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Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation Between Nations. By Cathy Ragland. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009. Pp. xvi, 252. Figures. Maps. Halftones. References. Index. $29.95 paper.
Cathy Ragland has written a splendid scholarly study of música norteña, which originated in the Mexican northern borderlands. Although designated as "northern" music, as Ragland notes this music is played throughout Mexico as well as the United States wherever Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrant communities reside. Therefore, música norteña can be heard in Detroit, Chicago, San Jose, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and of course in the different urban and rural areas of Mexico. Ragland's brilliant and informative study is composed of an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. The chapters expound on the significant contributions música norteña has made to Mexican and Mexican-American communities. The five chapters bear the following tides: "Mexicanidad and Música Norteña in the 'Two Mexicos'"; "Regional Identity, Class, and the Emergence of 'Border Music'"; "Border Culture, Migration, and the Development of Early Música Norteña"; "Modern...