美国国家公共电台 NPR A Town In Mexico Sees Guitar Sales Soar Thanks To The Movie 'Coco'

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KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

The Disney Pixar movie "Coco" is a favorite to win an Oscar next month. It's the story of a small boy, Miguel, who dreams of becoming a musician even though his parents don't want him to. Along the way, he finds family, tradition and a magnificent white guitar encrusted with pearl details and a black skull¹. Real-life sales of that guitar have soared thanks to the movie, and a small town in Mexico's western highlands famous for its guitar makers³ is getting a lot of attention. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE⁴: There isn't much traffic for the lone⁵ cop on the main street of Paracho to direct. After all, the town boasts of having more guitars than cars.

(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE)

KAHN: And guitars here are selling like hotcakes, says souvenir shopkeeper Claudia Rodriguez de Velasquez. Ever since "Coco" debuted⁶ last year, she says she can't keep the famous white guitars on her shelves.

CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ DE VELASQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: "It's impressive. Everyone's gone loco, crazy for 'Coco,'" she says.

RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: She runs her fingers over a dozen Post-it notes attached to a wall by her cash register, all back orders. Her family's guitar factory down the road is churning out as many as 1,500 instruments a week, she says, the vast majority of them painted white. And it's not just the "Coco"-inspired guitar selling out here. There's a run on all kinds of instruments made in Paracho.

(SOUNDBITE OF WOODWORKING)

KAHN: Cesar Ivan Lemus shaves flat the wooden neck of a large guitarron favored by mariachi bands in his dusty workshop above his house. He says he's filling orders as fast as he can, selling mainly to mariachi schools and stores in Texas and California.

CESAR IVAN LEMUS: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: "We are so proud that Pixar turned to a Mexican artisan to design 'Coco's' guitar," he says, "and not just any Mexican - a former Paracho resident." Now living in Los Angeles, 65-year-old German Vazquez worked with Pixar on the guitar. Although he left Paracho back in the '70s, the small town hasn't forgotten him. This weekend, they're throwing him a huge tribute. They've decorated several streets to look like the village in "Coco" and covered the huge bronze guitar at the town's entrance all in white. Jesus Ocampo, who works for the local government, says it's time one of Paracho's gifted guitar makers got some overdue⁷ credit.

JESUS OCAMPO: There are a lot of people here in Paracho that have made guitar for very famous musicians around the world, but they are practically anonymous⁸.

KAHN: And he says many of their guitars are sold under famous labels, also without any recognition.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR TUNING)

KAHN: Master artisan and cousin of "Coco's" guitar maker² Arnulfo Rubio Orozco tightens⁹ the strings¹⁰ on an instrument he's been working on for a month. With pearl details and wood from southern Mexico, it will fetch about $2,000, a price unheard of in his great grandfather's days. Rubio is a fourth-generation guitar maker.

ARNULFO RUBIO OROZCO: (Speaking Spanish).

KAHN: "My dad didn't want me to make guitars," says Rubio. Instead he was sent to work winters in a Christmas tree farm in North Carolina. To learn, I had to sneak¹¹ around, ducking into other guitar makers' workshops, he says. Oh, just like Miguel in "Coco," I blurt¹² out. He hid his dreams to be a musician from his family.

(Speaking Spanish).

RUBIO: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).

KAHN: He laughs, "yeah, me too. I guess the story repeats itself again," Rubio chuckles¹³. He says he'll have to take my word for it, though. He hasn't seen "Coco." The town is too small. It doesn't have a movie theater. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Paracho, Michoacan.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COCO")

ANTHONY GONZALEZ: (As Miguel, singing) In every beat of my proud corazon.