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...
The Music of the Accordion and Bajo Sexto: Cultural Heritage at the U.S.–Mexico Border
Luis Díaz-Santana Garza is a Professor at the Arts Department of Zacatecas Autonomous University and a member of the National Research System of Mexico. He has published articles in Acta Musicologica, Diagonal, and Boletin Música of Casa de las Américas, and has written the books Tradición musical en Zacatecas (1850–1930), Historia de la música norteña mexicana, a dictionary of popular music, and Between Norteño and Tejano Conjunto: Music, Tradition, and Culture at the U.S.-Mexico Border (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021).
Luis Díaz-Santana Garza; The Music of the Accordion and Bajo Sexto: Cultural Heritage at the U.S.–Mexico Border. American Music 1 December 2022; 40 (4): 482–486. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/19452349.40.4.10
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