Untitled Document

Festival on the Hill 2008

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents

Transcending Borders:
Latin American and Latina/o Music
in North Carolina and the United States
March 27-30, 2008

From the history of English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish colonialism to the ongoing political, economic, and cultural effects of globalization, geographic borders in the Americas have proven to be not only transferable but increasingly amorphous, producing both anxiety and empathy among people of the Americas. Concomitantly, North and Latin American musicians have used music to define and transcend not only national and cultural differences but also categories of genres in music. Whether used to distinguish between folk and classical, traditional and popular, or American and Latin, music has served to articulate and negotiate “borders” of style, genre, culture, nation, region, race, and ethnicity. Music can serve as a divisive as well as a transcendent human endeavor, a powerful artistic and humanistic medium through which we define ourselves and others with whom we share our communities, state, country, continent, and hemisphere. As the political climate surrounding immigration intensifies in North Carolina and the United States, the need to reflect on the long and fruitful history of cultural exchange between North and Latin Americans becomes even more pressing.

The UNC-CH Music Department’s Festival on the Hill 2008 will celebrate Latin American music’s diversity, its ongoing dialogue with and contributions to the music of the United States, and its emerging impact on North Carolina’s cultural and social landscape. With a pan-ethnic term like “Latino” comes the notion that the Latin American community and its music are homogeneous. In reality the Latino community in North Carolina encompasses first generation immigrants from Latin America, second generation Latinos born and raised in North Carolina, as well as Latinos who have emigrated from other regions of the United States and whose roots in this country go back generations. Musical styles and repertories that represent this diversity include música norteña, salsa, samba and bossa nova, tango, Latin jazz, modern classical music, and even Mexican Baroque music. Festival on the Hill 2008 will highlight not only the diversity of Latin American and Latino music in North Carolina, but its historically and geographically expansive impact on the cultural and social landscape of the United States. This festival is also significant because it will mark the Festival on the Hill’s first attempt to establish a direct connection with the Latino community in North Carolina.

Tania Leon The Festival will involve four components: 1) music performances with public discussions; 2) a world premiere of a musical piece by Cuban composer and professor of music Tania León; 3) free and public conference featuring combined workshops and panels consisting of local Latin American musicians and invited scholars and educators from UNC-CH, other universities from throughout the country, and local middle and high schools; and 4) finale concert celebrating the making of Latin American and Latino music in Central North Carolina.

UNC-CH is the leader in Latin American and Latino Studies in the Southeast United States. UNC’s Institute of Latin American Studies was founded in 1940 to coordinate the research and teaching activities in Latin American history, politics, geography and society. These activities date back to 1915 when the curriculum in Latin American studies was first established at UNC-CH. On March 1, 2004 the UNC-CH Administrative Boards approved an undergraduate Minor in Latina/o Studies whose interdisciplinary curriculum (humanities and social sciences) focuses on the historical, social, cultural, and political issues encountered by Latinas and Latinos in the United States. Finally, in spring 2007 the prestigious Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-CH received over 10,000 78rpm records of Mexican and Mexican-American music from the collection of Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records. These and other institutions at UNC-CH are continuing to respond to this significant moment of the state’s and region’s history, and the Festival on the Hill 2008 will bring many of these facets together for all North Carolinians to learn about the past, present, and future of Latin American and Latino music in the state of North Carolina and the United States.

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