Cantando de ayer (singing of yesterday): Performing history, ethnic identity, and traditionalism in United States-based urban mariachi.

The Mexican mariachi as a performative tradition in U.S. urban contexts presents two major challenges to ethnomusicology study: how does musical performance exist as a mode of cultural communication through multiple layers of social meaning? and how does musical expression actively reflect the social engagement of Mexican descent communities within a specifically urban, U.S. context? This work draws upon the anthropological field methods of critical observation, participation as a Chicana violinist and mariachi director, and ethnographic interview. Production of photographic and video materials produced during research augment those primary resources. These methods are combined with analysis based on musical scores produced and used within the contemporary mariachi tradition. Work was pursued primarily in the Austin, TX, and Detroit, MI, mariachi communities, and several mariachi conferences and workshops throughout the Southwest. The study concludes mariachi performance remains a living tradition for its cultural saliency in defining ethnicity, gender, class, and history vis a vis hegemonic interpretations of Mexican descent populations.Ph.D.Communication and the ArtsCultural anthropologyFolkloreMusicSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132387/2/9963818.pd