Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations (review)

During the past several decades, a few scholars have conducted innovative studies on various forms of music appreciated by Mexican Americans in the southwestern part of the United States Ragland continues and expands this literature by focusing not on the rhythms loved by Mexican Americans in one part of the country but on the music sought out by Mexican immigrants-both documented and undocumented—working and residing in the United States.

In her new book, she provides an analysis of the evolution and significance of one particular style of Mexican music known as música norteña. This music, she notes, is based on the utilization of two traditional instruments—the button accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-string guitar—and the use of the corrido song form. Musica norteña, which originated along the US-Mexico border, she argues, became intimately connected to the national identity (Mexicanidad) of mostly undocumented Mexican immigrants working and living a precarious existence en el norte (in the north). Because this music reflects their experiences, she adds, it has been transformed from one tied to a place to one that is associated with a space occupied by immigrants in the US. In the process the music has become transnational in nature. Música norteña, she notes, has become a musical creation of a nation between nations.

The book is organized into five major chapters that deal with various aspects of Mexican identity, the emergence of border music, and the origins, transformation, and transnationalization of música norteña. One of the strengths of this book is the excellent analysis of specific musical pieces and of the complex meanings and understandings of lyrics in the songs, especially the corridos.

Despite the excellent interpretation of música norteña’s significance Ragland’s narrative is problematic on many levels. Let me mention just a couple of them.

First, she conflates regions, experiences, and musical styles and fails to distinguish between the musical groups and styles found in different parts of Mexico and the US. She argues that the music found in northern Mexico is synonymous or similar to music found on the border, especially in south Texas. In discussing the antecedents of música norteña, for instance, she focuses on the development of clarinet and drum ensembles known as tamborileros and on orquestas like los Montaneses, musical groups popular in the Monterrey area. But she fails to show how these groups influenced música norteña along the border or why they should be considered antecedants to it. In my view, tamborilero ensembles had little to do with accordion-based música norteña. Rather than look at musical groups popular in the Monterrey area she needed to research the types of orquestas and ensembles popular on both sides of the south Texas-Mexico border during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In discussing the origins of música norteña, Ragland also fails to distinguish between the norteño and Tejano versions of conjunto music. She argues that Narciso Martinez and Santiago Almeida established the template for norteño music when they combined the button accordion and the bajo sexto. Other scholars however argue that this was also the template for Tejano conjunto. If this pairing was the origin of both Tejano and norteño conjunto music what made them uniquely Tejano or norteño? And why does Ragland argue that this pairing appealed to a migrant Mexican immigrant community when both Martinez and Almeida were not migrants. They were part of a large settled immigrant community in Texas.

Part of the problem in conflating experiences and regions is that Ragland fails to adequately and clearly define the concepts of “norteño” and the border. Her definition of “el norte,” for instance, is too broad and includes not only the three traditional states...