Asturian-American Migration Forum

I am copying here a message that I just got from Bras R. I like the planning; he comes on May or June, leaves a work plan for us and then comes back in Oct. The only problem is, again, finance. We will include his visits in the proposal, but I doubt things will move fast enough to cover his May trip. Universities are a good resource here. I could have him give a musical presentation at Rollins and that way I could offer him a stipend. We also have nice guest housing on campus but we are shut down from May to August.
He also offers the possiblity of doing concerts with his group (NUA) (voice and flute/gaita) That's him and the woman who sang with him at NY. That would help covering his expenses.

Any thoughts?


Hola collaciu qué tal soi Bras Rodrigo, como tas. Tuve dándo-y unes vueltes al asuntu que tamos tratando y paezme que, si te paez bien, lo meyor ye que vaya una primera vez a dar un cursu enantes del branu. Pal mes de mayu o xunu pa que los ánimos nun enfríen col branu y depués otra vez n´ochobre. En mayu o xunu dexaría unes pautes pa que la xente trabayare polos meses de vacaciones. ¿Qué te paez? Y depués ya n´ochobre habría una base pa metenos ya en fariña pa preparar el Saint Patrick´s 08. tamos en contautu. Un abrazu, Bras Rodrigo.

Berto collaciu olvidábaseme decite que pa poder amortizar gastos del viaxe podéis buscame conciertos pereí y voi cola pianista col dúu que tenemos que se llama NÚA de pianu de cola/Voz y gaita/Flauta y coles perres que saquemos de los conciertos pues yá tenemos pal caché y pal viaxe. Nosotros equí cobramos 1000 € por actuación y aparte la sala ponnos el pianu y l´equipu de soníu. Son idees. Un abrazu. Bras Rodrigo.

Anna C. Pinto de un correo wrote:... la banda de gaites (gaita asturiana) de LA. El director llámase Jose Dosal....
Voy poner alguna en la páxina de US gaita asturiana....

Anna C. Pinto me dijo que hay una banda de gaitas asturianas en Los Angelos CA. Creo que el gaitero "Vicente El Pravianu" visitaron algunas veces enseñarles tocar la gaita.

El plan de Bras parece similar.

A propósito, Anna tiene una Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/us_gaita_asturiana
Hay 74 socios en este grupo, quizás algunos tengan interés en nuestra banda luego.

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Anna C. Pinto told me that there is a gaita band in Los Angelos CA which the gaitero "Vicente El Pravianu" has visited several times to teach them to play.

Bras' plan seems similar.

By the way, Anna has a Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/us_gaita_asturiana
There are 74 members in this group. Perhaps some of them would be interested in joining us eventually.

Here's an idea. We have at least one member who already plays gaita: Natalia.

Since most of us will be beginners, Natalia could give us the kind of help we will need. Then we could bring in someone like Bras in later when we need more advanced training.

I don't know, but there may be gaita lessons on video or DVD.

Our situation is difficult due to the great distance between our members. This could make our project costly both in terms of money and time, which could cause us to lose members. We need to find a way to deal with this distance problem.

Is there a plan that encourages:

• success in learning the gaita,
• moderately frequent meetings with a regional subgroup, and
• occasional travel to meet as an entire group?

I can't imagine that the regional groups (Tampa/Orlando, Baltimore/Washington, NYC/New Haven/Boston, etc.) will meet weekly. If I have to drive to DC, the driving alone would require at least 3 hours. And it appears that some members, like Pablo and Reyes, aren't near anyone else.

Similarly, will those with 9-5 jobs and limited vacation days be able to travel to FL for lessons with Bras?

Hmm... maybe we could schedule concerts in each of our regions so Bras could come closer to us? That sounds like work, doesn't it....

Will we have to learn mostly on our own?


When I studied GHB (Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe) I met about once a week with a teacher. It helped to get regular feedback and to see what he was doing. It's significantly harder to learn this from a book. (Maybe there's a video or DVD?)

My teacher told us to practice for 20-30 minutes daily. He actually insisted that we not practice for more than 30 minutes at a time. He was right: if I practiced for more than 30 minutes, I grew tired and my playing became sloppy.

With dedication, one can learn on their own. I think Ana C. Pinto learned mostly by herself with very occasional lessons from Vicente El Pravianu.


