Copyright by Stevan César Azcona 2008 Committee Certification of Approved Version The Dissertation Committee for Stevan César Azcona Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Movements in Chicano Music: Performing Culture, Performing Politics, 1965-1979 Committee: Stephen Slawek, Co-Supervisor José Limón, Co-Supervisor Robin Moore Kathleen Stewart Richard Flores Movements in Chicano Music Performing Culture, Performing Politics, 1965-1979 by Stevan César Azcona, B.A., M.Mus. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 Dedication To the memory of Gerard Béhague (1937-2005), and to all those who struggle for a better and just world. Acknowledgements My experience completing the dissertation was no more difficult than any other doctoral candidate but it took the efforts of many to pull me through to the other side of the degree. I only wish there was more to offer than a brief mention in the acknowledgements; all the same, my gratitude is immeasurable. I thank my dissertation committee (Gerard Béhague, José Limón, Stephen Slawek, Katie Stewart, Richard Flores, and Robin Moore) for their service and mentorship throughout the course of my graduate career. Some have played a more extensive role than others but all of them have been equally helpful whenever I have come to them. Words cannot express the gratitude, nor the loss, I feel towards Gerard Béhague, my advisor from 1995 until his passing in 2005. A most formidable scholar and mentor, he always provided me the needed advice and encouragement to take the paths that made me feel my work was relevant in academia. I only wish time was kinder to us both. In his absence, José Limón and Stephen Slawek took me under their wings to guide me to the end of the dissertation, no small task. In particular, I thank José Limón for continued faith in my potential, a faith I imagine I tested many times, via absolutely needed support from the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). Speaking of CMAS, their support over a long graduate career has had the effect of colleagues forgetting that I am a music student, since I worked so much for the Center. I wish to thank the directors of CMAS who have supported my career: Gilberto Cardenas, David Montejano, and José Limón. In this respect, I must also thank Dolores García, who ran the office for many years. Her trust in my abilities has provided me with innumerable opportunities to develop into a more complete scholar. I thank her and all the staff that have worked at the Center over the years as they have been a family on campus for me and so many other students. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach at other institutions. In the summer of 2000, the Department of Folklore and v Ethnomusicology at Indiana University-Bloomington invited me to teach my first lecture course. John McDowell, Richard Bauman, Ruth Stone, Sue Tuohy, and, in particular, Cándida Jáquez, were extremely friendly and helpful in both my class and my developing dissertation project. IU’s Minority Faculty Fellowship program, which brought me to the campus, was also very helpful. I wish to thank Alberto Torchinsky for his support as program director. In 2002, I was brought back to Indiana as a Faculty Fellow at DePauw University in the small town of Greencastle. I wish to thank Jeff Hollander and Carla Edwards for bringing me to campus; Amy Lynn Barber for her support as Dean; and the rest of the faculty and staff who made me feel at home in the School of Music. I also wish to thank Dean Neal Abraham for his faith and support; Glenn Kuecker, Tom Hall, Katie Johnson, Rebecca Lee, Fumika Kiriyama, Srimati Basu, Angela Castañeda, and Jane Griswold for their friendship and collegiality during my two years at DePauw. Special mention must be made of my fellow Fellows on campus: Anne Choi, Adebajo Amusa, Katrina Gamble, Ray Burgman, Tiyi Morris, Kimberley Ellis, and Matthew Oware; the friendships made here were critical during my stay and I am happy to say they endure. It is said that the best thing about graduate school is not the work itself but the relationships with fellow students. Within the Ethno program, I must thank Peter Kvetko, Javier León, Ketty Wong, Peter García, Molly White, Justin Patch, and Emily Pinkerton, among others, for their friendship over the years. Throughout the rest of campus, I am most indebted to the friendships created through various Chicana/o graduate student entities: Chicana/o Latina/o Graduate Student Association, No Me Chingues, and in particular, the Advanced Seminar in Chicana/o Research; there are far too many colleagues and friends to name and they know who they are anyway. I do want to thank Luis Alvarez, Manolo Callahan, Joel Huerta, Javier León, Pablo González, Alex Chávez, Anne Choi, Glen Kuecker, and Rebecca Lee for their comments on the dissertation, in part or whole. I also wish to thank the Chicana/o music scholars who have been supportive of my career: Manuel Peña, Steven Loza, Brenda