10 The Afro-Cuban soundscape of Mexico City
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David F. García
Abstract
This chapter argues that Afro-Cuban music and dance were integral to the making, narrating, and viewing experience of the films Salón México and Víctimas del pecado. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the Afro-Cuban habanera, danzón, rumba and bolero, often referred to collectively in Mexico as música tropical or 'tropical music', formed an integral part of local musical traditions throughout the nation. The chapter assesses how Mexican filmmakers Emilio Fernández, Mauricio Magdaleno and Gabriel Figueroa utilized Afro-Cuban music and dancing to convey believable spaces of immorality and violence for their audiences. They deployed the music and dancing diegetically to animate, entertain and exhaust the characters, and mimetically to construct an underworld of nocturnal urban spaces that defied the conventions of Mexican national identity. They constructed these subversive spaces, however, in ways that reinforced normative Mexican conceptions of gender and race.
Abstract
This chapter argues that Afro-Cuban music and dance were integral to the making, narrating, and viewing experience of the films Salón México and Víctimas del pecado. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the Afro-Cuban habanera, danzón, rumba and bolero, often referred to collectively in Mexico as música tropical or 'tropical music', formed an integral part of local musical traditions throughout the nation. The chapter assesses how Mexican filmmakers Emilio Fernández, Mauricio Magdaleno and Gabriel Figueroa utilized Afro-Cuban music and dancing to convey believable spaces of immorality and violence for their audiences. They deployed the music and dancing diegetically to animate, entertain and exhaust the characters, and mimetically to construct an underworld of nocturnal urban spaces that defied the conventions of Mexican national identity. They constructed these subversive spaces, however, in ways that reinforced normative Mexican conceptions of gender and race.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Singing of dubious desire 17
- 2 Voicing gender 30
- 3 Bien pagá 51
- 4 El otro lado de la cama 66
- 5 On the function of punk aesthetics in Salto al vacío and Historias del Kronen 83
- 6 Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film 98
- 7 Song-shaped cinema 114
- 8 Travelling song 134
- 9 Sound moves 151
- 10 The Afro-Cuban soundscape of Mexico City 167
- 11 Blues traveller 189
- 12 Dancing in the dark 206
- 13 Re-making Frida Kahlo through song in Frida 220
- 14 ‘Silence! Fado is about to be sung’ 235
- 15 Sounds from Brazil 249
- 16 Soundtrack to roguery 264
- 17 The Brazilian chanchada’s musical moments and the performance of identity 283
- 18 Orpheus in Babylon 298
- Index 315
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Singing of dubious desire 17
- 2 Voicing gender 30
- 3 Bien pagá 51
- 4 El otro lado de la cama 66
- 5 On the function of punk aesthetics in Salto al vacío and Historias del Kronen 83
- 6 Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film 98
- 7 Song-shaped cinema 114
- 8 Travelling song 134
- 9 Sound moves 151
- 10 The Afro-Cuban soundscape of Mexico City 167
- 11 Blues traveller 189
- 12 Dancing in the dark 206
- 13 Re-making Frida Kahlo through song in Frida 220
- 14 ‘Silence! Fado is about to be sung’ 235
- 15 Sounds from Brazil 249
- 16 Soundtrack to roguery 264
- 17 The Brazilian chanchada’s musical moments and the performance of identity 283
- 18 Orpheus in Babylon 298
- Index 315
