The La Paz Youth Orchestra
Feb. 14th, 2002

In this letter, rather than telling you about ourselves, we will describe one of the music groups we have gotten involved with here in La Paz. To do this well, we will need to tell you about two local institutions and three La Paz personalities.
	We will begin with the School of Music and its orchestra. The "Escuela de Musica del Estado" (State Music School) exists to provide music training for those youths who desire it. There are no music programs in the public schools in Mexico as there are in the United States. The school is located in downtown La Paz and looks much like a modern North American high school. Students must pay $300 pesos per month (about US$33) for music instruction. There are classes in music theory, solfege, voice, piano, and a variety of instruments.
Above, a view of the youth orchestra wind section. The marching band drums to the left are set up to serve as timpani. There are no low brass (except for Neil sitting in the back) and no bassoons, but we have lots of saxophones. Right photo, one of our young violinists.
Within the school of music, the one-year-old Orquesta Juvenil de Baja California Sur (Youth Orchestra of Baja California South) is the brainchild of its conductor, Luis Pelaez, and has about 53 student members of varying ability, ages 12 through 18. This is augmented by approximately 10 adult community members, including Neil and Nancy.
The youth orchestra woodwind section. The soprano saxes, Ulysses and Rachel, are transposing oboe parts. The alto sax, Carlos, who has a voracious appetite for tapes and CD's of jazz and classical music, is playing transposed French horn lines. Right, the littlest violinist is assisted by Mom.
The students are the most enthusiastic and spirited bunch of kids we have ever met. They are always asking for a commitment as to when they can have another lesson or asking if you will copy another tape or CD or find a music book for them. It is as if their young lives revolve around this orchestra and the music school. The orchestra rehearses on Tuesday and Friday evenings. The students are often badgering Luis, the conductor, to hold extra orchestra rehearsals on holidays and weekends. Rehearsals are a lot of fun, if chaotic, and the students are very receptive to suggestions to improve.
Several members of the La Paz adult community help augment the orchestra out of kindness. They are however, delegated to the rear echelons of the orchestra, allowing the youth members to take a more leading role. Right photo, the bass section is pretty good. They produce a lot of sound, they play in tune, and they are very serious. The second bassist, nearest the camera, just took a big step forward in that he formerly had no bow and had to play all parts pizzicato (plucking). Notice his hand position. Someone donated a 'cello bow to him and he is so proud now to be bowing along with his buddy.
Luis Pelaez Garcia is the conductor of the orchestra and is also the director of the music school. Although he holds a paid position for instructing at the music school, the formation of the orchestra was his idea and directing the orchestra remains an unpaid position, even though it consumes the majority of his time. His personality is warm and accepting and most encouraging for the students. They trust him and really seem to flower in his presence. The credit for the wonderful feeling of enthusiasm and joy of learning that permeates this institution must be in large part due him for some mysterious chemistry of his relationship with these kids. The results are a wonderful to behold.
Luis Paleaz Garcia tunes his violin (and everyone else's) prior to Tuesday night rehearsal.
The Spanish word "colonia" is a cognate, obviously, for "colony". In Mexico, it refers to a sub-section of the city. The colonia Marques de Leon is one of the areas lying on the far eastern outskirts of La Paz where less fortunate families settle. They have no electricity nor lights, no running water (water is brought in by tanker trucks). The streets can best be described as corduroy dust. They are so pitted and bumpy, it must be here that highway engineers the world over come to see the model for what a really bumpy corduroy road must be. The streets are lined with discarded appliances, broken plastic chairs, scavenged cars and ingeniously improvised fences. One fence is effectively engineered from discarded bedsprings.
Susan, Susana, Leo, and Jose in the colonia Marques de Leon waiting for a small bus called a "pesero" to catch a ride into town to the School of Music.	The houses are, at best, raw cinderblock construction with cement floors. Many homes, however, are structures of tarpaper, tin and plywood with dirt floors. There are lots of dogs and chickens, a half-completed raw cinderblock church, and several local small businesses like an auto junkyard, a couple of corner groceries, a bicycle shop, and many shade-tree change-your-oil, fix-your-flat mechanics. There seems always to be a soccer game in progress. Yet within the fenced yards, the homes are neat and clean. The children are healthy and happy for the most part, and difficult to distinguish on sight from the children in town. They are not only full of love and energy, and very appreciative of your attention, but are sparkling clean by anyone's standards. The parents seem to love their children and are concerned about their welfare. Most are proud to see their kids picked to have music lessons on a donated instrument.
	Left photo, Nancy helps Charlie with his embrochure and posture. Above, young trumpet artists from the colonia practice "Estrellita" (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).
Some of the better students are accepted, tuition-free, into the orchestra and classes at the music school, thanks again to the director, Luis. They are all given free music theory classes at the school. The trip into town to rehearse with the orchestra seems to be a real high point in their day. Sometimes they are excused from catechism lessons to go to the music school.
