Growing up in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Artemio Posadas was surrounded by the sounds of son huasteco. He mastered the music’s three instruments: huapanguera (large rhythm guitar), jarana (small guitar), and violin, and toured with the Grupo de la Universidad de San Luis Potosí. After touring the San Francisico Bay Area in the 1970s, he returned to teach music workshops, became an American citizen, and now teaches at Richmond’s East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. Posadas was named the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2016 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellow for his commitment to strengthening the understanding and vitality of the Mexican tradition of son huasteco.
Posadas produced two recordings of the renowned trío huasteco Los Camperos de Valles. El Ave de Mi Soñar, featuring Posadas’ original poetry, was released in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. In 2005 and 2009, he participated as a dancer with Los Camperos de Valles in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. In 2014, he was featured in the American Folklife Center’s Homegrown concert series as a member of Son Jarocho Master Musicians.
Through teaching, and touring with several ballet folklórico companies, Posadas seeks to establish son huasteco as part of vibrant social life in California.
At the 2017 Folklife Festival, he will discuss the musical tradition and journeys of the son huasteco and the impact of this musical form in the San Francisco Bay Area with his longtime musical collaborators Dolores García and Pablo Quiroz on July 7 at the Story Circle.
Son Jarocho Master Musicians: César Castro, Artemio Posadas & Luis Sarimientos at the Library of Congress
