Estevan Azcona (University of Arizona)
Situated at the borderlands of U.S. American South, ethnic Mexican Southwest, and North and South America, the city of Houston offers a site for viewing contemporary practices of Texas-Mexican accordion. Public folklorists have been chipping away the story of Houston as oil city and finding a poly-cultural world of expressive practices built from the bottom up. This paper charts this cultural worldview of Houston through the evolving stylistic expansion of Texas Mexican accordionists by exploring how these musicians use the accordion to locate themselves in an expanding worldview and how Chicana/o cultural production has anticipated larger shifts in the city narrative.
Part of 04-05 Roots and Routes: Political and Cultural Borders in Latin American Music-Making, Friday, November 03, 8:30 am–10:00 am