Dalia Razo never thought she would be here.
An assistant professor of music education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Razo was immersed in music from a young age. She grew up listening to Mexican folk music and then trained in classical music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She always played and performed, but it wasn’t until recently that she felt she had found her true sound.
Now, she performs as d.a.l.i.a., playing songs in Spanish and English, honoring her Mexican American culture. Her song, “Negra,” is a finalist in this year’s North Carolina Folk Festival Not Your Average Folk Contest. She and the other finalists—Jesse Fox and Mayia Warren—were chosen from hundreds of submissions. Listeners can cast their votes online through March 30. The winner of the contest will get to perform at this year’s NC Folk Festival in September.
“I spent so much time interviewing people about their music,” said Razo, who worked as a journalist for years. “I’m really honored. I’m really humbled. I never thought this would happen.”
We caught up with Razo to talk about her background, her artistry, and what it means for her to be a Mexican-American musician in the current moment.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your background.
I was born in Brownsville, TX, a border town. But I grew up in Mexico, so I have dual citizenship. We permanently moved to the U.S. when I was 13. We moved to Winston-Salem.
Within a year of moving here, I started studying at UNCSA. I was there for all of high school studying classical piano. Then I went to UNC to study journalism. After that, I taught instrumental music lessons and then ended up teaching in a public elementary school in South Carolina. I taught there [four years and three in North Carolina]. That’s how I ended up in a nontraditional way into music education.
I did my master’s and PhD in music education, both at UNCG.
What made you want to go into music education?
In all honesty, it was my mom, Maria, who was an educator. She saw the work that I was doing individually with children, and she saw the potential in me. She saw I had a lot of patience and could see how I could get them from point A to point B.
You grew up immersed in music and then went to school for it. How has your relationship with music changed throughout the years?
I am overly appreciative for my experience to be able to study classical music at the School of the Arts. But when I was there, I was constantly battling….I was the only Mexican in the entire high school class. It’s also a conservatory, so everything is Western-based. I always had this tug to want to explore other music, particularly music with Latin American roots. And I wanted to write my own music, but there just wasn’t space for that there.
Where did that tug come from?
I think a lot of that influence was my dad, Francisco. He was a professional Mexican folk dancer. He toured the world, he danced in Carnegie Hall. So we were always listening to that music at home. I loved looking at his pictures at home. All of that was always brewing in my mind and my heart.
Now, you perform as d.a.l.i.a. and perform in both Spanish and English, and the style sounds like it has Latin influence. How did that happen?
In college, I was trying to play in different bands and really trying to write music. But there was always a conflict of I have to live, and I have to pay bills, and I have to do that consistently, so then I would go back to working a real job.
When I moved to Charlotte for three years, I submitted a Tiny Desk Concert tape with the project I was with at the time, and nothing came of it, but somebody did interview me during that time. And then a year ago, the Charlotte Symphony called me and asked if I wanted to open their Latin pop show that summer. I was initially going to say no. I’m really busy with work, and I was like, with what band? With what time? With what music?
But then something happened in me, and I thought, “This is a challenge I’m going to take.”
We started putting together the project in May, and the show was in mid-June. I still have the same bassist, Dr. Jennifer Aikey, and the same drummer, Zach Baker, from that show. Our violinist is Scott Glasser.
So we started performing songs that have been sitting around for 15-18 years.
Tell me about the song you submitted for the Not Your Average Folk Contest, “Negra.”
So “Negra” means “black one.” I used to watch this dog, Arai, because I used to date someone who had this beautiful Doberman. He would travel for weeks at a time, and he would ask me to watch her, and I did. I loved her. We would spend a lot of time together.
The owner’s mom was Colombian and would call her “Negrita” because you nickname everything in Latin culture.
Then Arai passed unexpectedly, and I don’t know, it still shakes me up to this day.
In a lot of Mexican music, you hear about how the departed say, “Don’t cry for me. Don’t cry for me anymore.”
I was still carrying all this sadness, and so that song was an effort to let her go, to allow her to cross over. And there’s a line in the song that says, ‘Wherever you go, may this song reach you.’
And so I think it really highlights that Mexican tradition of honoring and celebrating the departed that you love so much. And our newest member of the band, Cameron Rabb, plays the charango, which is this Latin instrument, and it gives it this ethereal, mystical sound. It sounds like the encounter of the living and the departed, and how we’re intertwined with each other.
What does it mean for you to be a Mexican-American musician, especially in this political climate?
I only recently started embracing the term Mexican-American because in my heart of hearts, I was battling that identity. I think I had some unconscious fear that if I added that American part, I would lose a part of who I was.
But I was talking to friends, and they would say, “We love you, but you live over there.” And that was hard to hear, but it’s true. They encounter very, very different things.
Then I started to find the silver lining in that. There are so many Mexican Americans, so many other people with Latin American roots who have worked so hard to pave the way for the rest of us.
I was latching onto that identity of just being Mexican because I’m so proud of being a part of a people who risk their lives running across a border in search of something better. That takes strength, that takes courage. You don’t know if you’re going to make it.
It’s not just Mexican people. It’s any Latin American person who has crossed. I’m very proud, not just to be Mexican but also Latin American.
You weren’t able to provide translations when you submitted the song for the contest. Are you ever concerned that people will not be able to understand your music?
I’m not concerned, but once upon a time I would have been. I think people who want to know will either ask me or they will look it up. If the song speaks to them, they’ll go find out.
What does folk music mean to you?
Folk music, to me, is the passing on of traditions through generations and the fusion of older traditions with newer traditions and everything in between. It’s always going to be influenced by something from the past because we grew up listening to it. I think it’s always going to be part of who we are.
I think there’s a lot of tradition in my music, even just the language; most kids lose the language because you’re living in an English-speaking country. So an effort has to be made to maintain the language and maintain the tradition.
But when I write, I’m just being me. I’m just trying to be myself as authentically as possible.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the years the subject taught in North Carolina and South Carolina.