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Transcription: [00:00:15]

[[Background noise]]
[00:00:17]

{Ranald}
Hi folks, I'm Ranald, nice to meet you, I'll be your interpreter this afternoon and I'll just be hanging out over here, so.
[00:00:24]

[[Background noise]]
[00:00:33]

{Ranald}
As you can probably guess, let's talk a little slowly, or give me about a sentence or two, and then um--
[00:00:38]

[[Background noise]]
[00:00:39]

{Unknown Speaker 1}
[[inaudible]] Seems familiar with your work. Seen lots of videos.
[00:00:44]

{Ranald}
Seen lots of videos, hope to be there in person soon.
[00:00:47]

{Ranald}
Mh-hmm.
[00:00:49]

[[Background noise]]
[00:00:53]

{Unknown Speaker 1}
Perdon?

[[Cross talk]]

{Ranald}
Do you need another chair?
[00:00:54]

{Unknown Speaker 1}
No, no esta bien.
[00:00:55]

{Ranald}
You sure?

{Unknown Speaker 1}
Si--
[00:00:56]

{Unknown Speaker 1}
Si, seguro, yo puedo estar parado [[inaudible]]
[00:00:59]

[[Background noise]]
[00:01:02]

{Unknown Speaker}
You can start the introductions and she can keep him talking.
[00:01:04]

{Ranald}
Okay, great, so I can go ahead and start the intros?
[00:01:07]

{Ranald}
Yeah, yeah
[00:01:08]

[[Background noise]]
[00:01:17]

{Ranald}
Welcome everybody to the Sounds of California Section of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
[00:01:24]

[[Background noise]]
[00:01:26]

{Ranald}
We'll start in just a minute.
[00:01:28]

[[Background noise]]
[00:01:32]

{Ranald}
Hey folks, welcome to the Sounds of California Section of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We are here in the studio, here for another session of Linea Abierta Program with host Chelis Lopez. Linea Abierta is a program on Radio Bilingue, the premier Latino public radio network in the United States.
[00:01:51]

{Ranald}
And today we are gonna be watching a production of a radio session; a conversation between Chelis and the members of FandangObon.
[00:02:01]

{Chelis Lopez}
Bien, desde el paseo nacional de la ciudad de Washington, Radio Bilingüe presenta una cobertura especial de Sonidos de California.
[00:02:08]

{Chelis Lopez}
Un programa especial que forma parte del festival del Folklore del Smithsonian este ano.
[00:02:12]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta producción es una colaboración con la alianza para las artes tradicionales de California y el Centro para el Folklore y la Herencia Cultural de el Smithsonian. Yo soy Chelis Lopez, bienvenidos.
[00:02:22]

{Chelis Lopez}
Durante la próxima hora conversaremos con importantes figuras del festival.
[00:02:27]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta ano 2016 el festival ofrece diversas culturas unidas por la inmigración, por el movimiento y por la búsqueda del la pertenencia y la identidad.
[00:02:35]

{Chelis Lopez}
Sonidos de California y Basque Innovación mediante de la Cultura son los dos programas del festival.
[00:02:41]

{Chelis Lopez}
Me acompana integrantes de FandangObon. Un muy particular proyecto artístico y colaborativo entre artistas Chicanos, Japoneses, y Mexicanos.
[00:02:51]

{Chelis Lopez}
Que mezclan la música, la danza, las tradiciones de Son Jarocho de Veracruz, México y la ceremonia ritual de origen Budista Japonés.
[00:02:59]

{Chelis Lopez}
Obon en estrecha colaboración con el grupo Quetzal. Bienvenidos.
[00:03:04]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta aqui a mi lado Nobuko Miyamoto, que ella es la directora, cantante y bailadora. Welcome.
[00:03:11]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Gracias.
[00:03:12]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta tambien, eh, George Abe, quien toca, eh, la flauta traversa Japonesa que se llama Fue.
[00:03:20]

{George Abe}
Thank you.
[00:03:21]
Gracias.