Tom Ireton first came to La Paz back in 1993, "land cruising" in a motor home. He liked the town and came back in a sailboat which he named "La Casita". Tom first got involved with the poor children of the colonia through the free breakfast program sponsored by the Fundacion para Los Ninos de La Paz which is largely run by gringo cruisers working out of the Club Cruceros de La Paz and the Marina de La Paz. Tom has worked on efforts to install playground equipment in the colonia, bought shoes for kids, given bicycles to poor children, and he still works with the breakfast program. It was Tom's idea to start giving music lessons to the kids in the colonia and involving them in the activities at the music school. He donates a tremendous amount of personal time and money toward this effort. Neil began calling him "Saint Thomas of La Paz" after he bought a huge gas-guzzling 1977 Plymouth extended van with a 360 cubic inch engine to haul more kids and donated equipment back and forth between the colonia and the music school. Tom's enthusiasm for the colonia Marques de Leon music program is so infectious, he tends to draw other people into the activities.	His Irascible Luminance, Saint Thomas of La Paz
Teresita (violin), Charlie (flute), Susana (violin), Pedro (trumpet), Reina (violin), Leo (drums), Susan, Nancy, and His Highness, Saint Tom.	We have often ridden with Tom to the colonia to pick up kids for orchestra rehearsal only to find that he had found an old bicycle, repaired at some local bike shop, to give to a delighted little kid in the colonia. The parents in the colonia seem to like and trust Tom and understand his efforts to help their children. After orchestra rehearsal is over at the music school, Tom will load six colonia kids, several adults, a trombone, French horn, and cello, as well as a couple of bicycles, into the huge old van and head back to the colonia in the dark with the tape player blasting boogie-woogie piano music. The two big gringos sitting up front sing along to "Kansas City" and the kids clap (oddly, always on the downbeat) laughing and giggling like crazy. Susan and Nancy just shake their heads. Of course, there is a mandatory stop for pizza or hotdogs and pop, usually Tom's treat.
And we wish you could see the colonia at night. When we go past the last city streetlight, and then a bit later, the last house with electricity, . . . it gets so dark out there. You know the streets and houses are there, but you can't see a thing, until another car or truck rushes past in a plume of dust, or a white spotted dog materializes in the middle of the dirt street. The kids grow quiet when we get to the colonia. The houses are all dark and there are no people about. You do not see the chickens at night. Tom pulls his van up in front of each kid's home with the headlights shining a path to the front door.There will always be a labored conversation until an agreement has been reached between Tom and the kid as to just which day and hour he will pick them up again. Tom waits until the the kid is inside the house before he pulls out for the next delivery. He does this almost every day of the week. It is about six miles out to the colonia and the old van really sucks up the gas. Tom pays for almost all to gas and wear and tear on the van. Neil feels that Tom's upcoming canonization by the Pope will sail right through in record time instead of the usual wait of a couple of centuries for sainthood. Kidding aside, he is so generous with his time and money with these kids, so full of love and caring for them, we feel awed by his energy and charity.	Leo (drums) and affable Pedro (trumpet) climbing into the St. Thomasmobile. Leo is the sweetest kid, very talented and capable, yet he cannot hear nor speak.
Tom coaches Jose at the colonia. Right, Tom plays in the youth orchestra.
The real saint, however, is found in the person of Susan Richter. She is a wonderfully gifted musician and teacher who enjoyed a long professional career playing cello in the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC and the Detroit Symphony. When she retired she and her sister bought a CT 41 sailboat with the intention to cruise the world. The sister backed out at the last minute because of lack of refrigeration or something, then Susan met Tom and got deeply involved with the kids in the youth orchestra and she has been here in La Paz ever since. Lucky circumstance for the string players of the orchestra because they have a most generous and enthusiastic world-class musician and teacher to help them with their studies. Susan gives free lessons several times a week at the colonia and at the music school. She attends all the rehearsals and is generally, a joy and inspiration to the students. Not only is she a fine classical cellist, but Susan can also play very well by ear and participates in all the little "cruiser bands" of guitars and mandolins and banjos around the marina.
Susan plays for the multitudes at colonia Marques de Leon. This photo was taken right after the daily breakfast program. We think the fruit the kids are snacking is the delicious Mexican guyaba.
A complete musician and such a nice person, too. Susan is the key. She lends validity, credence and authenticity to whatever effort she involves herself with. One of the major reasons the youth orchestra effort is so good is because Susan is there to help it. She is one our favorite people and one of the reasons we decided to return to La Paz.
	Susan teaches Teresita, Reina, and Susana wherever she can, sometimes up under the eaves of the church, sometimes out under a tree.
And now for a commercial. The orchestra and the students at the colonia need more musical instruments. If you have an unused old band or orchestra instrument sitting in a closet or attic, gathering dust ever since your children's high school or college days, a new life awaits that instrument in the hands of a needy and appreciative colonia Marques de Leon youth. And there are easy ways to get the instrument down here. The most obvious is to find any cruiser heading to Baja Mexico on a sail or power boat. There is no boarding nor inspection of boats heading south from San Diego. One could bring in ten clarinets without risk or duty. By contacting a local yacht club, you can often learn which boats are cruising to Mexico. You can also bring used instruments duty-free across the border by car and plane, but usually only one per person. Nancy brought the donated clarinet of her friend and teacher at Esquire Hills Elementary School, Brenda Lee, when she returned from a visit last month. Thanks, Brenda! The Orchestra of the Californias, a USA-based touring orchestra, just donated twelve (12!) instruments, including a cello and a trombone to the music program. But there are hundreds of kids out there and this music program needs more instruments badly. For further contact and delivery information, get in touch with Luis Pelaez Garcia by email at musicoteco@hotmail.com or telephone the School of Music in La Paz at 122-2286. Tom Ireton can be reached by email at thomasireton@hotmail.com or telephone 123-4424 in La Paz. They are both trustworthy and we have seen that the instruments get directly to needy kids. We are working like possessed fools putting final preparation touches on Active Light. We still intend to leave for the Marquesas in March 2002 (next month, Yikes!). Our next letter will be devoted to showing you all the little details of improvements we are making to our boat prior to stepping off into this grand adventure. Until then, take care of each other and enjoy every day of this precious voyage we are all embarked upon called life.
Nancy and Neil s/v Active Light La Paz Harbor, BCS, Mexico