Se Que Voy a Regresar: Migrant Music and Globalization in the Nuevo South

Abstract

Migrant music is an immediately noticeable aspect of the unprecedented and massive recent Latino immigration to the American South. This article examines the evolving embeddedness of migrant music culture in the new context of a globalized South. The unique historical and socioeconomic moment produced by Latino immigration is rightly viewed as a unique musical moment worth detailed study. This article evaluates globalized acculturation in the region both by demonstrating the resilience of traditional music in new migrant populations and by tracing the significant and unexpected rise of hybridization in the music being produced. It describes events involving migrant music, such as norteno bands in North Carolina and Mexican rodeos in Virginia. In so doing, this article describes the type, transfer, and process of migrant music and presents the evolving meaning of the music in its new regional context. This approach incorporates the insights of southern history and globalization theory as well as ethnomusicology. Music is a vital part of southern tradition, culture, and identity, and it is an appreciable if not core aspect of migrant culture. Music is also an excellent means of mapping complicated new southern regional identities. These changes are enriching a new southern identity for the global age. Studying migrant music is a means of understanding the impact of globalization on the South and regional identity as it also a means of understanding globalization itself.