Transcript:

Heres a program from our archives.Waila: Partyambience: Waila PolkaWhen people get together for a Waila dance, you can be sure it's an all-night affair. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Waila is the traditional music of the Tohono O'odham, native Americans in southern Arizona.Joaquin: The day was spent meeting up with relatives and exchanging information and then the night was reserved for social occasions and that's where the fiddle bands came in and later the contemporary Waila bands.Angelo Joaquin, Jr., is director of an annual festival of Waila, an offshoot of northern Mexican music that was influenced by European immigrants. In the late 1950's, the traditional Waila fiddle bands began to incorporate electric guitars, and the dirt dance floor was lit by a single light bulb. Joaquin: Because there was no electricity on most of the villages on the reservation, a generator would be used to light this single light bulb and the amps and inevitably somebody would forget to put gasoline in this generator, and about twelve o'clock, maybe one o'clock, everything would go dead. But only until someone refilled the generator. Then the dancing would start up again, and continue until daybreak, as it still does at the Waila festival that takes place every year around this time in Tucson.Joaquin: These elder women will be out there dancing as couples in many cases, and you look around the dance floor and you see kids from 4 or 5 years old dancing with each other and the whole spectrum from these kids to the elders is a wonderful spectacle to take in.This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. If you want hear more, check out our podcast. Im Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.