Romero, Russell Rodríguez, Olga Nájera-Ramírez, Yolanda Broyles-González, and Alejandro Madrid. vi For a project like this, it is of utmost importance to acknowledge the immense sense of gratitude I feel for the musicians and activists whose time and stories were entrusted to my keeping. In particular, I would like to thank Francisco González and Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez as they gave to me far beyond what I ever could have hoped for towards the completion of this project. As a musician myself, I wish to note my gratitude to the various mariachi groups I have played with in Austin, especially since my dissertation schedule has surely been something of a nuisance to my current group at least: Bob Guajardo, Rey Segura, María Chio, and Frank Nuñez of Mariachi Jalisco. I also must thank the musicians of the broadly conceived Fandango Sin Fronteras project for their musical, cultural, and political inspiration: Quetzal Flores, Martha González, Marco Amador, Son de Madera, Mono Blanco, Xochi Flores, César Castro, Mitote, and so many others. While every person mentioned thus far has been rather important in the completing of this dissertation –each having its own unique story/role– Leah Hesla is particularly important. Whether she knows it or not, she has been present in the writing of virtually every word of this dissertation; hers has always been a friendship I cherish and ever will. Lastly, I thank my family, close and extended, for their unending patience as I complete the degree. They have been subject to many silences regarding my progress over the years, mostly to spare them the dull details, but they have been ever encouraging and loyal towards my goal of finishing the degree. They have also been generous, and for every potential reason, I cannot thank them enough. c/s vii Movements in Chicano Music: Performing Culture, Performing Politics, 1965-1979 Publication No._____________ Stevan César Azcona, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Co-Supervisors: José Limón and Stephen Slawek More than a confined account of the musical activity of the Chicano Movement, my research considers Chicana/o music of the period as a critical part of the protest music genres of Latin America (eg. nueva canción, canto nuevo ) and the Unites States (eg. labor/union and civil rights songs). Consequently, although situated squarely within the context of the Chicano Movement, this project necessarily examines the musical yet political links between Chicano musicians and their counterparts in the American labor movement, Civil Rights Movement, and Latin American social movements of the period. Coupled with the mobilization of their own Mexican musical and cultural traditions, Chicano musicians engaged viii these other repertoires of struggle to form the nexus of Chicana/o musical expression during the Movement. By viewing Chicana/o music within this broader lens, my research demonstrates that the complexities of the movimiento and Chicana/o political struggle cannot be adequately understood without thinking about how Chicano cultural producers engage a diversity of other race, ethnic, and regional struggles. Rather than assume a homologous relationship between music and identity, my research historicizes musical practices in the context of their struggle for political, social, and cultural rights and resources and the strategies employed by diverse communities working together to overcome the failures of governmental and institutional programs. The creative dialogues and musical exchanges that occurred among Chicano musicians suggest not only forms of ethnic solidarity but also the culturally “hybrid” expressions that shape even nationalist movements. Key to this approach is recognizing the simultaneously global and local character of Chicana/o musical production, where the flows of transnationalism circulated not only ideas, peoples, and sounds, but also political struggles. This project thus raises a number of critical questions about Chicano Movement music and its political import. Ultimately, I suggest that it was the ability to perform authoritatively within the bi-cultural and increasingly transnational space of the Chicano experience that empowered movimiento music to express the feelings of autonomy engendered by the Movement. ix Table of Contents List of Figures.......................................................................................................xi Introduction........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One From Mexican American to Chicano: A Brief Overview of the Chicano Movement................................................. 25 Chapter Two To Sing Is To Organize: The Huelga Songs of the Farm Workers............... 72 Chapter Three Movimiento Songs: The Ideological Act of Song in the Chicano Movement, 1968-1973…………………………..…115 Chapter Four From Aztlán to Las Américas: Hybridity and Chicano Internationalism, 1974-1979……………...………173 Conclusions……………………………………… ....