[[Cross talk]]

Thank you.
[00:03:23]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta tambien Elaine Fukumoto, bailadora.
[00:03:27]

{Elaine Fukumoto}
I'm right here.
[00:03:28]

{Chelis Lopez}
Thank you. Nancy Sekizawa, vocalista. Bienvenida.
[00:03:35]

{Nancy Sekizawa}
Hello.
[00:03:36]

[Ranald translating to Spanish}
Hola.
[00:03:37]

{Chelis Lopez}
Esta Sean Miura, que toca el shamisen, que es un instrumento de tres cuerdas. Bienvenido, Sean.
[00:03:42]

{Sean Miura}
Gracias.
[00:03:43]

{Chelis Lopez}
Eh, gracias! Eso!
[[Laughter]]
[00:03:46]

{Unknown Speaker}
I'm a man of 3 words.
[[Laughter]]
[00:03:48]

{Chelis Lopez}
Vamos a empezar por conocer, sabemos que es el Fandango, sabemos que es el Obon. Pero que es FandangObon?
[00:03:55]

{Ranald}
We know what Fandango is and we know what Obon is, but what is this FandangObon?
[00:04:00]

{Chelis Lopez}
Nobuko?
[00:04:02]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
So, Fandango and Obon have something in common.
[00:04:07]

{Ranald}
Bueno, el Fandango y el Obon tienen algo en común.
[00:04:09]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Both are traditions that people; the public participates in.
[00:04:15]

[Ranald}
Ambas son tradiciones participativas.
[00:04:18]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Music and dance made by the people.
[00:04:20]

{Ranald}
Música y danza hecho por el pueblo.
[00:04:23]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
It's a gathering tradition from both the Mexican and Japanese community, that helps to keep our culture together.
[00:04:34]

{Ranald}
Es una tradición de la comunidad Mexicana y Japonesa a base de donde la gente se junta con el propósito de preservar nuestra cultura.
[00:04:42]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
I'm gonna talk a little bit about Obon, because probably you know more about Fandango. Uh, and I want, George Abe, to explain a little bit about Obon.
[00:04:54]

{Ranald}
Voy hablar más de Obon porque creo que ustedes ya saben acerca del Fandango, y le voy a pedir a George Abe que nos habla del Obon.
[00:05:03]

{George Abe}
I been a long time member of a temple in Los Angeles, uh, Senshin Buddhist Temple.
[00:05:10]

{Ranald}
Eh, por, ehh mucho tiempo he sido un miembro del Templo Budista Senshin en Los Angeles.
[00:05:16]

{George Abe}
Senshin means wash your spirit, wash your soul.
[00:05:20]

[Ranald}
Senshin significa lavar tu alma o tu espiritu.
[00:05:23]

{George Abe}
We take pride in the fact that our temple is named in a Japanese way.
[00:05:29]

{Ranald}
Y, eh, nos da mucho orgullo que nuestro templo conserve su nombre en Japonés.
[00:05:34]

{George Abe}
The reason is there's Santa Barbara Buddhist Temple, San Luis Obispo Buddhist Temple, San Francisco Saints.
[00:05:46]

{Ranald}
Y tenemos mucho orgullo justamente porque los otros templos Budistas tienen nombres de santos como San Luis, Santa Bárbara y otros.
[00:05:54]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
So already there's a collaboration.
[00:05:58]

{Ranald}
Y desde ahí ya tenemos la colaboración.
[[Laughter]]
[00:06:01]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
We know that we live in, on the land, Native Americans and Mexican Americans, and for many many generations our people have shared communities together.
[00:06:16]

{Ranald}
Sabemos que vivimos en una tierra de indígenas, tambien de Mexico Americanos y por muchos años nuestras comunidades se han compartido.
[00:06:24]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
I grew up in a community called Boyle Heights. Elaine, where did you grow up?
[00:06:30]

{Ranald}
Yo me crié en una comunidad que se llama Boyle Heights. Elaine donde te creistes tu?
[00:06:33]

{Elaine Fukumoto}
Same, in a Mexican American communities. Boyle Heights and northeast Los Angeles, where it was predominantly Mexican Americans.
[00:06:42]

{Ranald}
Igual en una comunidad México Americana, Boyle Heights, el noreste de Los Ángeles.
[00:06:46]

{Chelis Lopez}
Bien, entonces creo entender por dónde viene este lasso, pero quiero saber, quiero que me cuenten como conocen ustedes a Quetzal, quien son quienes colaboran para esto de FandangObon.
[00:06:57]

{Ranald}
So, I think I understand these connections, and explain to me though how you guys know Quetzal? Who's one of your main collaborators?
[00:07:03]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
So, I think Quetzal was 19 when I first met him.
[00:07:09]

