Are guitars at Mass common in Latin American parishes?

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yawnernonner

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I’ve been to a few parishes in Guatemala and Hispanic parishes in the U.S. South and get the impression that Latin American cultures have more of a guitar problem than estadounidenses. Many guitars, sometimes with fingerpicking, sometimes with strumming. I have not been outside of GT and the US, so I wouldn’t know about other countries. Is this impression false?

This can’t be a money problem; when I was in the cathedral in Antigua Guatemala, I saw someone using a pipe organ voice on a workstation that couldn’t exceed 400 USD instead of the physical pipe organ that’s there, but maybe that has something to do with that the organ looks like it was last repaired after the earthquake.
 
My mom has been to some churches in Mexico City in the 70s and 80s, she said it was then
 
yawnernonner said:
This can’t be a money problem
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Actually, I think it is a money problem (or at least partly)

Most parishes PAY their organists, because organists are hard to come by.

But most guitar players are volunteers.

It’s a lot easier to find a volunteer guitar player vs. an organist.

And it’s very hard to find a volunteer organist.
 
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IME experience, yes. It’s cultural. The priest who married us 40 years ago moved to a proto-Cathedral. It had such music. When we visited the second time, he asked, “Remember the guitar guy? I got rid of him. We now have a choir that chants.” 👌
 
In Brazil you would expect to see a pipe organ in a cathedral or a large basilica, but not in the average parish church, where guitars are normal for the instrumental accompaniment at Mass.
 
yawnernonner said:
get the impression that Latin American cultures have more of a guitar problem than estadounidenses. Many guitars, sometimes with fingerpicking, sometimes with strumming.
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Latin America and South America often use guitars, as well as tambourines, maracas, hand drums and other instruments etc at their Mass. These are traditional instruments for the area. Organs as you pointed out cost money and are not always practical depending on the design of the church and the climate as well as the budget and whether anyone is available who knows how to play them.

They have similar guitar groups at many Spanish-language Masses in the USA.

Their music is generally excellent (much better than the average non-Hispanic church guitar group) and it is not a “Guitar Problem” unless you personally don’t like guitars, in which case it is more your problem than their problem.

Pope Francis is fine with their guitar music as he has invited some such groups to the Vatican to play.
 
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yawnernonner said:
guitar problem
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Seems a little ethnocentric of an evaluation, don’t you think?

Any music during Mass is non-problematic music provided it meets theological standards.

I happen to abhor David Haas, but I wouldn’t say that American/Canadian Catholic churches have a “Haas problem”. His Mass settings simply aren’t my taste.
 
yawnernonner said:
Latin American cultures have more of a guitar problem
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Why do say ‘problem’? My son and a bunch of his mates traveled half way around the world to WYD in Panama last year and absolutely loved the cultural flavour of the Masses! The guitar is a wonderful instrument and a descendant of the stringed instruments used in Christs day.

 
Tis_Bearself said:
Their music is generally excellent (much better than the average non-Hispanic church guitar group) and it is not a “Guitar Problem” unless you personally don’t like guitars, in which case it is more your problem than their problem.
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The Church does forbid the use of “profane instruments” in the liturgy, but it is for the bishop to determine what is or isn’t profane. I personally am not generally a fan of the guitar at Mass as it is often used in Anglo North America. That said, I was once at a Mass in the Dominican at which the guitarist accompanied the priest’s plainchant…gentle, classical strumming that surprisingly went very well with chant. It was beautiful.
 
I don’t think the guitar has been considered a “profane instrument” for decades, given that just about every diocese in USA has plenty of guitar Masses as well.

I love church organs, I also love guitars, and just about every other instrument I have heard played at Mass as long as the skills of those playing were up to the task.

As someone else mentioned, the guitar is so ubiquitous in Latin American and South American culture and at their Masses, that it appears somewhat ethnically insensitive to refer to them having a “Guitar Problem”.
 
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Yes, they are common, and not necessarily from a bad cause; I often cringe when I see centennial Catholics critizicing “guitar Masses”.

The guitar has always been a popular instrument, specially in spanish culture, so I think it’s use in LA comes from there.

And, as with all instruments (organs included), with the guitar there are cringy simplistic worship songs, and some other deep, beautiful songs that sound good only with a guitar. This one comes to my mind:

 
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po18guy said:
IME experience, yes. It’s cultural.
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I agree. People seem to be more musical and rhythmic naturally. You go a party in Latin America and every man can dance well, whereas in the US and Canada most men have no rhythm. I am an exception of course 😎
 
AlbMagno said:
Yes, they are common, and not necessarily from a bad cause; I often cringe when I see centennial Catholics critizicing “guitar Masses”.

The guitar has always been a popular instrument, specially in spanish culture, so I think it’s use in LA comes from there.

And, as with all instruments (organs included), with the guitar there are cringy simplistic worship songs, and some other deep, beautiful songs that sound good only with a guitar. This one comes to my mind:

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That song you posted - is that meant to be a liturgical hymn for the entire congregation to sing?
 
I’ve heard it in Eucharistic Adorations, I don’t know if any parishes use it during Mass.
 
What a direct indirect that was.

Here is an example of a guitar song used at Mass:
 
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