Feeling Zulian Through Gaita: Singing Regional Identity in Maracaibo, Venezuela
Feeling Zulian through Gaita: Singing Regional Identity in Maracaibo, Venezuela Robert Thomas Carroll A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Shannon K. Dudley, Chair Patricia S. Campbell Jonathan W. Warren Program Authorized to Offer Degree: School of Music ©Copyright 2013 Robert Thomas Carroll ii University of Washington Abstract Feeling Zulian: Singing Regional Identity in Maracaibo, Venezuela Robert Thomas Carroll Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Shannon K. Dudley, Ph.D. School of Music This dissertation shows how gaita music articulates regional identity in Maracaibo, in the state of Zulia in Venezuela, based on analysis of lyrics and recordings, interviews, archival work, and participant observation at performance events. Since the 1960s, gaita has become a commercialized folk music that is popular throughout Venezuela during the Christmas holiday season, but in Zulia, where gaita originated, the music serves as a medium through which regional identity is defined, promoted, negotiated, celebrated, and even marketed. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2000–01, 2003, and 2007 among musicians, composers, academics, and gaita fans, this study is structured around five broad vectors of gaita’s expression of zulianidad: sound, history, geography, religion and politics. The mere sound of gaita—with its unique beat—is recognized as distinctly Zulian genre, and this distinctiveness contributes to its power in indexing regional identity. Gaita’s instruments are seen as Zulian and perceived as iii representative of the European, African, and indigenous elements of Venezuela’s racial mixture and the ideology of racial democracy. Gaita, which originated as orally improvised party music in the nineteenth century, is a prominent feature of local cultural history.
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