{Ranald}
Creo que Quetzal tenía 19 años la primera vez que lo conocí.
[00:07:13]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
He was working in a theatre called The Japan American Theatre in Little Tokyo.
[00:07:17]

{Ranald}
El aquel entonces trabajaba en un teatro que se llamaba El Teatro Japon America en el Pequeño Tokyo.
[00:07:23]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
And my organization, Great Leap was doing performance on the stage.
[00:07:28]

{Ranald}
Y mi organización, Great Leap o Gran Paso, estaba haciendo un actuación en la tarima.
[00:07:34]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Now lets go forward maybe 25 years.
[00:07:37]

[Ranald}
Ahora avancemos 25 anos.
[00:07:40]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
He invited me to a speak in a panel, where he was introducing their new- Quetzal's new album, "Imaginaries".
[00:07:51]

{Ranald}
El me invito a participar en un panel, donde estaban presentando el nuevo disco de Quetzal, "Imaginaries", "Imaginarios".
[00:07:58]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Afterwards, we greeted each other and said, "Oh some day we should do something together."
[00:08:03]

{Ranald}
Y después nos saludamos y dijimos, "Hoy, en algún momento deberíamos de hacer algo juntos."
[00:08:08]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
But, you know, it was just a- that was a courtesy.
[00:08:13]

{Ranald}
Pero tu sabes, eso era una cortesía nada mas.
[00:08:15]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
But I was trying to write a song about Bicycling, because I was very interested in the environment and how do we use our communities of color to bring them into the environmental conversation. I was creating a music videos about the environment.
[00:08:37]

{Ranald}
En aquel momento estaba tratando de escribir una canción sobre ciclismo porque me interesaba mucho el medioambiente y cómo hacer las comunidades de color participen en el ambientalismo y estaba haciendo videos de musica al respeto.
[00:08:53]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Yes, so we created a music video called, "Cycles of Change".
[00:08:57]

{Ranald}
Haci que creamos un video de musica llamado, "Ciclos de Cambio".
[00:09:03]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
At which, Martha Gonzalez and Sandino and Quetzal were part of it; we were all starring together.
[00:09:10]

{Ranald}
Eh, dentro los cuales Martha, Quetzal, Sandino tambien eran, eh, participaron.
[00:09:16]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
Yes, afterwards, Quetzal invited me to come to a class. They were teaching Fandango, in um--
[00:09:25]

[[Side conversation]]
[00:09:29]

{Ranald}
Despues Quetzal me invito a que viniera a una clase que, donde estaban ensenando fandango.
[00:09:33]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
When I walked through the door he put a jarana in my hands.
[00:09:37]

{Ranald}
Cuando pase por la puerta me entrego una jarana.
[00:09:39]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
And then he said, "Play."
[00:09:41]

{Ranald}
Y me dijo, "Toca."
[00:09:42]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
I said, "Oh, my goodness, I don't play." He says, "Play!"
[00:09:46]

[[Nobuko laughing]]
[00:09:47]

{Ranald}
No que vaya, no se tocar, y me dijo toca.
[00:09:49]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
But by the end of 2 hours I was playing.
[00:09:52]

{Ranald}
Y despues de dos horas estaba tocando la jarana.
[00:09:55]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
But in the middle of the floor was a platform called, Tarima.
[00:10:00]

{Ranald}
Dentro de el, la sala habia una, una tarima, una pista, pequenia pista.
[00:10:07]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
The musicians were standing in a circle playing a jaranas, around the tarima.
[00:10:11]

{Ranald}
Los músicos estaban tocando alrededor en círculo, alrededor de la tarima.
[00:10:16]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
And the dancers were performing rhythms on the tarima.
[00:10:20]

{Ranald}
Y los bailarines estaban haciendo ritmos sobre la tarima.
[00:10:25]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
I thought right away, my goodness, this is very similar to obon. Except, the musicians stand on the platform in obon, and the dancers dance around the platform.
[00:10:39]

{Ranald}
Inmediatamente me apareció muy parecido al obon. Es algo que he en el obon los musicos estan parados tocando sobre la tarima, y los bailarines bailan en rueda alrededor de la tarima.
[00:10:53]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
So after the session I asked Quetzal, "I wonder what would happen if we tried to do something to put fandango and obon together?"
[00:11:02]

