The Hispanic community makes up the second largest demographic in the United States
1. The community makes up significant cultural and economic influence not only on society but on politics as well. The US is often described using the “Melting Pot” analogy which shows the large number of different cultures. So, the fact that there is a large Hispanic community is not at all surprising. However, this was not always the case in the US. At some point this vast amount of people needed to leave somewhere and immigrate into the US. Most of this happened during the 19th century but the base for the cultural fusion we have today can be traced back to the 1930’s. Many of the “classic” Hispanic signs, art, and music was first documented in the 1930’s. Using this documentation of music one can see why much of what is considered Hispanic today exists.
When talking about the effect and power of music Alan Lomax describes it perfectly as something that “honors the traditions of all people and enriches us as individuals”
2. Alan Lomax was talking about The Global Jukebox, a website that preserves music in order to enrich later generations. The Hispanic music of the 1930’s can do exactly what the Global Jukebox sets out to do. In the Hispanic community, Religion is a very well-known staple with Catholicism being its biggest. This is represented in its music today and in the 1930’s. Jesus and religion being such a central figure in songs listen 3 shows its impact on the Hispanic Community. Like many other Hispanic songs from the 1930’s they have a religious aspect as their center point. This goes back to the core idea of the Hispanic culture in the US starting in the 1930’s. The music that is preserved helps show in what ways the developing Hispanic community expressed itself. The songs were made in order to bring together people from vastly different countries with two of the things they had in common: language and religion.
Often time the Hispanic people migrating moved through very distant lands in order to get to the US or even places of work. As mentioned before the Hispanic people were from vastly different places only really connected by their language. An Argentine could have incredibly different beliefs than a Venezuelan. The songs of this era also needed to bring people together in the US. The American Ballad being a primary example of this. Many parts of the Us were highly disconnected and a song that united all the places under one sound is incredible 4. In many ways for Hispanics the places they have gone through to get to the US unites them. Crossing rivers, hills, and mountains listen 5 in order to find jobs is common ground among many of its Hispanic listeners.
The Hispanic community being such a large part of the US can be traced all the way back to the 19th century. But, it was not until the 1930’s that its true culture began to take shape. Today we can analyze much of it using preserved songs in the Library of Congress. They show some of the common ground that was found during the time of migration and job search in the 1930’s. Also with religion being a such a staple in the community, the songs reflect this idea. In the future, as more songs are analyzed and songs from today are easily preserved the future generations will be able to see our culture through music.
- United States Census (2018) “United States Demographics Profile 2018”
indexmundi Retrieved: https://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/demographics_profile.html
- Alan Lomax (2018) “The Global Jukebox” Global Jukebox Retrieved: http://www.culturalequity.org/resources/gjb
- “María busca a Jesús (Mary Looks for Jesus) [Audio]” AFC 1940/002: AFS 3907a1, Library of Congress Retrieved: https://www.loc.gov/item/raelbib000005/
- Radio Diaries (2018) “The Song that Crossed Party Lines” PRX
- “Decidme, montes y selvas, Part 1 of 2 (Tell Me, Mountains and Forests) [Audio]” AFC 1940/002: AFS 3907a3, Library Retrieved: https://www.loc.gov/item/raelbib000007/
