Music and Family

  When I was told to do an interview with someone in at least one or more generation above me or someone way older than me on their musical background and what it was like for them growing up and how things have changed since then.  I immediately thought about interviewing my mom or grandma, but I went into ore thinking about how every assignment I had to interview on someone I always chose one of those two.  So I decided to expand more and give myself a bit more of a challenge.  I decided to interview my very good friend Roberto’s grandmother, and let’s just say I was very glad I did so.  Not only did I learn about her music history I learned about her culture and background. 

Now a little bit of key information you should know about this person is that she was born and raised in Colombia and a lot of her culture and her music preferences come from there.  My friend calls her wita. When I was interviewing her I wanted to focus on mainly her childhood and what music was like for her then. So obviously my first question was, “what was music like for you growing up?”  She went into a lot of detail which was a aiming to hear but I will summarize what she said.  “Music was like the center of our lives, my father played in a group and played a triple stringed guitar called a triple.”I wanted to know what kind of music she listened to as a kid or teenager. I knew it was gong to be different from what I listen to, not only because there’s such a huge age gap but also because she’s from a different country. She said “the main music I listened to was salsa” She also mentioned that she played maracas that her father use to play.  She didn’t have a band or choir in school like we do now.  She did say she loves how schools do that now.  She didn’t do music classes in school and didn’t perform in the church choir. Although she wasn’t in her church choir I did ask how she felt about the music at church.  She said “depends if the right people were singing.” And from personal experience in the church I can one hundred percent say that is true.  I enjoyed the music a lot more when certain people were singing.  

Now we all know that our parents don’t enjoy the music we listen to so of corse i had to ask if her parents liked the music she listened to and obviously it was a no.  She said she listened to Spanish rock, music with bad words, and non Christian songs.  I wanted to know what her favorite genre of music was when she was when she was younger other than rock or salsa.  I found out that her music taste has not changed since.  She loves Catholic and Christian music and more on the classical side of music and the love for it keeps growing.  Now she may have liked those kinds of music but what was popular during her time and in her country. She said “country, romantic, mainly 50s and 60s romantic.”  And no not how country is like today.  We all have a favorite artists or band so of course I had to know who’s hers was at the time and now.  Her favorite artists are “Colombian singers, Claudia de Colombia, and Rafael from Spain.”  I looked up their music and it is beautiful.  We love going to concerts to see our favorite artists sing, she never really had concerts in her country but she did get to see a few famous artists like Juan Prima or Selene Deon.  

Music can be very helpful in many ways and can change your whole mood in one just one song or even change your life.  Wita said it changed her life because “I never felt alone because I had music and the radio, and feeling the power of God fulfilled me.”  My most important question out of all of this was “what does music mean to you?” And she said “a company.” And the more you think about it the more you think that she is right, it can make you so much more less alone when listening to it like in the car or doing homework.  My two favorite things that I want to add on onto this is that her and her husband have a song together called “Nicola.” When they very first met he gave her a CD of that song and just thought it was the cutest thing to hear.  And then her favorite memory of music is watching her father serenade people at weddings.

I’m so glad I did my interview on her I learned so much in just a matter of question and discovered a whole new culture in music.