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ABSTRACT
In this paper, I study the case of sonideros in Mexico to explore the possibilities that aural archives and experiences can bring to the academic understanding of the modern urban sensorium. I inquire about the ways in which Latin America is built through translocal networks that traverse the aural space. Through a dialogue between theorists from the region and other parts of the global south, I attempt to bring new light to some of the most important concepts proposed by Jesús Martín-Barbero. I propose a reading of sonideros from a translocal point of view that reclaims the use of non-traditional archives in order to question hegemonic assumptions about popular culture.
Notes
2 ‘Sonido’ is originally the name of the band; ‘Sonidero’ the DJ. Nonetheless, nowaydays ‘Sonidero’ is used indiscrimately to designate the DJ, the band and the event.
3 For more on Dance-hall Reggae, see: Stanley-Niaah, Sonjah. ‘Negotiating a Common Transnational Space: Mapping Performance in Jamaican Dancehall and South African Kwaito’. Cultural Studies Vol. 23, Nos. 5–6 September-November Citation2009, pp. 756-774. doi: 10.1080/09502380903132355
4 I have tried to find sonideras, but have had no luck so far.
5 But even the cumbia tradition has expanded and, as the reader who has been listening to the tracks suggested above, today cumbia sonidera can be any type of cumbia, from the Colombian to the argentine villera to peruvian chicha.
6 ‘Cholombianos’ are an urban tribe from the city of Monterrey. Their distinctive style combines andean and mexican motifs in their clothing and hairstyle. They are also known for using huge escapularios, catholic images, that they wear during sonidero parties. For more on cholombianos, see: Hernández Escobar, Samantta. Citation2016. ‘Cholombianos desde la mirada de Watkins’. Gatopardo, 23 de mayo. https://gatopardo.com/arte-y-cultura/cholombianos-amanda-watkins/ [Accessed 7 June 2022]; ‘Los Cholombianos: la tribu urbana que hizo suya la cumbia’. Citation2015. BBC Mundo, 19 de agosto; Watkins, Amanda. Citation2014. Cholombianos.México: Trilce. Also Fernando Frías’ film from 2019, Ya no estoy aquí.
7 There were in total 19 volumes of ‘Tequendama de Oro’ released. The last one in 2001.
8 Such is the case portrayed in Ya no estoy aquí, when Ulises, the main character, meets a Colombian prostitute at a bar in New York and shows her his own collection of cumbias, which she doesn’t recognize.
10 I have studied this particular phenomenon in another paper where I explore the ways in which the sonideros adapted to the confinement during the covid-19 pandemic. See Aschner Restrepo, C., 2022. El Sonidero de la Azotea.
11 Taken from: https://www.congresocdmx.gob.mx/archivos/parlamentarios/PPA_289_32_06_02_2020.pdf [Accessed 5 June 2022].
12 See Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience edited by Marie Thompson y Ian Biddle (Citation2013). In it, the authors that contributed to the volume study the ways in which sound, along with our perception of it, is capable of affecting in different ways the affective individual and collective reality: from the most intimate spheres to the politics of public space and social protest.
13 Some of this aesthetic transgression of gender norms can be seen in the movie Ya no estoy aquí.
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Camila Aschner-Restrepo
Camila Aschner-Restrepo holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences from Emory University (Atlanta, United States). She has also done postgraduate studies in performance and scenography at a.pass in Brussels, Belgium. She currently woks as Assistant Professor at the Department of Languages and Culture at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.