Publications by José R . Torres-Ramos
Los sentidos del cuerpo: un giro sensorial en la investigación social y los estudios de género, 2019
En este capítulo, exploro la performatividad de género desde una perspectiva etnomusicológica y u... more En este capítulo, exploro la performatividad de género desde una perspectiva etnomusicológica y utilizo una lente fenomenológica para ilustrar la manera en que los músicos y aficionados del mariachi moderno recurren a construcciones socializadas de machismo y mexicanidad para experimentar percepciones de auténtica musicalidad encarnada. Mediante metáforas descriptivas extraídas de relatos etnográficos con músicos y miembros del público, llego a la conclusión de que el affect del machismo se percibe tanto a través de gestos del sonido-incorporado mediante el instrumento musical-como del movimiento corporal, que se convierte en un signo que indica un auténtico performance musical de la mexicanidad.
El mariachi Bailes y huellas, 2017
Conference Presentations by José R . Torres-Ramos
3er Congreso Internacional sobre Género y Espacio - UNAM CDMX (https://youtu.be/I34-06JAXtQ), 2019
Como una expresión humana única que combina la identidad corporal y cultural con la creativi... more Como una expresión humana única que combina la identidad corporal y cultural con la creatividad idiosincrásica, la música proporciona un entorno interesante para estudiar el género como una construcción simbólica y una relación social. Los estudios recientes en la etnomusicología han revelado la importancia de la música como un sitio contextual específico para la performatividad y el análisis de género. Las ideas sobre género están profundamente arraigadas en el mundo discursivo del mariachi moderno Mexicano. Desde las letras de las canciones hasta las técnicas instrumentales, que incluyen gestos incorporados, el mariachi moderno transmite una estética de machismo hipermasculino idealizado, que es percibido como un icono de la mexicanidad y experimentado por los músicos y aficionados como musicalidad auténtica. Los intérpretes del mariachi, tanto masculinos como femeninos, crean un mu do experiencial del mariachismo, un neologismo que utilizo para describir una experiencia intersubjetiva del machismo estético, ritualizada a través de repetidos gestos musicales de sonido, letra y corporalidad.
Investigaciones recientes sobre género y geografía han enfatizado las interacciones afectivas entre la corporeidad y sus espacios, y las formas en que se vinculan con ciertos lugares (Soto Villagrán 2003). Ubicado en la Ciudad de México, la Plaza Garibaldi es considerada el ‘santuario nacional’ para el mariachi moderno y el lugar público más grande en el mundo para sus presentaciones en vivo. En esta ponencia examino la espacialización del mariachismo como un proceso de encarnación musical mapeado en el lugar físico donde los mariachis y el público interactúan socialmente, convirtiéndose en una intersección experiencial del sonido generizado, el espacio y la cultura. Dentro de la plaza, la serenata mariachera es un ritual social que centraliza la forma en que los músicos y el público (re)construyen y espacializan representaciones de masculinidad—musicalmente, socialmente, y comercialmente ya sea como un desafío o conformidad a las narraciones hegemónicas de género incorporadas dentro de las practicas musicales del mariachi. El repertorio musical realizado para la serenata se convierte en un vehículo para el machismo a través de una conquista musical simbólica de parejas románticas femeninas. Sin embargo, cuando se realiza para figuras maternas, la serenata significa una feminidad idealizada a través de una noción reificada del marianismo (Stevens 1973). Este estudio examina la Plaza Garibaldi como un espacio no concebido como una ubicación material simple, sino como una posición discursiva, un “mapa” de significados (Jackson 1989) y un lugar encarnado para el mariachismo.
