Music of Mexico and the Mexican Diaspora

MUSIC 32 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Music of Mexico and the Mexican Diaspora. This class is a survey of music practices among Mexican communities both in Mexico and in the U.S. Taking contemporary musical practices as a point of departure, the class explores the historical, cultural, and political significance of a wide variety of Mexican music traditions (including indigenous, folk, popular, and art music, dating back to the 16th Century) from a transnational perspective. Through a combination of lectures, class discussion, and individual and group projects, this class emphasizes the relation between musical practices and particular cultural, political, social, and economic issues that have historically affected Mexican communities in Mexico and in their U.S. diaspora. The class pays particular attention to questions concerning national identity, nation building, immigration, acculturation, and cultural hybridity in order to gain a relational knowledge of how a sense of Mexican community is constructed dialogically and transnationally beyond the borders of the nation state.