{Ranald}
Y luego le dije a Quetzal, "Me pregunto que pasaría si juntaramos el obon con el son jarocho, el fandango."
[00:11:09]

{Nobuko Miyamoto}
He said, "yes, yes!"
[00:11:11]

{Ranald}
Y dijo, "Si, exactamente."
[00:11:12]

{Chelis Lopez}
Y asi fue, como nacio FandangObon.
[00:11:16]

{Ranald}
That's how it was born.
[00:11:17]

{Chelis Lopez}
Bueno, ya nos conto aqui Nobuko como, cuales son las afinidades o similitudes en cuanto al baile y alrededor de la tarima y este circulo. Pero, que ay de las afinidades en cuanto a los instrumentos.
[00:11:29]

{Chelis Lopez}
Por ejemplo, quisiera que Sean me cuente, tu tocas el shamisen, este instrumento de cuerdas y la jarana es un instrumento de cuerdas. Ay algunas similitudes?
[00:11:39]

{Ranald}
Sean, maybe you can tell us about some of the similarities between the musical instruments of the fandango and the obon traditions?
[00:11:46]

{Sean Miura}
So, um, well, I play the shamisen, which means a 3 [[flavored?]] strings.
[00:11:50]

{Ranald}
Cuando toco el shamisen que significa, que es un instrumento de 3 cuerdas.
[00:11:55]

{Sean Miura}
So, it's a traditional instrument from Japan, which traditionally is more of like a backing instrument. You typically would not play the style I play, solo.
[00:12:06]

{Ranald}
Eh, este instrumento tradicionalmente Japones típicamente se toca de trasfondo mientras yo lo toco mas como solista
[00:12:14]

{Sean Miura}
So, it is similar to jarana in that it's accompanied by vocal and there is usually a lyrical or a narrative behind the song that you are playing and singing.
[00:12:24]

{Ranald}
Se parece a la jarana en el sentido que tiene tiene un acompañamiento lírico.
[00:12:30]

{Sean Miura}
What I think where they diverge and where it's really interesting is that jarana is more melodic so I'm able to play melodies using the chords that the jaranas are playing so the two complement each other.
[00:12:47]

{Ranald}
Eh, Donde se distinguen es que el fandango es mas melodico, he, así que se complementan en ese sentido.
[00:12:57]

{Chelis Lopez}
Gracias Sean, bueno, y siguiendo con los instrumentos quisiera que ahora George, que toca el fue que es la flauta transversa Japonesa, también tocas el taiko que es este gran tambor, en el fandango no hay un tambor en si, pero si hay a veces un cajon que es igual a la percusion. Tambien me gustaria que nos cuentes sobre cómo combina estos dos.
[00:13:21]

{Ranald}
So George, you play the flute and Taiko, and in the Fandango tradition there really- there is a [[cajon?]], that's a percussion- and maybe- exactly maybe you can tell us about how you can combine both traditions?
[00:13:34]

{George Abe}
I gotta tell you, uh, I go to the park on Sunday's and Saturday's drum circles.
[00:13:41]

{Ranald}
Te digo una cosa, los Domingos yo voy a los parques donde estan los circulos de tambores.
[00:13:45]

{George Abe}
Congueros from sometimes Puerto Rico, Cuba, or African American, you know.
[00:13:54]

{Ranald}
Congueros, aveces bateristas, tamboreros de Puerto Rico, de Cuba, de Afrika.
{00:14:00}

{George Abe}
So I take my Japanese flute - flauta-- I know I went to a Puerto Rican festival, and they said " O, Chino flauta!"
[00:14:10]

{Ranald}
Asi que llevo mi flauta a estos encuentros, por ejemplo, lleve mi flauta una ves a un festival Puerto Ricuenio.
[00:14:18]

{George Abe}
So I say, "No, Japonés."
[00:14:20]

{Ranald}
Y me dijeron, "Oyes, esto es una flauta China?" yo les dije, "No, esta es una flauta Japonesa."
[00:14:25]

{George Abe}
We all have stereotype strings.
[00:14:27]

[[Background noise and laughter]]

{Ranald}
Todos tenemos stereotypos, verdad.
[00:14:31}

{George Abe}
Yes. So I've been playing with these congueros. And we play like, [[Wadaiko?]]. Right?
[00:14:37]

{Ranald}
He estado tocando con estos congueros, tocando [[Wadaiko??]] por ejemplo.
[00:14:41]

{George Abe}
So, Santana kinds of sounds come naturally to me.
[[Laughing and crowd laughing]].
[00:14:45]

{Ranald}
El sonido de Santana me vienen naturalmente.
[00:14:48]

{George Abe}
And I grew up in basically what is a black neighborhood, around Manual Arts High School in South Central.

