León, Gto., November 7, 2016.- Dr. Alejandro Mercado Villalobos, professor-researcher at the Department of Cultural Studies of Campus León of the University of Guanajuato (UG), obtained the first place of the national prize of "Research of the Cultural Forum Guanajuato 2016", with the work titled "Music and Party in Guanajuato. Notes on the everyday life of the people of Guanajuato during the XIX century."

UG's Scholar began the research two years ago and together with six students of the degree of Culture and Art, went to different information sources to gather data on aspects of the social life, having as main axis the study of music, besides including costumes and traditions that go back to that time and survive today.

In an interview, Dr. Mercado Villalobos commented that he expects the research contributes not only to university life through the generation of new knowledge, but to the society in general, since he considers it is about a research that offers a retrospective look which helps understand the present.

His work dedicates a space on the influence of music and party in Guanajuato and the construction process of the Mexican and Mexicanity from the party, from the collective festivity such as the fiesta brava, cock fight and even the first hot air balloons flights.

He delved that the work will be published in a book: "it will have an initial printing of 300 pieces, written in a very simple way that allows us to understand the elements of identity of the population."

Equally, the text describes the two-main axis of the festivity: the religious and the civil, the civic party, where the elements of identity and necessity to build the Mexican strengthen.

The research recreates the way people in Guanajuato had fun in the XIX century and the most representative spaces where the collectives made practices linked to music.

Field work consisted in consulting archives, newspapers, gazettes, photos, among other elements and had the support from the Department of Public Education (SEP) with the Program for the Teacher's Professional Development (PRODEP). They expect this book to be for sale next year, and later its digital circulation.