Northward Bound: The Mexican Immigrant Experience in Ballad and Song / Edition 1

by Maria Herrera-Sobek

Overview

". . . provides a valuable service of not only gathering and presenting from 5,000 song texts a wide variety of ballads with full translation but also placing them all in a succinct historical context extending from the Mexican War to the present." —Journal of American Ethnic History

" . . . [a] stunning achievement, not only because it is an intelligent and comprehensive study of Mexican immigrant ballads, but because analysis gives way to, steps aside respectfully for, a multitude of immigrants who sing their experiences of crossing the border into the U.S. with astonishing clarity and historical perspicacity." —Western Folklore

"Herrera-Sobek's folk-song collection is impressive, as are her English translations—crisp and unstilted." —MultiCultural Review

"[Herrera-Sobek's] well-written book provides historians, ethnomusicologists, sociologists, and other scholars with a case study that demonstrates how valuable song lyrics can be in their studies. Strongly recommended to humanists and social scientists." —Choice

"Supported with photographs, full documentation and other scholarly devices, this is a solid work on an unusual topic." —Sing Out!

Northward Bound traces Mexican emigration to the United States from 1848 to 1991 through the lyrics of Mexican ballads (corridos) and contemporary popular songs (canciones). These autobiographical songs reflect the relationship between individual experience and the history-making process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253327376
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	05/22/1993
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

María Herrera-Sobek, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Irvine, is the author of several books, including The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis; The Bracero Experience: Elitelore versus Folklore, and Beyond Stereotypes; The Critical Analysis of Chicana Literature.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One. 1848-1964

One Cowboys and Outlaws
Two Working and Traveling on the Railroad
Three Revolution and Hard Times
Four Of Migrants and Renegades
Five Repatriation and Deportation
Six The Bracero Program

Part Two. After 1964

Seven Songs of Protest
Eight Border-Crossing Strategies
Nine Racial Tension
Ten Poverty, Petroleum, and Amnesty
Eleven Love
Twelve Acculturation and Assimilation
Thirteen Death

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index