HIST-LIT 90HC: Music, Memory, and Identity in Latin America

Instructor: Cristina Garcia Navas
Meeting time: Wednesday, 3:00-5:00 pm

This course explores the role music plays in the creation and transmission of memory and identity in Latin American cultures. How have musical traditions shaped the development of collective ethnic and national narratives, as well as conceptions of gender and race? How has music engaged with political movements and power across the region? We begin with colonial sources documenting Indigenous and African voices through chronicles and early song collections. We then move to 19th-century revolutionary corridos—popular ballads derived from the Hispanic romancero that narrate events ranging from the South American independence movements to the changing North American national borders. Along with examples from oral tradition, we study the reinterpretations of songs by marginalized peasant populations in literary works that helped to mold modern Latin American national identities, such as the Argentine epic poem Martín Fierro and the Colombian novel María. Finally, we turn to the rise of popular 20^th-century musical genres, including cumbia, salsa, currulao, and reggaeton, as well as folk and rock artists like Mercedes Sosa and Sui Generis singing against 20th-century dictatorships.