After many years of negotiations and efforts on behalf of the Arhoolie Foundation by our board of directors member, the late Prof. Guillermo Hernandez of the University of California at Los Angeles, Chicano Studies Research Center in collaboration with the Fund For Folk Culture, and through a generous grant from the Los Tigres Del Norte Foundation, the Arhoolie Foundation has digitized Part 1 (ca. 15,000 - 78rpm discs) of the Strachwitz Frontera Collection. This collection of Mexican and Mexican American recordings contains approximately 15,000 - 78 rpm recordings, 21,000 - 45 RPM recordings as well as thousands of cassettes, LPs and CDs. This has been no doubt our biggest project yet. This project is in partnership with UCLA and the digitized collection can be accessed on the UCLA Digital Library website.
In 2006 The Arhoolie Foundation received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to begin part one of digitalizing our over 20,000 45rpm recordings and sending them to the UCLA Digital Library.
Volunteer/intern Mindy Gross cataloged and scanned over 1100 photos of musicians, record company catalogs, and other historic images related to the recordings in the Frontera Collection. These images were collected by Chris Strachwitz over the years and donated to the Foundation in 2004. Also included are images donated by various musicians and their relatives along with other collectors especially Billy Roy Morales who has contributed his efforts in regards to early Norteno musicians.
We encourage anyone who has such visual or audio materials and are willing to sell or donate them, to contact us.
This will be all on a user friendly, graphically rich, searchable and sortable website featuring:
• A catalog of the Frontera Collection's 130,000 individual recordings of Mexican and Mexican American Music.
• Over 1500 photographs of musicians in the Frontera Collection as well as images of 78 RPM record sleeves, record company catalogs, recording contracts and other images associated with the Frontera Collection. This collection grows daily as we add more images.
• Transcribed lyrics from the Frontera Collection recordings.
• Record label Histories.
• Recording artist biographies.
• Recording logs from the actual historical recording sessions of Falcon Records giving us recording dates, assigned matrix numbers for each performance, list musicians present along with pay scale, as well as other significant information about the recording sessions.
The Frontera Collection Data Base, record label images, musicians' images, musicians' biographies, transcribed and translated lyrics, record label histories, recording logs, images of record company catalogs and other information will all be linked together in a virtual Encyclopedia of Mexican and Mexican American Music & Culture.
As we gather more data about the Frontera Collection recordings, we will be adding more features, all in a user friendly, graphically rich website.
This initial cataloging of about 14,000 Mexican-American 78 rpm discs (28,000 individual selections), about 16,000 - 45 rpm discs and several thousand LPs, cassettes and CDs in the Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Collection of Mexican and Mexican-American Recordings, was really our first task. The discs were donated to the Arhoolie Foundation by Chris Strachwitz. This computer entry work was done mainly by Juana Garcia, Emanuel Martinez, Graciella Blum and Lyuba Birinbaum. This work was funded by grants from NARAS and the NEA. This cataloging effort continues as the collection continues to grow.
In 2003, Heather Hafleigh received another grant from the California Traditional Arts Advancement Program, through the Fund for Folk Culture, to fund the printing and framing of the photos for the exhibit itself. "Viva la Charreria Mexicana" opened April 3rd at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, and ran through June 27th, 2003. From July 1st through the end of September the exhibit was at The Peralta Hacienda in Oakland. It was also at the Arte Americas in Fresno (October 8th - December 11th). The Franco family has donated a saddle, sombrero, belt, boots and traditional costumes for the exhibits.
Originally in 2001 The Arhoolie Foundation had received a grant from the California Traditional Arts Advancement Program, a program of the Fund for Folk Culture supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, to partially fund "Viva la Charreria Mexicana", a project documenting the rich tradition of the charreria in California.
Photographer Heather Hafleigh has been documenting a California family as they prepare for and compete in charreadas, offering a view of a centuries-old tradition that has recently been accepted as part of the Olympics. These photographs will be available to researchers and community members through the Arhoolie Foundation Archives and will ultimately be included in an exhibit on charreria on display in venues throughout California.
