Pablo Vila

Rock nacional and dictatorship in Argentina

Between 1976 and 1983 Argentina witnessed the full development of a phenomenon which has come to be known as rock nacional (‘national rock’). At first sight it might appear no more than a matter of musical consumption, fashioning its participants simply as ‘artists’ on one side and ‘public’ on the other. But it has proved an original form within which the young create and inhabit a space of their own, relatively protected from the assaults of the military dictatorship (which had made them its principal victims), and has come to constitute, with the passing of the years, a counter-culture and a social movement.

Processes of identification on the U.S.-Mexico border

Abstract This article reviews relevant literature on border identity issues written on both sides of the border in the past 15 years. First, approaches taken by theorists like Gloria Anzaldúa, Renato Rosaldo, and others who advanced important ideas such as hybridity and “border crossing,” are criticized. Second, the work of empirically oriented U.S. and Mexican scholars, such as Oscar Martinez, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, Jorge Bustamante, is examined critically. Finally, the author, relying on more than 6 years of ethnographic research in the border area, advances his own understanding of how best to conduct research on identity construction issues on the U.S.-Mexico border. The author discusses the importance of the narrative plots of border inhabitants, the role played by certain Master Signifiers and hegemonic narrative plots in the “quilting” of coherent identity discourses, and the like. The author concludes by calling for research on how different locally available discursive formations on the border are introduces into narratives through the actions (as accounted by the plot) of particular characters.

Cumbia and Latin-American Migration in Buenos Aires, Argentina: Identity Negotiation Processes in Two Ethnic/National Dance Halls

It is Saturday night and Malvina goes to Cachaquisimo, a dance hall located in a working-class Buenos Aires suburb, which is frequented mostly by immigrants and second-generation young Paraguayans. She arrives at 1:00 AM and the music playing is “Los Chicos del Anden” a very well-known Argentine cumbia villera song by Yerba Brava. Malvina is waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. In the interim she is asked to dance by a young boy, Carlos, and the following conversation ensues, which accentuates the feelings of racial discrimination and tension that sometimes characterize certain music venues in Buenos Aires: “My name is Carlos, what’s yours?” “Malvina.” “Do you want to dance? “No, thanks but no.” “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Yes.” “Are you expecting him?” “Yes, in a little while.”. “OK. So we can dance.” “No, really, thanks.” “Look, I’m Argentine.” (Surprised by the statement, it took a while for Malvina to come up with an answer …) She puts her hand on his shoulder and, with as positive vibes she can muster to call up, Malvina replied: “Me too, no problem, but I don’t want to dance.” “OK then, bye bye.”

Review of Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music, by Matthew B. Karush

Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music by Matthew B. Karush, Duke University Press, 2017.

Cumbia Villera or the Complex Construction of Masculinity and Femininity in Contemporary Argentina

Since its introduction in the early sixties by groups like Los Wawanco (a group of mostly Colombian and Central American students living in Argentina), Colombian cumbia rapidly became a dance of choice for Argentine popular sectors (an Argentine sociopolitical term that encompasses working-class and lower-middle-class people). Its popularity was particularly marked in Buenos Aires’s suburbs and the suburbs of other major cities of the country, where many of its followers were internal migrants from the countryside.

Music and Cultural Theory

Preface. Introduction. 1. The Problem of Affect and Meaning in Music. 2. Music and Cultural Theory. 3. Music and Psychoanalysis. 4. Theorizing Difference in Language and Music. 5. Music as a Medium in Sound. 6. Music as Structure. 7. Musics Semiological Moment. 8. Music - a Performative Semiological Model. 9. Music and Language in the Constitution of Society. 10. Towards a Sociology of Sound. Bibliography. Index.