The Hurtado Bros. Royal Marimba Band was a prominent Guatemalan marimba band of the early 20th century; they went on several tours in Europe, as well as one to the United States from 1915 to 1918, during which they attended San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific World Exhibition as the Guatemalan representatives, in which role they played “patriotic pieces in European styles, and pieces of European or U.S. origins.”[1]
This recording fits quite well with that type of repertoire; it was made for Victor in 1916, and is certainly a “patriotic piece of U.S. origin”—a melding of the Hurtado Brothers’ Guatemalan instrument and style with a typical patriotic Sousa march. Curiously, the song was released on the company’s standard popular series, rather than the “ethnic” series, yet its marketing genre is listed as “Spanish (Guatemalan),”[2] so the actual intended audience is unclear—Guatemalans? U.S. buyers wanting a taste of Guatemala? As English is the main language used on the label, and considering the band’s appeal to U.S. audiences at the World Exhibition, it seems likely that the recording’s aim was simultaneously an attempt to display the band’s art in the U.S., while still conforming to the tastes of such an audience in order to make a profit.
https://youtu.be/0STKi8HFt5I
[1] Andréa Amado. “The Fox Trot in Guatemala: Cosmopolitan Nationalism among Ladinos.” Ethnomiscology Review. (2011). https://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/journal/volume/16/piece/457
[2] Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. “Victor matrix B-17540. Stars and stripes forever / Hurtado Brothers Royal Marimba Band of Guatemala,” accessed December 15, 2022, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700002574/B-17540-Stars_and_stripes_forever.