arrived on its streets more than a century ago. The taste for their ambulant songs grew until, during the Porfiriato, they became typical of the outings to the plazas, when hundreds of men rented them week after week as a source of work. Towards the end of the 20th century, the Unión de Organilleros la República Mexicana was born, a space that defends their rights as workers.
Today it is normal to encounter these strolling musicians, whose work is recognized as Mexico City's cultural heritage, as you walk through the streets. Many things have changed since the barrel organs and their songs arrived in Mexico City. But the tradition of "los dorados de Villa" with their buttoned-up walk and their well-worn quepi is still alive through the years, the growth of the city and the pandemic.