2do Congreso de Etnomusicología de la Facultad de Música de la UNAM-Cuidad de México (https://youtu.be/Lsu5aKeRL00), 2018
Por consecuencia del gran proyecto nacionalista posrevolucionario, el mariachi moderno fue puesto... more Por consecuencia del gran proyecto nacionalista posrevolucionario, el mariachi moderno fue puesto en un discurso de mexicanidad y arraigado fuertemente con características ideales de hipermasculinidad o machismo. Esto es transmitido a través de un mundo experiencial de mariachismo, una fenomenología de machismo musical sonado y eschuchado simultáneamente en un performance encarnado de sonido, lírica y gestos, haciendo eco de las normas de género y sexualidad. En la sociedad cotidiana, el machismo ejerce violencia sobre todos los géneros y sexos, a través de actos hipermasculinos de agresión y dominación, culturalmente amplificado por un ambiente de sufrimiento y de competencia diaria para sobrevivir. A pesar de esto, el machismo nutre la eficacia performativa del mariachismo con una profunda energía experiencial, y puesto en el amplio discurso de la mexicanidad, constituye un componente esencial de la autenticidad musical. La dominación y agresión hipermasculina se traducen en sonoros romantizados y afectos escuchados como emoción, sentimiento, fuerza, sabor—percepciones performativas de la auténtica musicalidad mariachera ritualizando una experiencia de lo mexicano. Con este estudio, analizo el paisaje sonoro del mundo experiencial del mariachismo, incluyendo los timbres instrumentales y vocales, así como los chiflidos y los gritos que sónoricamente construyen el machismo trayendo al estar un ser-musical. Desde una perspectiva fenomenológica, exploro el concepto de la “performatividad sónica” (Alaghband-Zadeh 2015), destacando el orden de género, dentro de una percepción sonora que realiza un sujeto masculino y da forma simbólica a la práctica musical del mariachi moderno por un modo-de-oír auténtica identidad nacional.
Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario del Sur (https://youtu.be/nV1TBIP4aH4), 2018
El grito es uno de los emblemas icónicos más famosos e igualmente estereotipados de México. Utili... more El grito es uno de los emblemas icónicos más famosos e igualmente estereotipados de México. Utilizado como una expresión sónica de emoción poderosa, es un símbolo reconocido internacionalmente de la mexicanidad, particularmente a través de su uso en grabaciones populares de música ranchera. Aunque no tan iconizados, los chiflidos, denominados alternativamente como silbidos, son idiosincrasias significativas de la vida cotidiana en México y América Latina, posiblemente como consecuencia de la influencia cultural prehispánica. Dentro de la música ranchera, interpretada por el mariachi moderno, los gritos y los chiflidos realizan un paisaje sonoro de la mexicanidad. Ya sea que se utilicen como declaraciones verbales demostrativas, porras entre los músicos, o como exclamaciones no verbales expresando emoción que pintan la música, los gritos y los chiflidos contribuyen significativamente a una experiencia perceptiva de auténtica musicalidad de mariachi. Los gritos y los chiflidos actúan como artefactos socioculturales y como elementos musicales que enriquecen el sabor típico de una actuación musical. En este trabajo, analizo gritos y chiflidos utilizados dentro del performance del mariachi moderno como parte de un paisaje sonoro de mexicanidad masculina que es considerado por excelencia auténtico por el público y los intérpretes de la música ranchera. Presento un análisis semiótico de grabaciones de audio y video; y también me baso en mis experiencias propias como mariachi profesional. Sugiero que los gritos y chiflidos contribuyen a una experiencia perceptiva de auténtica mexicanidad musical.
Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwUIL7pL-c0&feature=youtu.be)
The Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City is considered the “national shrine” to the modern mariachi, a... more The Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City is considered the “national shrine” to the modern mariachi, arguably the iconic representation of Mexican identity. Hundreds of mariachis gather daily in the plaza resembling a sort of mercado de música en vivo (produce market of live music), where people bring their family, friends, and romantic partners to feast on a sonic imaginary of mariachismo, an embodied reality of musical machismo reflexively encoding Mexico’s traditional heterosexual gender norms within ritualized performative constructions fusing mariachi music, tequila, and charrería in order to convey a perception of authentic Mexicanidad. In the Plaza Garibaldi, the lifeworld of mariachismo is emplaced within every sound, note, verse, and shot of tequila. This paper explores the emplacement of mariachismo as a phenomenological gathering of symbolic perceptions interplayed between music, gender, and national identity within the Plaza Garibaldi.
Symbolic Dimensions of Mariachi Performance Practice
Paper presented for the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains Chapter Meeting, College Station TX, 2015
As a global symbol of mestizaje and Mexicanidad, the mariachi tradition in its modern iteration a... more As a global symbol of mestizaje and Mexicanidad, the mariachi tradition in its modern iteration articulates multiple performative symbols and meanings. Decoding the symbolic dimension of mariachi musicality is problematic; although, on the surface, it reflects strong elements of Western classical music aesthetics (instrumentation and harmonic structure), its underlying performative tissue is strongly informed by a more socio-cultural phenomenological music experience. Ethnographic research among native mariachi musicians reveals that the perception of authentic musicality is negotiated primarily through the discourse of masculinity. The notion of masculinity becomes central to the performance of characteristic musical timbres, articulations, vocal styling, and socio-cultural interactions between musicians. This paper outlines a semiotic conceptualization of musicality within mariachi performance practice.
