Mexico beach bands fend off silencing efforts

MEXICO CITY — Bands that play the thumping tuba-and-drums songs of northern Mexico on beaches in the resort city of Mazatlan appear to have emerged victorious after noise complaints had threatened to silence them.

Because of complaints from foreign tourists who like to observe the resort’s sunsets in peace — or with a bit of soft music — a local hotel owner had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play. The bands usually wander the beaches, asking for a few dollars per song to play.

Their music is hardly conducive to reflection or relaxation — think of a frantic, speed-fuelled polka with lots and lots of brass and snare drums, earning the bands the nickname of tamboras, or drums.

But after a protest march by the musicians turned into a violent scuffle with police recently, efforts to limit them appear to have been abandoned.

While there never appears to have been any city-wide ban, at least one hotel had put up signs prohibiting the bands from offering their services to beachgoers.

Videos of the scuffles between musicians and police went viral last week, with some band members hitting police with drum sticks. Drums were turned into weapons.

Rubén Rocha, the governor of the northern state of Sinaloa, where Mazatlan is located, wrote in his social media accounts that “I do not share the idea of prohibiting the musicians of Mazatlan from carrying out their honest dignified work, that allows them to feed their families.”

The issue came to a head when local hotel operator Ernesto Coppel posted a video urging that the bands be limited as to when or where they could offer to play.

The ideas apparently included designating certain spaces on the beach for musicians, rather than having them wandering up and down the sand, playing to people in beach chairs in front of hotels.