The study of the tradition of Huapango was done using recordings by the emblematic group "Los Camperos de Valles". In the words of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Los Camperos de Valles "have come to represent the best in one of Mexico's most distinctive and uplifting folk music traditions— the son huasteco. Marked by florid poetry, soaring high falsetto vocals, and ornate and elaborate violin improvisation, the son Huasteco hails from the Huasteca, one of Mexico's most celebrated cultural regions. The Huasteca, which overlaps six states in east-central Mexico— San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, Querétaro, and Puebla— is characterized by the historical blending of diverse cultures, including Spanish, indigenous, and African. The son huasteco has become an important expression of this centuries-old regional mestizo identity." (Sheehy 2005, 2)

Los Camperos represent a conservative performance tradition that has become classic within the genre. Their characteristic playing style, established by legendary violinist Heliodoro Copado, is defined by a pronounced rubato, old-fashioned playing techniques and unstandardized intonation. It is hard to find the traits elsewhere in main stream Huapango. This music enjoys immense popularity, and although this has led to a bigger outreach of Huapango culture, traditional violin playing has been gradually "contaminated" with standarized academic violin-techniques. Huapango performance practices feature some astonishing parallelisms with historical performance practice, particularly with French practices from the XVII century. There is a widespread presence of historical French violin bow-holds and extensive use of ornamentation similar to those documented in sources for dance music.

Los Camperos was founded in 1974 by Copado in Ciudad Valles, San Luis de Potosí, together with Joel Monroy Martínez on the Jarana (a small guitar similar to a baroque-guitar) and Marcos Hernández on the Huapanguera (a bass-guitar). After becoming local favorites at weddings and birthdays, they began to play at world music festivals, eventually earning a contract with the Rounder Records imprint Corason. During the 90´s the group reached the height of their international fame, but Copado´s health started to decline. Monroy, who had been on the jarana, took over the Violin role. In 2005, the definite inheritor of Heliodoro Copado´s legacy was chosen: in a symbolic ceremony, the convalescent Copado handed over himself his violin to the young virtuoso Camilo Ramirez.

One of the specific objectives of this research is the exploration of the tradition of Huapango, since it is considered to be a direct descendant of the ancient fandango with a particularly strong baroque heritage. Like the XVIII century fandango and the XVII century sarabande, the music is based on chordal ostinatos in ternary meter. It is accompanied by string instruments (the jarana, very reminiscent of the Baroque Guitar, and the Huapanguera, a bass guitar). The structure of the songs follows of alternation between Instrumental ritornello and Sung Copla found for example in the ancient Fandangos Verdiales. The violin lines are full of virtuosic 16th´ figuration, as found in XVIII-century Italian instrumental music.

There is a core of traditional tunes considered to be the classical huapango-repertoire. It is composed by El Fandanguito, La Huasanga, El Aguanieve, El Llorar, El Caiman and El Sacamandu. Each of the tunes has its own traditional features, with a specific melody in the voice and the violin, a specific chord progression, and even with a particular poetical subject in the lyrics. It is almost as if each one of the sones would represent a tradition by itself, with each of the sones displaying a particular "archetypical huapango affect".

The sung coplas are generally 5 stanza-strophes of eight syllables each, with the riming structure: AABBA. The picaresque lyrics reflect the ethos of the fandango as a communal celebration, as a space for playing, flirting, fighting, bonding, and celebrating life. Huapango poetry allows an insight into the rich Caribbean mestizo culture, with subjects related to cattle work, fishing, and sailing. As in all of the lyric belonging to the Caribbean Ternary Mettered Repertoire, references to masculinity as a dominant element of the traditional way of living prevail. Here is a small description of the songs I find more representative:

El Fandanguito (The little Fandango): This is the most evident relative of the XVIII century salon-fandango. The violin line of the Fandanguito has been literally preserved since the XVIII century, after instrumental models of the time. The lyrics praise the Fandango (called with affection "little") as a preferred song. The first strophe traditionally goes:

Fandanguito pa bailar

Tu eres el rey de los sones

Que cuando te oyen sonar

Se alegran los corazones

Y dan ganas de bailar

Little fandango, when it comes to dancing

You are the king of songs

Because when you are heard

the hearts cheer

and it makes us want to dance

La Petenera (The Sailor´s Song): La Petenera is a song that is present both in Mexican as well as in Spanish folklore. There are strong parallelisms between them, both in the Phrygian sonority and the sung coplas in major key. This song speaks about transatlantic sea traveling, describing the adventures of ships across distant places. The traditional lyrics give a dreamy image of the fandango as a song born overseas: 

La Huasanga (the party or the "fiesta"): La Huasanga often refers to the party itself. It is one of the most complex songs, with complex variations in the rhythmical accentuation of the bar, which makes it very difficult to execute. The guitar rhythms and chord changes are "on the beat" during the instrumental sections and shift to "off the beat" during the singing.

It traditionally this song contains an extensive cadence for the violin over an organ point towards the middle and a full coda or “retirada” with choirs for the end with the traditional verse:

Es cierto que he sido un briago

No se me puede negar 

Y si yo le pido un trago

No me lo puede negar

Porque si yo pido fiado

Nunca les he de pagar

It is true that I am a Drunk

Nobody can deny it

And if I ask for a glass

You cannot deny it

As if I borrow on credit

I will never pay back

El Zacamandú (The Zacamandú bull): Like "El Fandanguito", this song is traceable back until the XVIII century and is considered one of the most important. In some regions, the lyrics have preserved a magical content, with coplas referring to legends related to the cattle-traditions of the south of the region. Like "La Huasanga" this sone is called "atravesado" (traversed) because of its on-the-beat / off-the-beat fluctuations.

As we can see, we encounter here the same diversity of names as in Spanish folklore. Like the word "Petenera", for example, the word "Malagueña is used to designate some Mexican as well Spanish fandangos1. Songs bearing these names tend to be related to the older Phrygian Spanish sonorities of the "Southern Fandangos".

As for the word "fandango" we find it in Huapango as a name to designate the fandango as a (preferred) song, while we find the name "Huasanga" designating the fandango as a "fiesta". According to Anemio Posadas, "huasanga" is a Maya-derived word referring to the jícaro, the gourd vine common to the region. This meaning parallels the etymology of Huasteca tierra de guajes 'Iand of gourd planes". Huasanga then would mean "Fiesta in the land of the gourds, or simply "Huastecan Fiesta". The word Huapango, on the other hand, seems to resemble the sonority of the word "Fandango".

The next chapter goes into the practical crossover explorations of Huapango, by engaging with several aspects of structure and performance practice of the song "El Fandanguito".