{Ranald}
Really?
[00:14:56]

{Ranald}
Y yo me crie, basicamente en un barrio Afroamericanos, eh, South Central.
[00:15:00]

{George Abe}
So I played in saxophone and clarinet in bands, but you know, playing the flauta, no, no teacher; I just started learning on my own.
[00:15:09]

{Ranald}
Tocaba el saxo, la clarineta, en conjuntos autodidacta. Nadie me enseno.
[00:15:15]

{George Abe}
But improvishing, which is a-- is what I do when I'm on the stage with FandangObon. I just make it up in the moment.
[00:15:25]

{Ranald}
Lo que yo hago en la tarima con ellos es la improvisacion, me lo invento de momento.
[00:15:30]

{{Chelis Lopez}}
Bien. Bueno, ya que veo que sostiene ahi algo en la mano, me gustaria que me digas que es lo que tienes ahi, George?
[00:15:36]

{Ranald}
I see that you are holding something in your hand, George. Tell us about it.
[00:15:39]

{George Abe}
This is a Shakuhachi, it's a bamboo flute of a Japanese tradition, Zen Buddhism.
[00:15:46]

{Ranald}
Esta es una Shakuhachi, es una flauta Japonesa de bamboo, de la tradicion Budista Zen.
[00:15:52]

{George Abe}
Very meditative. You know, quiet, relatively.
[00:15:55]

{Ranald}
Tenia calidad muy meditativa, muy callada.
[00:15:58]

{George Abe}
The important thing is this is California bamboo.
[00:16:01]

{Ranald}
Lo mas importante, que este es bamboo de California.
[00:16:04]

{George Abe}
My friend lived in Silver Lake, California, and in his backyard was a grove of bamboo.
[00:16:11]

{Ranald}
Mi amigo que vivia en Silver Lake, en su patio el tenia una mata de bamboo.
[00:16:16]

{George Abe}
The story is, the owner of the house went to Japan in the 1930s, on a boat, got a piece of -- He found a wife. [[Laughing]] Yes, he also brought back a piece of bamboo wrapped in cloth and kept it wet.
[00:16:33]

[[Randal]]
Segun el cuento, el dueno de la casa en la decada de los treintas, se fue a Japon para encontrar una esposa y se trajo con el tambien una ramita de bamboo, que mantuvo humeda en un tualla hasta que regreso a Los Angeles.
[00:16:47]

{George Abe}
He put it in the ground at his house--
{{Cross Talk]]
[00:16:50]

{Randal}
La metio a la tierra en su patio, y grecio y ahi tenemos el bamboo de California.
[00:16:56]

{George Abe}
Yeah. Genetically, Japanese bamboo, but grown in California.


{{Cross talk]]
{Unknown speaker 2} Yeah. Ummhuh. Right.

So, it grows faster, it's lighter.
[00:17:03]

{Randal}

[00:17:10]
Geneticamente, bamboo Japones, pero ha grecido en California y es mas libiano.
{Unknown speaker 3}
Me. It's me.

{George Abe}
Born in California, genetically Japanese, but - Yeah.
[00:17:17]

{Randal}
Como yo--

[[Cross Talk}}

{George Abe}
The sound is my sound.
[00:17:20]

{Randal}
Criedo en California y este es mi sonido.
[00:17:21]

{Chelis Lopez}
Pues como uno de los programas del Festival del el Smithsonian, precisamente Sonidos de California. Y aprovechando que George trai su flauta, porque no nos regalas un poquito de esa meditacion atraves del sonido de tu flauta.
[00:17:35]

{Randal}
So, George, since your here and you've got this wonderful flute, why don't you give us a gift of music and play some of these meditative sounds.
[00:17:43]

Transcription Notes:
PLEASE-> Fill in rest of the spanish translation startig at [00:13:41]. I have put in Ranald's name, and put in the Timestamps. Thanks!!