In order to broaden the critical scholarship on mariachi, this paper will examine the hybrid development of mariachi, particularly through the artistry of Campanas de America. Renowned as one the first nationally recognized “Mexican...
moreIn order to broaden the critical scholarship on mariachi, this paper will examine the hybrid development of mariachi, particularly through the artistry of Campanas de America. Renowned as one the first nationally recognized “Mexican American mariachi ensembles”, and yet alternately accepting-rejecting being labeled as a “mariachi”, Campanas has traversed the cultural boundaries of traditional mariachi expression combining a broad spectrum of American and Latino American influences, representing a growing transformation of mariachi in the United States. Music hybridity has played a prominent role in the discourse on cultural experience in US/Mexico relations. Formative research has examined the politics behind the histories of displacement, dispossession, acculturation, resistance and transculturation effecting the development of hybrid musical expressions. The mariachi tradition, although retaining very strong links to Mexican American culture, has curiously been poorly critiqued remaining on the periphery of critical scholarship. Within the cultural imaginary of national identity, mariachi is a strong signifier of Mexicanidad and thus largely reified as a public display of “Mexican” performative aesthetics. Although research has examined mariachi transnationalism in the US (Jáquez, 2005; Rodríguez, 2006), much attention has been paid to historical development, transmission, and gender. Yet, the recent explosion of mariachi, especially in Southwest Texas, is producing a growing hybrid culture, characterizing a more diverse Mexican and Latino American experience. The contrast between Campanas’ artistic recordings and their livelihood as a working-mariachi illustrates the intersection of cultural identity appropriation, commodification, aesthetic, authenticity and ownership.