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Music of the Californios will enliven the Celebration
By Herb Kandel | Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles about the 2007 Rancho Nipomo Heritage Day to be held Saturday, May 19. The annual event gives families a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in California history in an authentic setting.

At Heritage Day, visitors will meet famous people from Nipomo’s past (as re-enactors, of course) such as Jim Beckworth, described in last week’s Adobe Press.
Californios of the rancho period greatly enjoyed music and dance that developed and evolved for more than a half a century, drawing from such diverse ethic roots as Spanish, indigenous Mexican and African.

Sailors and visitors from passing tall-masted ships also introduced new dances from Europe and South America. Even Italian opera influenced the music of early Alta California. Although related to both, the music is not Mexican nor Spanish but carries a special identity, in part, as a result of the relative isolation of the Californios.

Music and dance played a central role in life on Rancho Nipomo, especially at such important social occasions as the wedding of Henry Amos Tefft to Capt. William Dana’s eldest daughter, Maria Josefa, in July 1850.

The party lasted days, and visiting vaqueros slept on their saddles on the floor of the adobe. Tefft’s best man, William Rich Hutton, described the events after the wedding ceremony: “The day was passed by the men in chiefly feats of horsemanship -- and later in the dance … .”
(By the way, I will portray Henry Amos Tefft on Heritage Day. Please come greet me and let me know if you agree with my radical proposal to the California Constitutional Convention in 1849 in support of women’s suffrage. I lost that debate in Monterey in 1849.)

Visitors to this year’s Heritage day will have a chance to listen to authentic period music as well as enjoy watching Californio dances.
The music performed by the New World Baroque Orchestra under the direction of John Warren will include performances
of carefully transcribed rare period manuscripts, played on authentic replica instruments from the 19th century.
Returning this year are Yesteryears Dancers, led by Irene Ujda, whose dances in period colorful dress bring the rancho celebration to life.

Vaquero Pat Puckett also will return this year to skillfully “dance” the fandango to live music on horseback with a graceful senora.
Delores Dana informed me her ancestor, Capt. Dana, traced his ancestry to Ireland and that he played the violin. Honoring the captain’s roots, Heritage Day will open at 10 a.m. with the music of The Darlins.

The Central Coast Celtic ensemble will entertain visitors with a wide assortment of instruments, including the hammered dulcimer, fiddles, guitars, dobro, stand-up bass, Renaissance horn, mandolin, bouzouki, accordion, penny whistle and bagpipes.

This year’s Heritage Day music and dance line-up will truly reflect the diversity and vibrant history of Rancho Nipomo.

Herb Kandel is president of the Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos. For more details about Heritage Day, call 929-5679.