Page - 26 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 2/2016

26 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Alejandro Miranda | Journeying with a musical practice instruments. The transition from performers who entertain an audience to a celebration in which entertainment is produced by direct participation reconfigures the way in which practi- tioners interact. ‘This is like a family that grows’, he emphasised. ‘Jaraneros will share their place and food with others. If you have a problem some will try to assist you, which does not happen in other musical traditions.’ Pedro teaches in Spanish, although the interaction among the attendees tends to oscillate constantly between English and Spanish because most practitioners in the US are fluent in both languages. When a person is unable to understand Spanish, a practitioner nearby quietly provi- des rough explanations in English. Still, these verbal translations are just one type of mediation among many other forms of interaction, as the exercises are performed simultaneously by all the attendees and are based on the repetition of strumming patterns, melodic lines or dance steps.7 All these circumstances associated with teaching in many different locations contrast with Pedro’s previous experiences of being in a group. Travelling with the practice has chal- lenged his habitual ways of teaching and performing: “[…] I never boast about being a good musician, I wasn’t recognised either. I never gave interviews because I didn’t like it, I said no, the others [members of the group] did it. I didn’t speak at the microphone [at concerts] because I could sing, but talking on the microphone, no, I just couldn’t. And all the others did it, anyway. And then being alone and coming here [to teach to the US]. I had friends, but it wasn’t like having the protection of coming with a group. But I had to carry on! It was about organising gigs and then, you have to say something, don’t you, or there is an interview, well, I had to carry on. I had no choice but to do a bit of everything. I say that in the end it was all right [to dissolve the professional group] because now people know me because of myself, because of the things I’ve done, but it was a very difficult process. But now I have overcome all those issues. Now I know how to move everywhere. At first, friends helped me to organise how to get here or there, but now I go around everywhere by myself. I had to learn to move around without knowing the [English] language!” This journeying has been a learning process in itself. Attaining a certain command of the English language, for instance, is not directly related to his craft, but has been significant in his experience of travelling. The day of the interview we left the taquería and walked towards a Starbucks café. ‘Latte and two packets of honey, please’, he asked in English at the counter, and as we were sitting he commented to me in Spanish: ‘now I know how to ask for my coffee, but it took me some time to know how to ask for the one I like’. We then recalled some funny stories about the frustrations and difficulties of using English as a second language, which led us to talk about my doctoral studies in Australia. Among other things I quickly mentioned a conference that I had recently attended in Canada; Pedro was suddenly excited: “Is it hard to get a Canadian visa? I’ve been invited to [teach at] a workshop in Montreal, the Canadian guy who was at the workshop the other day invited me, he is organising a 7 Even in the case of singing verses in Spanish, practitioners who do not speak that language tend to memorise the lyrics by focusing on the sound of the words while ignoring their meaning.