A chance to talk about Mexican music on the radio was too good of
an opportunity for Jerry Garcia to pass up
As an assistant professor of history, Jerry Garcia spends a lot of time
in front of a class lecturing.
But late in the fall semester, Garcia was presented with a different type
of teaching situation.
For two hours, Garcia was a featured guest on KURE 88.5 FM, the campus alternative
radio station. Garcia appeared with host Chris Messier on his "World
Beat" show.
"I didn't want to end up lecturing on the radio," said Garcia,
who is also director of Iowa State's U.S. Latino/a Studies cross-disciplinary
program. "Obviously when you are on the radio you can't see your classroom
and in a way I found it easier to stay away from the lecture format than
I would if I would have had an audience.
"It was great to use a different medium to get something across to
people."
For two hours, Garcia discussed Mexican music and its influences. He also
brought along several musical selections and played them during the show.
"I wanted this to be educational as well as entertaining," he
said. "I guess you could call it a semi-lecture."
Messier got the idea of inviting Garcia on his radio show after being in
a student in one of Garcia's classes during the 2000 fall semester.
"We have a mutual interest in music," Messier said. "He (Garcia)
would play music in class and I liked the sound and thought it would be
great to have Jerry on."
Garcia jumped at the opportunity. He says he grew up with Mexican music
and it's always been his favorite musical style.
During the two-hour session, Garcia discussed the development of Mexican
music and its different genres, as well as the history of the musical style.
He says that Mexican music is heavily influenced by a European sound, especially
German music.
"For people who don't know Mexican music, it is very different from
salsa music," he said. "I thought this was an opportunity to expose
the campus to Mexican music and a little bit of history behind the genre.
"The two hours went by very quickly," he continued. "I enjoyed
it a lot."
Messier agrees that this first experiment in bringing in Iowa State faculty
members to discuss world music was a success.
"We simply ran out of time," he said, "I hope to be able
we're able to bring Jerry back in the spring semester, but I'm also hoping
that we can get more professors in the studio to discuss
different types of music."
In particular Messier is hoping to attract professors with an interest in
French and Spanish music to the station.
