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respond to your classmates. You must use provide citations for your responses
a
respond to your classmates. You must use provide citations for your responses
and arguments. You are only allowed to use academic sources for citations.
This means None of the following: news, government orgs, blogs, Wikipedia, or
similar materials.
If you have questions about a source ask me before you use it otherwise you will
lose significant points. Use JSTOR to find appropriate sources or other resources
from our library. I do not expect you to find outside sources nor do you need to do this, you may use the course materials only to answer these questions.
I strongly recommend you carefully respond to these questions because they are much more complicated than they seem.
YOU MUST USE IDEAS, CONCEPTS, and ARGUMENTS FROM OUR CLASS READINGS
AND YOU MUST PROVIDE A CITATION FOR THEM to receive credit.
You must do this in your responses to your classmates (see below).
references Below:
Black Pioneers: The Spanish Speaking Afro-Americans of the Southwest – Jack D. Forbes (ALR) Afro latino reader
The Earliest Africans in North America – Peter H. Wood (ALR) Afro latino reader
Chicano Rap Roots: Afro-Mexico and Black-Brown Cultural Exchange – Pancho McFarland (BB)
Squeezebox Poetics: Locating “Afromestizaje” in Esteban Jordan’s Texas “Conjunto” Performance – Marco Cervantes (BB)
Africans in the South and Racial Hierarchies
For those of Mexican ancestry living in south Texas, people may struggle to
identify as Texan or Tejano, depending on society’s view of their identity. Similarly, African people in the South and Southwest early in its settlement by Europeans
dealt with census records having a list of races or colors that made it difficult to
identify themselves. Even a royal official struggled with tracing their ancestry in
1774 because of their Negro, Indian, and European ancestry (Forbes 2010: 28). This way of thinking about racial identities has planted the seed of confusion and
racism since early America and continues to oppress Afro-Latinxs to this day.
African slaves, even though they were enslaved from the beginning of the South and Southwest settlement era, contributed to culture, music, and belief systems in America. Latinxs have contributed to the cultures of blacks as well through music
like chicano-rap. Contrastly, we think about Latino ancestry and foods that we
eat today, we can see a lot of African influence in flavor and style of presentation. The histories of Blacks and Latinxs are similar in that Bonilla-Silva’s “honorary
white” category caused tension between the two. This is because of the great
distinction between people who are black and those who are Latino due to the
racial hierarchy where white supremasist ideals reign supreme. The white
supremacist’s typical ideal belief is that it is better to separate these groups
rather than have larger combined groups. There would be an enormous shift in
how people viewed each other if the racial hierarchy was not so divided.
Black Culture and Chicanx Rap
According to Mcfarland’s article, the influence of Black culture on Chicanx rap can be seen through mestizaje and mulataje (cultural or biological mixing involving
Africans in the Americas) (McFarland 2006; 939). McFarland mentions how
Chicanxs and Blacks continuously interacted with each other more and more
over time further altering the mestizaje. Chicanx’s continuous encounters with
rap music and their experiences with oppression due to white supremacist ideals also caused Chicanx rap to come into existence (McFarland 2006; 945). The
author includes how Black and Chicanx rappers became so close that their styles and language began to reflect one another in that they “took pride in their
underclass and urban roots” (McFarland 2006; 951). For McFarland, racist
appropriation and Latinx use of the word “nigga” have warranted “a great
deal of scrutiny” (McFarland 2006; 951). This seems to be where McFarland draws the line between racist appropriation and cultural exchange. Cultural exchange is seen in how Chicanx rap uses African aspects such as funk, soul, R&B, blues, and
Afro-Latino beats. In my opinion, I believe that even though hip-hop and rap
originated from black culture, anyone of any race can participate in them. The history and community within rap and hip-hop that comes exclusively from black
culture has inspired many people to make similar music. Conversely, rock bands have been and are predominantly white today, but there are black artists who
make rock music seriously as well. Ultimately, racism and white supremacy
that resulted from the racial hierarchy has made it difficult to walk the line of
cultural appropriation and cultural exchange.
Cervantes and the Term Afromestizaje
According to Cervantes afromestizaje is used “to reference the identity and cultural pro-
duction of African American and Chicana/o subjects in shared spaces and in dialogue” (Cervantes 2013; 856). It is a way of observing shared aspects of culture between African Americans and Chicanxs while still recognizing the idea of mestizaje. This term is important when thinking about the creation of conjunto music
because Texas conjunto has now become a fusion of afromestizo/a, German,
Mexican, Latin American, and US influenced instrumentation and music. Cervantes argued that Esteban Jordan’s, a Texas-born musician, was instrumental in
combining Mexican American and African American music genres such as jazz,
soul, and funk while using the accordion (Cervantes 2013; 854). This genre would
come to be known as conjunto and is separate from any other category of Tejano music. Cervantes also argued that Jordan implemented more African American
sounds in his production which was different than what the normal Texas conjunto was sounding like at the time. He essentially made conjunto into a type of Texas conjunto afromestizo/a category. This interaction of cultures of music in the Southwest and South Texas is something we don’t typically recognize. Cervantes opens the eyes of the reader to see that Texas conjunto has definitely been influenced
heavily by the musical styles that came from African roots. This is important to
look at and makes us question whether or not cultural appropriation can occur at any point in the racial hierarchy. Based on this article, we can definitely say that
musical genres are racialized. Cervantes focuses heavily on mentioning where
musical genres come from and how Tejanos have pushed the boundaries when it comes to combining African American and Afro-Latinx music. I believe that Tejano is for everyone and we should encourage others to make the genre their own
and become inspired by the sounds to make music they enjoy. The best music
out there, in my opinion, is the music people put their heart and soul into and I don’t think we should keep that from people just because they are not Tejano,
Afro-Latinox, African American, or White.
References
Wood, Peter H., et al. The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United
States. Duke University Press, 2010.
McFarland, Pancho, Callaloo, Vol. 29, No. 3, Hip-Hop Music and Culture
(Summer, 2006), pp. 939-955
Cervantes, Marco, American Quarterly , December 2013, Vol. 65, No. 4
(December 2013), pp. 853-876
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