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In Sounds of Crossing Alex E. Chávez explores the contemporary politics of Mexican migrant cultural expression manifest in the sounds and poetics of huapango arribeño, a musical genre originating from north-central Mexico. Following the resonance of huapango's improvisational performance within the lives of audiences, musicians, and himself-from New Year's festivities in the highlands of Guanajuato, Mexico, to backyard get-togethers along the back roads of central Texas-Chávez shows how Mexicans living on both sides of the border use expressive culture to construct meaningful communities amid the United States' often vitriolic immigration politics. Through Chávez's writing, we gain an intimate look at the experience of migration and how huapango carries the voices of those in Mexico, those undertaking the dangerous trek across the border, and those living in the United States. Illuminating how huapango arribeño's performance refigures the sociopolitical and economic terms of migration through aesthetic means, Chávez adds fresh and compelling insights into the ways transnational music-making is at the center of everyday Mexican migrant life.
List of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: American Border/Lands 1
1. Aurality and the Long American Century 34
2. Companions of the Calling 62
3. Verses and Flows at the Dawn of Neoliberal Mexico 130
4. Regional Sounds: Mexican Texas and the Semiotics of Citizenship 198
5. From Potosi to Tennessee: Clandestine Desires and the Poetic Border 232
6. Huapango sin Fronteras: Mapping What Matters and Other Paths 278
Conclusion: They Dreamed of Bridges 316
Epilogue: "Born in the U.S.A." 327
Appendix A: Musical Transcriptions 331
Appendix B: Improvised Saludados 349
Notes 361
References 387
Index 411
About the author
Alex E. Chávez
Summary
Alex E. Chavez explores the contemporary politics of Mexican migrant cultural expression manifest in huapango arribeno, a musical genre from north-central Mexico that helps Mexicans build communities on both sides of the US border and give voice to the transnational migrant experience.
