Afro Mexic The Immigrant Rights Movement - 2290 Words

Afro-Mexican Soundtrack to the Immigrant Rights Movement By: Silvia Huerta ANTH 022: World Music and Cultures Final Paper May 5, 2015 Socially and politically reinforced negative racial perceptions of indigenousness and blackness in Mexico have kept Afro–Mexican musical traditions largely hidden from modern music industry. However, the culture of African-descended populations remains alive in embodied musical practices of Mexico, specifically in the regional music and dance forms preserved in many rural states. Among the most prominent of these living traditions is son jarocho, a musical tradition rooted in resistance of African slaves to colonial oppression in the ports Veracruz. Their musical tradition has endured a history of oppression and silencing by both political and religious forces. Through an analysis of the racially driven institutionalized oppression of son jarocho in its early history and the transition to its current role in the immigrant social movement in Chicano communities, Son jarocho’s political and musical essence has prevailed to influence changes in racial, economic, and gender equality. Politically defined racial divides during Spanish colonization influenced the primitive cultural development of Mexico, including the oppression of musical traditions like son jarocho. The increasing racial mixture of colonial society required there to be a distinction to the new hybrid racial subjects. The goal of this classification that