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The first history of the music that binds together Mexican immigrant communities

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9781592137466

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Ragland's ethnomusicological approach to musica nortena's evolution and its contemporary relevance, brings the topic to life. The music is clearly a prism to examining a broad swath of social, political, economic, cultural, and communications issues. Her musical analysis is fresh, rare, and valuable. Daniel Sheehy, Director and Curator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Ragland has written an impressive examination of the many borderland musics popular among Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Tex-Mex region of the Mexico-US border. Thanks to her background as a journalist, Ragland writes in a readable style. She packs the book with thorough research, in-depth musical and lyrical analysis, and insightful theoretical discussions of social and cultural issues related to such topics as ethnic identity and transnationalization... [A] valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on Latin American music. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Choice, Nov 2009 Ragland recounts both a border musical history and a migrant experience that are largely invisible, often allowing the most important nortena musicians to tell it in their own words. At the same time, she expertly weaves in a good combination of contemporary critical perspectives from a variety of important scholars... Ragland's research provides an in-depth history of migrant Mexican culture and its reception in the United States and Mexico, delving deeply into musical values and into the music itself...As such, Musica Nortena is a valuable new resource, sure to strike up worthwhile and memorable discussions in ethnic studies, ethnomusicology, history, anthropology and Latin American studies. - American Music [This] long-anticipated book...was worth the wait. Ragland's broad-based examination of nortena music reflects a deep engagement with this vital musical tradition that has come to represent 'the voice of a transnational and transcultural working-class diaspora.'... Ragland's winning narrative (likely because of her experience as a journalist) makes this book an easy read despite the wealth of details and the jumping back and forth in chronology. Her well-embedded musical analysis adds depth to this first-rate ethnomusicological study that goes beyond a common straightforward mapping of immigrant music to social identity... This book is a must for scholars interested in issues of transnationalism, border culture, diasporic networking, immigration, expressive culture, identity formation and Mexican music in general. - Latino Studies [A] rich and fascinating study of a popular music genre and the Mexican migrant experience in the United States...This is a careful study of nortena music, a genre rooted in the experiences of conflict, exploitation and marginalisation... It succeeds in significantly widening the scope of popular music/cultural studies. - Journal of Popular Music

Ragland's ethnomusicological approach to musica nortena's evolution and its contemporary relevance, brings the topic to life. The music is clearly a prism to examining a broad swath of social, political, economic, cultural, and communications issues. Her musical analysis is fresh, rare, and valuable. Daniel Sheehy, Director and Curator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Ragland has written an impressive examination of the many borderland musics popular among Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Tex-Mex region of the Mexico-US border. Thanks to her background as a journalist, Ragland writes in a readable style. She packs the book with thorough research, in-depth musical and lyrical analysis, and insightful theoretical discussions of social and cultural issues related to such topics as ethnic identity and transnationalization... [A] valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on Latin American music. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Choice, Nov 2009

Author Information

Cathy Ragland is an Assistant Professor in Music and the Arts at SUNY/Empire State College. She is a former music critic for the San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Times and Austin American-Statesman, where, among many things, she wrote about Tex-Mex and NorteÑa music. She is also a former folklorist and co-founder of the Mariachi Academy of New York, an after-school program in East Harlem.

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