Bronitsky and Associates Blog

We have been working with the US embassies in Albania and Macedonia to bring Mariachi Imperial de America to those countries.  We just got this–as you can see, they’re wowing audiences, just like they did in Armenia and China!

To learn more about these great performers, please click here.

(U) Mariachis Strike a Chord in Albania:  The “Mariachi Imperial de America” orchestra brought their festive music into the hearts of Albanians with performances before jam-packed, wildly cheering audiences in Elbasan and Korca on March 14 and 16.  In Elbasan, after their open-air concert on the main square, the band put on an impromptu performance in a local restaurant for a large birthday party gathering, at which guests threw fistfuls of dollars and Euros to the band members in gratitude.  At the municipal theatre in Korca, some in the audience commandeered wireless microphones to belt out some of the better known tunes (e.g., “Besame Mucho”); one elderly gentleman said he had been attending concerts in Korca for 60 years, but had never heard one to equal this.

Quote of the day:  “We have been oppressed for so long, and hearing this music makes me finally feel free.”  – Elder Albanian in Korca after listening to the Mariachi band perform.

The Quest:  An Academic Institution Seeks to Honor Native Americans

My experience at McMurry University was very exciting.  First of course, it was good to see Jerry Hollingsworth, my student from long ago at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. The symposium was “The Quest:  An Academic Institution Seeks to Honor Native Amerians” and its purpose was to “educate and share diverse perspectives about the Native American culture; to provide an academic venue for students, faculty and alumni to wrestle with what it means to honor our Native American heritage, and to establish a clear understanding of our identity as a university with, and apart from, a mascot.”

Jerry Hollingsworth and Gordon Bronitsky,
McMurry University 3-11-10

It was quite an experience to be with people who were honestly struggling with McMurry’s heritage of Indian mascots and interest in Indians–students even assemble tipis at homecoming.    I learned much from the other two speakers, C. Richard King, the Chair of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University, who spoke about the use and abuse of Indians as mascots, and the Reverend Dr. Thomas Fassett, who provided the theological background for the discussion.

It was an exciting two days.   Reviewing its past and considering the future, McMurry University has a unique opportunity to begin to honor its Native American heritage in new and powerful ways.  McMurry University can benefit from its historic interest in Indians and its deep and abiding Methodist heritage to partner with American Indian communities, organizations and institutions to create new spaces  in which things happen, in which the power and diversity of American Indian voices can be heard and experienced.  It can create an international Indigenous gospel festival.

What would such a space look like?  It could:

• Start small but with excellent production values and always focus on large long-term visions.
• Showcase the best Indigenous gospel performers and artists of today and the future.
• Work with Indigenous community and institutional partners to train American Indigenous young people how to run the space.
• Introduce Indigenous performers and artists to the business–what is an agent?  what is a contract?–since many people come from isolated rural and urban communities where this information is difficult if not impossible to find.
• Eventually, serve as a performing arts showcase as well, introducing the best Indigenous performers to venues and booking agents from around the world.

It’s an exciting goal and one that needs to happen.  McMurry University can be the place where it happens, and I was privileged to be a participant.

I’ve been invited to speak at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas March 10-13.  Jerry Hollingsworth,  former student of mine from my teaching days at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa (truly a galaxy long ago and far away), has invited me there to speak.  I haven’t been back to Texas since I left Odessa in 1981 and I’m looking forward to the experience.

I’ll be a panelist participating in The Quest.  Historically, McMurry has used American Indian mascots and imagery and is now working to change and find new directions.  Rather than focus on the past, I intend to map out some possibilities for honoring American Indians in the future, through the creation of spaces where Indigenous voices can be heard in all their power and diversity–theater, dance, music, film/video and much more.  I think the University has the opportunity to create a new beginning and develop something entirely new.  Stay tuned!