Sounds of Belonging

How Spanish-language radio has influenced American and Latino discourse on key current affairs issues such as citizenship and immigration.

Winner, Book of the Year presented by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education

Honorable Mention for the 2015 Latino Studies Best Book presented by the Latin American Studies Association


The
last two decades have produced continued Latino population growth, and marked
shifts in both communications and immigration policy. Since the 1990s, Spanish-
language radio has dethroned English-language radio stations in major cities
across the United States, taking over the number one spot in Los Angeles,
Houston, Miami, and New York City. Investigating the cultural and political
history of U.S. Spanish-language broadcasts throughout the twentieth century, Sounds
of Belonging reveals how these changes have helped Spanish-language radio
secure its dominance in the major U.S. radio markets.






Bringing together theories on the immigration experience with
sound and radio studies, Dolores Inés Casillas documents
how Latinos form listening relationships with Spanish-language radio
programming. Using a vast array of sources, from print culture and industry
journals to sound archives of radio programming, she reflects on institutional
growth, the evolution of programming genres, and reception by the radio
industry and listeners to map the trajectory of Spanish-language radio, from
its grassroots origins to the current corporate-sponsored business it has
become. Casillas focuses on Latinos’ use of Spanish-language radio to help
navigate their immigrant experiences with U.S. institutions, for example in
broadcasting discussions about immigration policies while providing anonymity
for a legally vulnerable listenership. Sounds of Belonging proposes that
debates of citizenship are not always formal personal appeals but a collective
experience heard loudly through broadcast radio.

Dolores Inés Casillas is Associate Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute (CSI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy (2014), which won Book of the Year from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education and was Honorable Mention/Best Latino Studies Book, from the Latin American Studies Association. She is co-editor of the Companion to Latina/o Media Studies (2016) and co-editor Feeling It: Language, Race and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning (2018).

Dolores Ines Casillass important study sheds new light on Spanish-language radio, noting how it allows marginalized Latinos to claim a place within a hostile environment.

Isabel Molina-Guzman,author of Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media:
Methodically argued and supported with rare archival detail, Sounds of Belonging provides a sorely needed account of U.S. Mexican community radio and Chicano-based Spanish-language radio. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Sounds of Belonging makes a significant intervention into Latina/o media studies and media history more generally.

Joy Hayes,author of Radio Nation: Communication, Popular Culture, and Nationalism in Mexico:
Sounds of Belonging provides insightful, original research on important developments in Spanish-language radio and makes a unique contribution to the field. Casillasenriches our understanding of U.S. radio history and Latino culture.