Seite - 25 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 2/2016

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Alejandro Miranda | Journeying with a musical practice 25 coincided with Pedro’s economic difficulties. ‘I didn’t have to get a loan for the party’, he men- tioned. However, these activities implied a lot of travelling across distant cities in unfamiliar territory. Prior to this experience, Pedro’s practices of mobility were subject to the itineraries, arrangements and scheduling of his group. But this time the cross-border mobilities as work- shop facilitator compelled him to learn to move by himself: “At the beginning it was hard. I was used to going around with a group, for twenty years I moved everywhere with a group. And suddenly I was alone because the group finished […] I got a mobile phone with a number from the US. Then I needed to drive, I had no choice. For instance, now that I come to California, I give a few workshops in Santa Ana and Los Angeles, and if I’m in the Bay [Area], I sometimes travel four hours, because there are places that are so far that it takes hours [to get there], because there is no [public] transport.” Pedro currently combines teaching, performing and building instruments by considering time, resources and geographical trajectories. He enlisted his habitual routes with no sign of hesita- tion: ‘Four days here, three days there. From San Diego to Oakland: San Diego, Los Ange- les, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara. And then the Bay Area: Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkley, San Jose, Watsonville and Santa Cruz’. In Texas he travels to San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and McAllen. In the Northwest he usually visits Seattle, Portland and Eugene, and on the east coast New York and Washington, D.C. Teaching at different workshops involves the articulation of means and information in the following conventional sequence: first, he gives a workshop for three days in a city, then travels to another location to borrow a car from friends. He then drives to a remote city in which a new workshop takes place. ‘It ends up taking four hours to get there, then I teach a workshop for three hours and come back. Yes, I’ve done that once or twice in the same week’. When he is invited to teach, the organisers normally pay his flight or bus ticket and the attendees pay a small fee, although it is difficult for the organisers to calculate how many people are attending and, consequently, to determine the amount that he would earn. ‘They tell me “we pay you the ticket, although we don’t know how many are coming”. I tell them that there is no problem, I go anyway’. Although the price for his services as workshop facilitator and per- former may fluctuate from place to place, his experience and recognition among transnational communities of practitioners allow him to get legitimately paid for these activities. These geo- graphically dispersed groups of practitioners are not mere consumers of products and services; they are central actors in the progressive commodification of this musical tradition through their validation. Since most of them are apprentices, their legitimation of certain workshop facilitators, performers and luthiers is based on different signs of ‘authenticity’. As such, coming from certain villages in southeast Mexico, being member of a family of traditional musicians and, especially, demonstrating long-term commitment with the cultivation and promotion of this practice are types of symbolic currency that play an important role when negotiating and setting the prices of performances, workshops and handmade instruments. Yet, earning an income is only one facet in this journeying. Pedro is often hosted as a friend at practitioners’ houses and participates in gatherings and impromptu celebrations. In New York, for instance, he performed with a professional group and right afterwards there was a fandango as many among the audience were son jarocho practitioners and had brought their