High energy in Mexico: Connecting la Presidenta, the P’urhépecha nation and the university.

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I developed my composition from the gentle hubbub of people inside the echoey library of one of the world’s great universities: the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)— the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In July 2007, UNESCO proclaimed the UNAM Central Library, along with the UNAM Campus as World Heritage sites. The recording was created by Mexican sound recordist par excellence Erick Ruiz Arrellano.
This simple spatial human reverberance at UNAM generated multiple sound memories for me, with intersecting
connections. The key connection is between my research on 1920s nationalism and the high energy Dance of the Old Men, from the P’urhépecha peoples of Michoacán; and Mexico’s current presidenta, Dr. Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo, who studied at, and was then a professor at UNAM, working on energy and climate change. For her undergraduate thesis she spent time in the P’urhépecha region working on energy and stoves.
My composition juxtaposes and interweaves various sonic fragments and threads combining human voices—UNAM library hubbub, President Claudia Scheinbaum, my voice as translator and narrator—and two P’urhépecha musical ensembles.
In the 1990s, I lived and studied in Michoacán, Mexico for my doctoral thesis. Although British, I was fascinated by Mexican histories and heritages, and decided to focus on uses of Indigenous P’urhépecha dance, music and ritual practices for high level state processes of national-identity formation and tourism in the 1920s, after the end of the revolution. The President and the government versions of “heritage” to generate Mexicanness to unite the extraordinarily diverse country that is Mexico; and to market and attract tourists to Mexico from the USA. I focused on the appropriation of La Danza de Los Viejitos, Dance of the Old Men, from the Island of Jarácuaro, Lake Pátzcuaro (along with Noche de Muertos on the Island of Janitzio). Part of my time was spent in the archives at UNAM, seeking newspapers, photographs and audio samples from the 1920s.
In the early 1990s, Mexican President, Dr. Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo, studied for an undergraduate degree in engineering at UNAM. For her undergraduate thesis, she spent weeks in the P'urhépecha village of Cherán Atzicuirín (Cheranástico), with the intention of teaching and studying issues of energy in relation to wood-burning stoves, but realized that she was learning more from the P'urhépecha villagers. In the 1990s, she studied for her doctoral research at UNAM, including time at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley. She went to become a Research Professor at UNAM, focusing on steel-making.
Although our lives and experiences are profoundly different, I share some connections with President Dr. Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo through our understandings of P’urhépecha lifeways; of UNAM; of Presidential processes; and also of the University of California.
As I now live and work in the USA, and given the recent events of USA President Trump in relation to tariffs and migration, I have selected an excerpt of President Scheinbaum speaking after the tariff announcement. I have also included sound fragments of her speaking about her time as an undergraduate student in Cherán Atzicuirín and as professor at UNAM.
Sound Fragments:
Original
Library of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)— the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Erick Ruiz Arrellano.
Added
Fragment 1
Message from President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to the people of Mexico
Feb 2, 2025
“Good afternoon, everyone. As you're probably aware, yesterday the United States government imposed 25 percent tariffs on products we export to your country.
Look, this hasn't existed for 30 years, because we have a Free Trade Agreement. The last Free Trade Agreement was signed by President López Obrador and President Trump himself.…”
Fragment 2
Message from President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to the people of Mexico
Feb 2, 2025
“… To our Mexican sisters and brothers in the United States, I want to tell you that your President and an entire people are here to defend you. If you wish to return to Mexico, we welcome you here.
The people of Mexico are brave and full of dignity. They are the most wonderful people on earth. I tell you, your President is here.
We have courage and determination, but always, as I have said on other occasions: we must act with a cool head and love for the people. Nothing we do will affect the dignity and interests of the Mexican people.
I suggest we wait for President Trump's response to our proposal.
And in tomorrow's "Mañanera," in "The People's Morning Conference," I will be informing you of the first steps of what we call Plan B.
As Juárez said: Nothing by force, everything by reason and law. And between individuals, as between nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.”
NOTE: “Júarez” was Benito Júarez, the 26th President of Mexico (1858–1872), the first Indigenous president of Mexico (Zapotec) and the first democratically elected Indigenous president in postcolonial Latin America.
The famous axiom implies that peaceful coexistence is based on the recognition and observance of laws and standards that protect the rights of all. Júarez expressed this phrase in a specific historical context, after the victory of the Republic after that Second Mexican Empire. The axiom has been transformed into a slogan that remains pertinent and that emphasizes the importance of ethics and morals in the construction of peace.
Fragment 3
Scheinbaum visiting the P’urhépecha village of Cherán Atzicuirín (Cheranástico), Michoacán.
July 2023.
When she was Mayor of Mexico City, Scheinbaum visited Cherán Atzicuirín (Cheranástico), a village where she spent weeks as an UNAM undergraduate student of Physics, researching for her undergraduate thesis on energy and cooking stoves.
As rain falls, a P'urhépecha banda accompanies Scheinbaum and villagers as they dance through the streets to one of the homes.
“Here in Michoacán they use a pottery griddle (comal)”
Fragment 4
Recordando mi época de investigadora en la UNAM.
Remembering my time as a researcher at UNAM.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo
Aug 4, 2023
In 2023, when she was Mayor of Mexico City, Scheinbaum took time to explain her long career as a researcher at UNAM, in the Institute of Engineering, studying energy and climate change, specifically related to steel production and emissions reductions.
“I pursued a career as a university professor and researcher in the Institute of Engineering at UNAM. Through those years I studied energy and climate change and one of the subjects I studied was specifically the steel-making industry.”
Fragment 5
La Danza de los Viejitos, The Dance of the Old Men, Pichátaro, Michoacán
1996
Recorded as part of my doctoral research
In this brief recording, the ensemble Los P’urhépecha from the Island of Jarácuaro are playing and dancing the Dance of the Old Men inside the church in the tiny P’urhépecha village of Pichátaro. I had the privilege of playing violin with the ensemble for many years. The ensemble is comprised of violins, vihuela and guitarrón. The zapateado—fast foot-work— is performed wearing shoes with wooden soles.
The echoey sounds P’urhépecha music and dance inside the colonial architecture in the tiny P'urhépecha village seem to pair with the echoey human voices inside the library of UNAM.
Library at UNAM, Mexico City reimagined Ruth Hellier.

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