Bird of Four Hundred Voices

Praise for Bird of Four Hundred Voices:

"Eugene teaches children the right music for the right reasons, not necessarily to be performers but to explore their own joys and sorrows. And then some might become professionals. I wish I had studied with him when I was growing up. Read this beautifully written book about culture, identity and resilience, and you will know why." -Linda Ronstadt

"For many years, I have been hearing of some kind of magic that Eugene Rodriguez was creating across San Francisco Bay, with an institute of serious fun. He named his enterprise after mockingbirds, Los Cenzontles. The mockingbird has no song of its own, but an imitative reverence to collect, to mimic, to preserve. This glorious memoir is unlike other ethnic memoirs I have read because, by eschewing politics in favor of Mexican popular culture, Eugene Rodriguez recollects his own growing appreciation of the play of Mexico within himself. For centuries Mexico has withstood political failures by means of the gathering festival-the union of old and young, the living and the dead, wit and romance, the sombrero's bow and the wise smile of the skull. In hardscrabble San Pablo, California, Eugene Rodriguez records his life's work first as student then as teacher: He has taught young men and women and children to dance and sing with the dead." -Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory

"A son of so much: activism, history, art, pride, California, Mexico, the world. Each sentence, paragraph, page and story is a fandango for the soul." -Gustavo Arellano, L.A. Times columnist and author of Taco USA

"Firmly rooted in tradition and activism, Eugene Rodriguez's Bird of Four Hundred Voices brings us the extraordinary trajectory of one of the most renowned traditional Mexican dance advocates and attests to the tremendous power of cultural affirmation and celebration." -Norma E. Cantu, co-editor of Dancing Across Borders and editor of Chicana Traditions