I argue that musicality is not developed solely through the traditional study and training of more theoretical perspectives offered by musical analysis or criticism. Rather musicality includes a process of recognizing musical signs embedded within the performance practices of music traditions such as mariachi, indexing a larger socio-cultural discourse. These signs reveal themselves not only through instrumental and vocal reproduction of culturally characteristic sounds and patterns, but also through an understanding of socio-cultural conventions including patterns of musical behavior between both the audience and performers and between the performers themselves.
Teaching Mariachi: Cultural Responsiveness in Music Education
As educational institutions transition to a new era of transnational migration and globalization ... more As educational institutions transition to a new era of transnational migration and globalization many educators and administrators are seeking new ways to increase culturally responsive music teaching. Formal mariachi instruction is a growing trend in public schools and universities throughout the US. Mariachi has been appropriated for cultural identity among immigrant and Mexican American populations. In the popular culture it is seen as a homologous identity representing all things Mexican. In reality, mariachi represents multiple traditions within traditions running along a continuum of Latino transnational identity. This workshop is a brief introduction to mariachi teaching and learning, within the context of cultural diversity in music education. The topics will include mariachi's socio-cultural historical development, pedagogy, curriculum resources, and its diverse cultural expression within various Latino populations.
Musical Hybridity of “Mariachi”: Campanas de America
In order to broaden the critical scholarship on mariachi, this paper will examine the hybrid deve... more In order to broaden the critical scholarship on mariachi, this paper will examine the hybrid development of mariachi, particularly through the artistry of Campanas de America. Renowned as one the first nationally recognized “Mexican American mariachi ensembles”, and yet alternately accepting-rejecting being labeled as a “mariachi”, Campanas has traversed the cultural boundaries of traditional mariachi expression combining a broad spectrum of American and Latino American influences, representing a growing transformation of mariachi in the United States. Music hybridity has played a prominent role in the discourse on cultural experience in US/Mexico relations. Formative research has examined the politics behind the histories of displacement, dispossession, acculturation, resistance and transculturation effecting the development of hybrid musical expressions. The mariachi tradition, although retaining very strong links to Mexican American culture, has curiously been poorly critiqued remaining on the periphery of critical scholarship. Within the cultural imaginary of national identity, mariachi is a strong signifier of Mexicanidad and thus largely reified as a public display of “Mexican” performative aesthetics. Although research has examined mariachi transnationalism in the US (Jáquez, 2005; Rodríguez, 2006), much attention has been paid to historical development, transmission, and gender. Yet, the recent explosion of mariachi, especially in Southwest Texas, is producing a growing hybrid culture, characterizing a more diverse Mexican and Latino American experience. The contrast between Campanas’ artistic recordings and their livelihood as a working-mariachi illustrates the intersection of cultural identity appropriation, commodification, aesthetic, authenticity and ownership.
Teaching Mariachi: Cultural Responsiveness in Music Education
As educational institutions transition to a new era of transnational migration and globalization ... more As educational institutions transition to a new era of transnational migration and globalization many educators and administrators are seeking new ways to increase culturally responsive music teaching. Formal mariachi instruction is a growing trend in public schools and universities throughout the US. Mariachi has been appropriated for cultural identity among immigrant and Mexican American populations. In the popular culture it is seen as a homologous identity representing all things Mexican. In reality, mariachi represents multiple traditions within traditions running along a continuum of Latino transnational identity. This workshop is a brief introduction to mariachi teaching and learning, within the context of cultural diversity in music education. The topics will include mariachi's socio-cultural historical development, pedagogy, curriculum resources, and its diverse cultural expression within various Latino populations.
Equity and Access: Intersections of Race, Ethnicity and Culture within Music Education
The world of public school music education is one of tradition, based on pedagogies, repertoire, ... more The world of public school music education is one of tradition, based on pedagogies, repertoire, and curricula that have changed little since its inception in the United States. While the potential exists for music learning to be an avenue for self-expression, cultural identity, and socially constructed meaning, music educators often have little experience or professional training to effectively challenge hegemonic power struggles inherent within institutional structures of music education. Through shared narratives from music educators, graduate students, and faculty, this panel will explore the issues of equity and access, cultural clashes, and the role of privilege in the world of public school music education. Two Latinas explore their role as music teachers of predominantly African-American students; a mariachi program, viewed as “non-traditional” in the music education world, provides a route to retention, graduation, and college attendance, changing school and community landscapes; a competitive band program acting as a space for segregation, privilege, hegemony, and power. These narratives will be framed within the context of Intercultural Competence, with an emphasis on the development of self-awareness as key to conceptualizing equity and access within public school music teaching and learning.
