Mexican-American Music in LA: Bringing People Together

In George Lipsitz’s  chapter entitled “Cruising Around the Historical Bloc: Postmodernism and Popular Music in East Los Angeles,” he addresses the fact that as more immigrants pour in to the United States, Mexican-Americans have had to learn how to stay true to their own cultural identity while at the same time assimilate and conform to American society.

 

However, adapting to the melting pot we call America has not been, and is still not easy for those that are immigrants. In our country barriers have been put up based on race and socio-economic status. Mexican-Americans in particular have had to confront these barriers and become accustomed to the racial prejudice and discrimination that existed and still exists today in America. One way that Mexican-Americans have overcome this is through their music. They know this kind of climate (one that is intolerant and unfair) is one that they have to exist in if they want to live here, so they recognize the issues they have to face, and use their previous culture and Mexican identity to move past the bigotry and form a new social identity. “Masters of irony in an ironic world, they often understand that their marginalized status makes them more appropriate spokespersons for society than mainstream groups unable to fathom or address the causes of their alienations” (Lipisitz, 135). They use their experiences and write and sing about them. A few voices then become one main voice of a whole population that people can relate to, which in turn makes their music popular, even in mainstream society. For example, instead of looking at the term “cholo” as derogatory, a group called The Pachucos “embraced the cholo image, [and] flaunted their alienation by openly identifying with one of society’s most despised groups” (140).

 

In addition, Mexican-Americans have also taken music from other sources and transformed it and made it their own. The ability of musicians to learn from other cultures played a key role in their success as rock-and-roll artists (Lipsitz, 140). One person that pushed boundaries by not just taking music from other musicians of different ethnic backgrounds and making it his own, but also by being the only white drummer in a black band was Johnny Otis. He said in Lipsitz’s chapter that “this society says no white kid can stay in black culture, but see, that culture has captured me” (141). Though mainstream society may have tried to alienate people by their race or class, at the same time music is definitely something that can push past the racial barriers to bring people together.

 

Los Angeles is such a diverse place that people are bound to come into contact with each other and find things in common even though people are so different from each other here. Music does a good job of bringing people together because music is something that almost everybody has access to and can find or make it on their own. Ritchie Valens did a good job of  bringing “the folk traditions of Mexican music to a mass audience via rock and roll, but his music also reflected an extraordinary blending of traditions and styles from other cultures” (143). I think this is exactly what music is all about. Music is a way for people to write, sing, dance, play, and basically translate their emotions, feelings, and reality into something that is easily accessible for us all to enjoy.

 

When I moved to Los Angeles one of the first things I became aware of (because I have a car and drive a lot) were the different radio stations. Coming from Norfolk, Virginia I didn’t see or know a lot of Mexican-Americans or listen to that type of music, and when I turned on the radio “latino hits 96.3” was one of the first stations I noticed. Though the station may have played different music than I was normally used to, it made me think about how even though the music was different it is still what makes up America. Mexican-American music or chicano music “is a music that’s as much Mexican culture as it is American” (Lipsitz, 150). All music may be different in our society in the US, but it’s still American. Just like the people in our society; we all come from different backgrounds but we are all American.