Conchera

Concheras
	Closeup view of a vihuela conchera, a Native-American lute from Mexico. Many modern instruments put the armadillo shell on the outside of a wooden bowl, instead of using the shell for a bowl.
String instrument
Other names	Conchas
Classification	String instrument Plucked string instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.321-6; (Chordophone whose body is shaped like a bowl with permanently attached resonator and neck, sounded by a plectrum)
Developed	from lute or possibly vihuela between 16th and 19th centuries
Playing range
	(mandolin tuning); 130pc (vihuela Mexicana tuning); (standard guitar tuning);
Related instruments
	charango, mandolin, Mexican vihuela, guitar, lute

A conchera^[1] or concha is Mexican stringed-instrument, plucked by concheros dancers. The instruments were important to help preserve elements of native culture from Eurocentric-Catholic suppression.^[2] The instruments are used by concheros dancers^[3] for singing at velaciones (nighttime rituals) and for dancing at obligaciones (dance obligations).

^ Luna, Jennie (2013). "La Tradición Conchera: Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism". Diálogo. 16 (1). Danza Conchera is called such to refer to the mandolina (small guitar-like instruments) that were made with the shell (in Spanish: concha) of an armadillo... These conchas or mandolina instruments replaced the drum, which was prohibited by the new Spanish rulers
^ Aguilar, Mario E. (2009). The Rituals of Kindness: The Influence of the Danza Azteca Tradition of Central Mexico on Chicano-Mexcoehuani Identity and Sacred Space (Thesis). How do you feel about those Danzantes that reject the Catholic traditions of Mexican culture in La Danza? Well I feel they have a lot to learn. If it wasn't for the church, we would have lost so much more: lost how the traditions were actually carried. But because of the church and a few of its good missionaries, we still have the traditions. The church came and said no more drums, so we began to use the guitar and mandolin. Our people were ingenious, they said "The hell with you, I will make my own guitars and mandolins out of armadillo shells:, they call the concha.
^ Cite error: The named reference inah was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[paper-1] Luna, Jennie (2013). "La Tradición Conchera: Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism". Diálogo. 16 (1). Danza Conchera is called such to refer to the mandolina (small guitar-like instruments) that were made with the shell (in Spanish: concha) of an armadillo... These conchas or mandolina instruments replaced the drum, which was prohibited by the new Spanish rulers

[concha2-2] Aguilar, Mario E. (2009). The Rituals of Kindness: The Influence of the Danza Azteca Tradition of Central Mexico on Chicano-Mexcoehuani Identity and Sacred Space (Thesis). How do you feel about those Danzantes that reject the Catholic traditions of Mexican culture in La Danza? Well I feel they have a lot to learn. If it wasn't for the church, we would have lost so much more: lost how the traditions were actually carried. But because of the church and a few of its good missionaries, we still have the traditions. The church came and said no more drums, so we began to use the guitar and mandolin. Our people were ingenious, they said "The hell with you, I will make my own guitars and mandolins out of armadillo shells:, they call the concha.

[inah-3] Cite error: The named reference inah was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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