Dear all,
We are excited to have Aimee González presenting her dry run for the Society for American Music’s conference next month. This meeting will be on TODAY, February 23 from 5:00–6:30pm CT, and will be in person at Logan room 802. There will be food and we hope to see you there!
Aimee Gonzalez
PhD Candidate, Music, University of Chicago
“Reimagining and Reviving the Past: Alejo Carpentier and Colonial Music in Cuba”
TODAY, February 23rd | 5:00–6:30pm CT
Logan, room 802
This paper explores the role of colonial music in articulating Cuban cultural identity since the mid-twentieth century, focusing on the resonances of Alejo Carpentier’s cultural theories within the contemporary revival of colonial Catholic music in Cuba. I demonstrate how writings about—and performances of—colonial music have supported a cultural politics that reimagines the colonial past from the perspective of the postcolonial present. I examine Carpentier’s uses of colonial music alongside discourses of colonial music in print media and recordings since the 1990s. These media center cultural mixing in Cuban identity and infuse histories of colonialism with subaltern cultural practices.