Gran parte del cuerpo de los investigaciones de mariachi se ha centrado en el análisis histórico ... more Gran parte del cuerpo de los investigaciones de mariachi se ha centrado en el análisis histórico del desarrollo musical del conjunto, su movimiento transnacional y transformación en símbolo de identidad cultural nacionalista. También ha habido importantes trabajos sobre la etimología de dicho palabra. Las investigaciones más recientes ha comenzado a examinar los aspectos sociológicos más grandes de la tradición que se ha diversificado en términos de género, etnia y clase de practicantes. La música del mariachi representa un modelo conceptual de cómo la música es socialmente significativo y fundamental. El pueblo de Nochistlán, Zacatecas es conocida por su reconocimiento, cultivo y promoción de la música. Actividades musicales son el foco central de la vida social y familiar en Nochistlán. Mariachi goza de una vida fuerte, vibrante, artística dentro de la región y entre las comunidades de inmigrantes de Nochistlaneros en los Estados Unidos. Destacando marcos conceptuales establecidos por Thomas Turino y Charles Peirce, este artículo examinará la tradición del mariachi en Nochistlán y entre comunidades de inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos, particularmente en Ft. Worth, TX. Utilizando el trabajo de campo etnográfico, este papel atará a la tradición del mariachi en Nochistlán a un concepto teórico más grande de la identidad y cultura como fundamental para el estudio de la música como la vida social.
Over the past 30 years, mariachi has become a significant musical practice informing a broader tr... more Over the past 30 years, mariachi has become a significant musical practice informing a broader transnational dialogue on the dichotomy of US-Mexico border relations. Notions of “border”, “nation”, “migration” and “diaspora” among others, are increasingly being examined and redefined. These notions are useful in understanding the growing importance of this tradition for Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and non-Mexicans across the world. One of many traditional folk music styles in Mexico, the appropriation of mariachi as part of the larger Post-Revolutionary social currents, transformed its significance as a symbol of national identity. Beginning in the 1980s, mariachi within popular music gained wider significance as a symbol of Latino cultural identity and Mexican nationalism in the United States. As a transnational music tradition, mariachi highlights the problematic politics of identity, cultural representation, preservation, authenticity and now more recently critical considerations of formal, non-formal and informal music education. This panel will offer varying perspectives on the mariachi tradition shedding light on its multiple layers of meaning within a larger discourse on US-Mexico relations.
Teaching Mariachi: A Postmodern Music Education
Since the mid-1970s, mariachi began appearing in formal institutions of learning, beginning with ... more Since the mid-1970s, mariachi began appearing in formal institutions of learning, beginning with universities and quickly overtaken by public schools. Today the popularity of mariachi instruction challenges the long history of modernism in music education. As such, mariachi posits a Postmodern shift from traditional forms of music teaching. However, modernist practices, most evident in western schools and universities, permeate persistent narratives that resist change and enforce the status quo. Thus mariachi’s traditional forms of transmission and performance practice are altered, as formal curriculums shift it from an oral tradition to written, marginalizing its defining socio-cultural, historical, and musical constructs, which are changed to conform with modernist dominance of music education. This paper examines the development and challenges of formalized mariachi instruction as representative of postmodern music education. Topics include the politics of education, cultural representation, authenticity, and the dominant modernist narratives in music education.
Papers by José R . Torres-Ramos
In discussing the teaching of world music performance at the university level, Gage Averill (2004... more In discussing the teaching of world music performance at the university level, Gage Averill (2004) writes that “conformity to the canonical ensemble paradigm,” as represented by band, orchestra, and choir, represents a “central pedagogical dilemma.” Since 1961 when it was first formalized as an official course at UCLA, the university mariachi ensemble has become a space of political negotiation and contestation, including issues of departmental hierarchy, music epistemologies, cultural de-contextualization/assimilation, and the purpose of music education. From the vantage point of institutional music programs, mariachi represents a stylistic folk genre that utilizes a mix of traditional and hybrid European instruments with repertoire based in traditional Western theoretical and compositional techniques. Under this definition, mariachi is stripped of its social significance and cultural symbolism that constructs notions of Mexican-ness. This de-contextual conceptualization problematizes much of the pedagogical approaches used among formalized US mariachi instructional programs whose growth within public schools and universities throughout Texas has exploded. In Mexico, mariachi historically has been transmitted informally, often through familial ties and working apprenticeships resulting in a performative expression based on a lifelong absorption of context specific socio-musical experiences that produce distinctly competent native musicians and listeners. Within these contexts, learning to perform mariachi is less about “style” and more about “cultural milieu.” This paper critically examines the university mariachi ensemble observing the pedagogical shift from culturally centered learning to more Westernized notions of art aesthetic. Invoking Heidegger’s notions of technology, I argue that as a technological mode of “Being,” the pedagogical approach to teaching performance as imposed by the institutional bureaucracy of the academy, has largely reduced music and in this case, mariachi’s potential as intersubjective experience, reducing it to a resource ripe for exploitation manifested though processes of “legitimization.”