In 2004 the Arhoolie Foundation received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the California Traditional Arts Advancement Program, which is a program of the Fund For Folk Culture for the Kenny Hall Project, directed by Chris Simon. Additional funding has come from the Arhoolie Foundation and the Fresno Folklore Society. The film plans to document the music and life of this 80 year old blind fiddler and mandolin player who has influenced many old time traditionalists and is also a unique singer and story teller. Matching funds are confirmed from the Sage Foundation. The director has just informed us (January 2006) that she plans to finish the film by the end of this year.
For the past several years, at the almost annual Sacred Steel Convention in Florida, instruments and equipment have been donated to deserving musicians. The instruments were originally donated to the Arhoolie Foundation's Sacred Steel Instrument Fund by various individuals and businesses. A selection committee chooses promising players, from applicants, whom they feel will benefit or be encouraged by receiving an upgraded model guitar new or used. Since the start of the fund 14 musicians have received instruments and equipment from the fund.
The Arhoolie Foundation in cooperation with the Documentary Arts Foundation produced this documentary film under the direction of Robert Stone entitled "Sacred Steel" which shows the development and use of the steel guitar to assist the services and lead the "praise music" in the House Of God denomination of these Holiness - Pentecostal churches.
The film features the Campbell Brothers with Katie Jackson, Elder Maurice "Ted" Beard, Calvin Cook, Willie Eason, Elder Aubrey Ghent, Rev. Glenn Lee, the Lee Boys, Robert Randolph, historic footage of Henry Nelson, and much more. Directed by Robert L. Stone; Produced by Chris Strachwitz of the Arhoolie Foundation and Alan Govenar of Documentary Arts Inc.; Camera by Robert Tullier; Editor: Andrew Dean; Sound recorded by Strachwitz, Govenar, and Glen Drinkwater. Running time: 55 minutes. Arhoolie Foundation AFV DVD # 203.
The Arhoolie Foundation produced this video documentary entitled "Everything But The Squeak" in conjunction with Documentary Arts Inc. of Dallas, TX. The film documents a Cajun Country "boucherie" (butchering of a hog and eating it!) and other "Cajun/Creole traditions in the Eunice, La. area. Features a jam session at the Savoy Music Store, Aldus Roger, Ken Smith, Donald Thibodeaux & Cajun Fever at Fred's Lounge in Mamou with Tante Sue, the Huval brothers, etc. Arhoolie Foundation AFV (VHS only) # 201.
The Arhoolie Foundation produced this lovely documentary video film which was directed by Chris Simon and is about Robert 'Red' Alexander, a shipwright and folk artist who builds miniature ships in bottles among other projects. Funding came from Archie Green and the local shipwright union. Arhoolie Foundation AFV (VHS only) # 202.
The Arhoolie Foundation funded the cost of filming and paying musicians performing corridos (ballads) about events and personalities important to the history of "La Junta De Los Rios", which is the focus of this film. The music was an essential element in "The Devil's Swing" which was produced by Alan Govenar and Documentary Arts of Dallas, TX. The film (distributed by Documentary Arts) deals with the history and culture of the border region around Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico and Presido, TX. The film includes a sequence about the killing by US Marines of a young student, Esequiel Hernandez which gave rise to the corrido about him and a fascinating sequence about Pablo Acosta, including many songs about this local Robin Hood like Drug Lord. A fascinating CD which contains all the relevant music (many not in the film) is available from Arhoolie Records (CD # 480: The Devil's Swing).
500 free copies of "Corridos Y Tragedias De La Frontera" (which includes a 168 page booklet with notes and the texts in both Spanish and English) were distributed to libraries.
The distribution of ca. 500 free copies of the double CD (# 7019/20) produced by Arhoolie Records, entitled "Corridos Y Tragedias De La Frontera" (original historic first recordings of important Mexican-Texas border ballads) to about 500 public libraries throughout the southwest where these ballads originated. This project was funded by a specific grant from the Rex Foundation.
Several Corrido Conferences have been held since then ‚ all largely due to the persistent efforts of Prof. Guillermo Hernandez of the UCLA Chicano Studies Center, and he just informed me that the next one will be held in early 2007 in Hermosillo, in the Mexican state of Sonora.