I'll be interested in hearing others' ideas about how we could make this work.

Art, Alberto
que tal?

I'm one of thouse with jobs from 9 to 5... 6... 7.30!
No body said that this is going to be an easy thing. Is going to take a lot of work, good will and coordination.
In respond to Art proposal yes I will be more than happy to teach or share what I have learnt. I already sent an email to schedule a meeting.Probably that means that we'll have to sacrify one day of our weekend and at least an hour a day for indivdual practise.
the idea of getting together as a group regulary will come true when we can at least play one song by ourself and for that is a long way to go...
the only fact of mantener la nota sol sin que oscile por un buen rato ( ejercicio basico para aprender a regular el aire en la bolsa) os va llevar un buen tiempo. no asi la digitacion si ya estan familiarizados con la flauta dulce.
Carlos offer to make cd's copies of the metodo de la gaita and Alberto to make hard copies of the book. So that will be good enough to start.

Yes we might have to travel to learn and in the future if we want to play in a festival or other events we will have to travel as well, at the begging we probably tendremos que costearnos los gastos but eventually we can get subvenciones anuales del Principado. Asi fue ocurrio en CA of Mendoza when we first start with the band

Bras can came to Tampa and to DC as well Art, that was one of my questions to him but like Alberto mention we will have to provide some sort of support finding places for him to play. Like I mention before the embassy could give a good hand on that if we want to make it happend. And probably that will be the first excuse of getting all of as together as a group and band of gaites. That's how Xornaes connected to meet in one place from very distant points in one . Is possible !

Hope it helps

Saludos.
Natalia.-

Those of us in academia can work to provide concert opportunities for Bras and others to help finance their travel to the EEUU, but as Alberto has pointed out, summers are problematic. Quinnipiac University does not close down for the summer, but there is relatively little going on on campus and most senior faculty members (myself included) are elsewhere. That is, after all, one of the lures of academic life. There is no reason, however, why we could not begin securing financial support for the next academic year.

The scattered nature of our potential gaiterus is a problem, but it could be partly overcome by inviting others to join us, once we are ready to go public with the project, increasing the likelihood of a critical mass in any given geographic area. It also occurs to me that physical togetherness, however desirable, can be problematic for those with demanding jobs or limited travel funds, but that we could set up the equivalent of a distance learning project (which Quinnipiac does, but I have not been personally involved with) to get together in virtual space, including doing so in real time.

Personal investment in this would include perhaps a weekly meeting time, inexpensive video cameras attached to our computers, and the ability to transmit sound to one another. I'm speaking in part from ignorance because I have never done this, but it does not seem technically impossible to me. If others are interested, I will find out details from Quinnipiac's distance learning specialists. Perhaps we could even get one of our universities to support such a project and offer whatever technical support is needed.

We could also reduce travel costs by offering one another accomodations in our homes, which would not only facilitate group practice but also serve to create and deepen friendships among us. And our members could also reduce costs by sharing automobile travel to meetings.

I forgot to add that Bras is a member of our website. If he has not already been invited to join this discussion group, perhaps we should do so, and perhaps we should also include Pablo Manzano, Chema Vega, Manolo de la Cera and others who were present at the Rollins/Tampa or Pace conferences. In my opinion, involving them early on would maximize the chance of getting their support later.

I agree with Bob. We should absolutely have Bras Rodrigo, Pablo Manzano and Chema Vega in on our threads regarding the piping band. Not only does it maximize our chances of getting future support, it also gives us a fully different perspective. Chema is good at answering email, as far as I can tell, so we can count on him for regular inputs.

I agree with both of you about including them. And I also like Bob's meeting idea.

Natalia .-

I've found Bras' user name and made him a participant in this group. I think he'll receive an email saying that he's been added.

We need to either be careful who we add... or about what we say. We've talked strategy in this area, sometimes rather bluntly. That makes me ambivalent about inviting politicians to join us.

Then again, maybe we have no choice but to be careful. No matter who we include and exclude, our words couild easily escape this forum if one of our group emailed our comments to someone not in the group.

But the idea of inviting these people to the opening is a good one. I wonder if we don't really have anything to invite anyone to? The film isn't really our event, although usurping others' events is a comment practice, I suppose. Well, we hold an "executive" meeting of this group in Charleston WV, or even a band meeting/practice.