Since the mid-1970s, formal mariachi learning through ensemble performance was initiated in unive... more Since the mid-1970s, formal mariachi learning through ensemble performance was initiated in universities and more recently public schools. Today the popularity of scholastic mariachi ensembles challenges a long history of modernism in music education. The positioning of mariachi ensembles in formal music instructional settings, can be framed as a Postmodern shift from traditional forms of music teaching. However, modernist practices within music education, most evident in western schools and universities, permeate persistent narratives that resist change and enforce the status quo. Mariachi's traditional forms of transmission and performance practice are altered, as formal curriculums shift it from an oral tradition to written, marginalizing its defining socio-cultural, historical, and musical constructs, to conform with the dominant paradigm. This paper examines the development and challenges of formalized mariachi instruction conceptualized as postmodern music education. The politics of education, cultural representation, authenticity, are discussed within the binary position of modern/post modern thought.
In recent years, mariachi ensembles have gained widespread prominence within music programs in se... more In recent years, mariachi ensembles have gained widespread prominence within music programs in secondary and post secondary educational institutions throughout the US.
Articles by José R . Torres-Ramos
In a recent conversation with Patricia Shehan Campbell, we discussed the relationship between Mus... more In a recent conversation with Patricia Shehan Campbell, we discussed the relationship between Music Education and Ethnomusicology. For the past twenty-plus years, Dr. Campbell has been a leader and innovator at the interface of Ethnomusicology and Music Education, including work on music for children, world music pedagogy, and ethnographic research on music as it is learned and taught. As the head of ethnomusicology and the Donald E. Petersen
Society for Ethnomusicology Student Newsletter Vol. 9, Nov 2014
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Publications by José R . Torres-Ramos
Conference Presentations by José R . Torres-Ramos
Investigaciones recientes sobre género y geografía han enfatizado las interacciones afectivas entre la corporeidad y sus espacios, y las formas en que se vinculan con ciertos lugares (Soto Villagrán 2003). Ubicado en la Ciudad de México, la Plaza Garibaldi es considerada el ‘santuario nacional’ para el mariachi moderno y el lugar público más grande en el mundo para sus presentaciones en vivo. En esta ponencia examino la espacialización del mariachismo como un proceso de encarnación musical mapeado en el lugar físico donde los mariachis y el público interactúan socialmente, convirtiéndose en una intersección experiencial del sonido generizado, el espacio y la cultura. Dentro de la plaza, la serenata mariachera es un ritual social que centraliza la forma en que los músicos y el público (re)construyen y espacializan representaciones de masculinidad—musicalmente, socialmente, y comercialmente ya sea como un desafío o conformidad a las narraciones hegemónicas de género incorporadas dentro de las practicas musicales del mariachi. El repertorio musical realizado para la serenata se convierte en un vehículo para el machismo a través de una conquista musical simbólica de parejas románticas femeninas. Sin embargo, cuando se realiza para figuras maternas, la serenata significa una feminidad idealizada a través de una noción reificada del marianismo (Stevens 1973). Este estudio examina la Plaza Garibaldi como un espacio no concebido como una ubicación material simple, sino como una posición discursiva, un “mapa” de significados (Jackson 1989) y un lugar encarnado para el mariachismo.
I argue that musicality is not developed solely through the traditional study and training of more theoretical perspectives offered by musical analysis or criticism. Rather musicality includes a process of recognizing musical signs embedded within the performance practices of music traditions such as mariachi, indexing a larger socio-cultural discourse. These signs reveal themselves not only through instrumental and vocal reproduction of culturally characteristic sounds and patterns, but also through an understanding of socio-cultural conventions including patterns of musical behavior between both the audience and performers and between the performers themselves.
Papers by José R . Torres-Ramos
Articles by José R . Torres-Ramos