Are guitars at Mass common in Latin American parishes?

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As a little girl I went to my mother’s friend’s wedding. The couple was Mexican and they had a beautiful Catholic ceremony with traditional guitar music. Before being exposed to more Catholic liturgy I thought there was always guitar and loved it. I love chant and hymns but there was something very striking and pure about that music.
 
I am comparing the price it gets to make guitar noises against organ noises. I was planning on mentioning that this goes out the window when we’re talking at the level where you can’t plug anything in because there isn’t any electricity in the first place; at that point, it isn’t music that is the point of concern.
 
We have the tendency to see the world through the glasses our native culture gives us. In particular one sentence stands out on your premise.

“yawnernonner said:
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
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Do not take it personally but, do you actually know what is the per capita US $ salary in Guatemala?
According to the World Banc data, the yearly salary for the lower middle class is roughly US $1600. That is US $133/month.
To someone from the “first world” US $400 might not seem much, but for someone in South America where people need to live on a US $5/month you might as well ask them for the moon.
As for the guitar critic, frankly I don’t see the problem. It is after all a cultural thing. If one has gone to church all his/her life and guitar music accompanied the chorus what is the problem with that?
Sure it is not Bach on a real pipe organ, but the point is to sing praise to GOD and even @ capella we should be doing that. If your salary is US $5/month even a guitar is a luxury.
Peace!
 
Exactly. Who’s to say that if money is no issue they wouldn’t choose to continue to have guitar accompaniment. They may not view the organ as superior and something to aspire to. Let us not forget that the church is universal and not every liturgy needs to aim for European standards. Aesthetic preference and cultural custom can vary as long as it is allowed by the Church. Anything outside of that is purely opinion.
 
Well, blah blah, pipe organ “pride of place”, same for Gregorian chant. I know people just conveniently ignore whatever they want to.
 
We don’t need electricity for our guitars, Spanish guitars, Guitarras criollas…
What are you talking about if I may ask?
What is your problem?
 
From what I have seen where I live, Spanish and bi-lingual Masses often feature Spanish hymns accompanied by a guitar.

I think it is a cultural thing. I have seen guitars at English language Mass plenty of times, but in my experience, probably pianos followed by organs are the most common instruments in OF Masses I have attended.
 
Hmmm, Please don’t get offended … but the pipe organs that adorn most old churches in Europe are wind instruments.
They are very old, the first recorded inventor is Ctesibius of Alexandria in 246 BCE. And of course they did not use electricity.
Here is a fairly “modern” example.


Of course now days most have been retrofitted with an electric motor and blower. But the original hand cranked systems can still be seen around.
Peace!
 
Thanks! I do not understand why he relates guitars to electricity in his post and what it has to do.Nor sincerely his problem with guitars.
I am not getting into pipe organs or any other instrument , Jerry. I wasn’t comparing anything .
If you enjoy them, in our Metropolitan Cathedral we have one with more than 3000 pipes , a Walcker, upstairs in the choir. As from early 1900 it works with a motor.There is a man who has been taking care of it for years.
It takes cleaning since a pipe can be about 30 cm there are bats and pidgeons is that may get in and make a mess. There are other ones there, other órganos tubulares downstairs.Our Metroplitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires was built in 1752 .
 
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And that is precisely the issue. It takes huge commitments for the upkeep of those lovely organs. Also since the air is not filtered the pipes require periodic cleaning which means they have to be disassembled from the organ, some of them where made of lead extremely thin for the weight which means they also very delicate.
Organs are expensive to build and operate unless you have willing and able people to donate the time and manpower. I have lived in South America and some places the bread and the wine for the Eucharist is donated from other countries, they are so poor. A guitar is a welcome instrument where there would be none!
Peace!
 
Thank you Jerry!
I have to look up a word to ask you a question( just a second…)
Ready: bellows.
Do you know more about how bellows were operated ?To get all that amount of air through the pipes
 
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Many evangelical Protestant congregations in Latin America that I visited back in the day also utilized the guitar in worship services. Appeared natural to them.

Seems to be a cultural thing. Many people take to guitar playing from an early age in Latin America and become quite good at it, almost like it’s second nature. It’s fitting that the guitar founds its way into Christian worship there, kind of like bagpipes in Scotland. 😀
 
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What a beautiful sound the bagpipes! :clap:t2: Feels like dancing The Sword Dance or Highland Fling
 
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Yep bellows go back probably to the bronze age when smelting of metals started. They are made of wood and leather.
The valves that are required for the air to come into the bellow and to go out the nozzle are also made with leather. They also used glues that were derived from animal gelatin. Our ancestors wasted nothing. he he.
Normally I don’t trust wikipedia to much but for this it will suffice.

en.wikipedia.org

Bellows - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

Animal glue - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

For the organs the arrangement was a compound bellow with a weight that provided the down stroke. While the operator operated the lever that raised the contraption. Quite smart! 😄
Hope this helps.
Peace!
 
You are a genius! :clap:t2::clap:t2:
Let me read the articles you so kindly looked up for me.
Thank you so much!
 
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