The Tarahumara (Raramuri) and the Pianist of the Sierra
This project is a direct example of what music can do when its influence is pointed in the right direction.
The Tarahumara people live in one of the most remote and breathtaking places in North America. An area named after one of the 5 canyons that make up this mountain range, the Copper Canyon. 3 of these canyons are deeper than the Grand Canyon of the United States. And if this fact of geography is seldom known, the indigenous people that have inhabited this area for time immemorial are even more unknown. The Tarahumara, (Raramuri as they call themselves) are actually known sometimes for their long distance running abilities. Having been invited to participate in international race competitions and winning with only their rubber sandals for footwear. This running ability was developed due to the extreme canyon conditions in which they live, and it is these extreme conditions that have helped them remain as one of the more intact first nation cultures of the Americas.
Yet these remote and incredibly steep canyons have not stopped the arrival of cultural invasions dating back to the Catholic missionaries many centuries ago. They were followed by the destructive minning companies who enslaved the Tarahumara to use as forced laber in the deathly underground mines. Now they face yet another dangerous intruder to their lands. The armed and violent narco traffickers using the remoteness of the area to hide their operations and also using the Tarahumara as muels to illegally traffik their drugs to the border with the United States.
In the face of the challenging conditions of their geography and the constant pressures of outside cultures, they have held on to a remarkable cultural way that is deeply rooted in the natural forces that surround them.
But not all the cultural forces that arrive in their area are trying to change or enslave them. One of those forces is named Romayne Wheeler.
Romayne is a pianist that was born in 1948 in St. Helena, California. Romayne first visited the Sierra Tarahumara in 1980 when a snow storm inhibited him from continuing his research of the Hopi people and their music in Arizona. Arriving to the Copper Canyon with a small phrase book he set out on a hike into the deep of the canyons. Meeting a Raramuri along the trail, he was befriended when he used his basic knowledge of their language to introduce himself. This began a 12 year journey where he would visit every year for two months in between his international tours, and live in a cave above the Munerachi canyon. Here he would study and write the music of the Raramuri. He also would travel with a solar powered sampled piano keyboard and play to the locals. He became the local tourist attraction for the Raramuri who would come to hear him play. They thought the sound of the piano was like water and they would ask him to play and bring rain to the area.
After 12 years, he was invited by the local community to come and stay with them permanently. He moved to an area above the cave and has been living there since 1992 with his Steinway grand piano (which the getting of the piano to the area is a whole story in itself).
From this point on, Romayne has been using his music to support the local community with whom he lives and consider them as part of their family. He uses the donations from his world tours to help build hospitals for the Tarahumara, support children with scholarships to study beyond primary school and also become a beacon for other non-profits that have started beneficial projects in the area.
He has also become the mentor of his godson, the child of his closest neighbor, who has become a pianist and is studying at the conservatory in Chihuahua. He is now composing his own music which makes him the first Indigenous Mexican piano composer in history. Romayne is hoping that Romeyno will follow in his footsteps and continue touring worldwide to keep supporting one of the oldest cultures that still exists on this planet in one of the most astounding places on Earth.
For more information about Romayne and his projects, please visit www.romaynewheeler.org.
