The Music of the Accordion and Bajo Sexto: Cultural Heritage at the U.S.–Mexico Border

In any discussion of borders and transnational mobility, music should be acknowledged as a fundamental part of migrants’ cultural capital. Music acts as a counterweight to political and media power, an outlet for anger and frustration, and an aid to mitigating conflict. It is also cathartic, and it links individuals both to the communities they have left behind and to other migrants in their new location. The United States has a long tradition of studies in this field, but in Mexico, popular music has rarely been examined as a generator of identity, a motor for collective social action, a creator of cultural regions, or an intangible cultural heritage—despite the fact that it is one of Mexican society's most visible cultural manifestations. In recent years, books and articles analyzing the lyrics of songs and corridos have proliferated, but without taking into account the music that accompanies those texts, the polysemy between...