LATIN-AMERICAN MUSIC CLASS

The historical events we studied in our class, taught by the amazing Carlos Cuestas, go from events of Spanish colonialism to recent civilian protests across Latin America which all have certainly been key to the development of Latin America's music. Latin American music is not a sole entity, without influences from outside socio-political circumstances. It exists within a whole and it's many different genres do not just have one sound or one inspiration. When you think of Latin America and Latin American music you may have a few specific images and/or sounds in mind... But you have to scratch away that surface and wipe away what you think it is. Latin American music continues to evolve, up until this current day. From the tip of South America, to Central America and the Carribbean up to the Mexico border with the U.S, there is a broad spectrum of music created. Mostly built by the working class, and the people themselves.

So, a working class is part of a nation. A nation is a large group of people with a common geo-graphical land, culture, and history. A state is the institution of the government that governs a nation, or multiple nations at once. Nationalism is devotion and loyalty to the nation(s). An example of nationalism is when you hear the national anthem of the country that you are from or your family is from, you applaud or take pride in it. Another example of nationalism can be an event like the Cuban Revolution, which occurred because Cubans wanted sovereignty from any foreign nations. A nation is not defined by it's government. The state government can want very different things then it's nation, and can hurt the people that live in it.

Often, protests in Latin America reacted to this. The people themselves reacted against the government and state. An example of this is the student femicide protests in Chile in 2018. This also created chants and sounds within protest, which generate a way of making music. Also, many genres in Latin America are created with lyrics that are political or about something bigger than the personal. There tends to be storytelling involved. A song such as this is 'Te recuerdo Amanda' by Victor Jara. This is about Chilean resistence against the dictatorship (of his time). It is directly in protest to it. Victor Jara was ultimately killed because of his disagreeement with Pinochet's dictatorship. This is one of the roles of music in Latin America. But, it is not singular (although... there's always a dictatorship in Latin America...). Why does music exist in this way? The emotions and soul of a people always comes into music. Music is usually about our human emotions, which can convey bigger messages. Why against the military, the state, and the police, is it worth standing up? Well, with a people coming together, they can accomplish anything. When the majority of people are all-together on an idea, they will do anything to make that idea a reality. Pan-Latin solidarity is important for Latin American music. It keeps us reinventing one another's sounds, instruments, and concepts. This keeps things fresh, inventive, and new. When we aren't trying to pit a country against another country, we can build solidarity. We protest against violence- together. We build community- together. New York is full of strong Latin American community. Many Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and folk from the Caribbean live here. The New York barrio, the people in the Urban Hispanic city of New York is it's own ground for new soundscapes. Salsa developed not only from the Caribbean but from New York! The working class: they were fighting against the systemic exploitation within the USA. They were fighting colonialism within a country they immigrated to. Mentioning colonialism, the ultimate force above us all, leads me to thinking about the Las Casas vs. Sepulveda debate we read about in class. A debate about the Native peoples of the Americas in the 1500s and what should happen to them in the hands of the colonizer. Both were terrible sides of a coin, neither good. One was completely set on destruction of Natives, because they were innately evil (Sepulveda said this) and the other believed in the ignorant blissful quality of the Native, saying you could convert them into Christian faith instead of declaring war on them (Las Casas said this). This is a debate, that we may not realize still affects us very much politically (not the debate only, but the implications of the debate). The impacts of colonialism are felt to this day, from music to also the way the governments across Latin America are formulated. Indigenous people to this day are not considered a part of the dialogue, anywhere. Colorism is extremely present in all of Latin America, which is still tied to remnants of colonialism. I believe Latin American music has a long beautiful, bright future ahead of it. With or without Bad Bunny? I don't know. Hopefully not a reaction to the colonizer; beyond that. New generations of people will change the world as we have seen it changed again and again. Historical events will continue to influence the new-coming creators of Latin American music, inevitably!