Books on and about Mexico and Mexicans

"Oh, darn Amazon...they keep feeding my addiction!

This one looks as if it would be better to help me understand the banda music:

Musica Nortena: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation Between Nations

Not cheap (I like it when I can get a used book for one cent (or even a buck or so higher!) plus the $3.99 shipping!);
even the Kindle version is $16+

The only review says that it would have been better if she had included customs/clothing etc. <<On the downside, the author could have (should have?) discussed some of the other aspects of the style wars, such as dance styles (quebradita vs duranguense?) and clothing styles (cholo vs vaquero?) which would have made her social analysis pack more punch. Although she's an ethnomusicologist, her knowledge of nortena culture seems extensive enough that she could enlighten us on some aspects of the culture that are not strictly musical.>> "

I like that it is apparently addressed toward non-musicians.

http://www.amazon.com/...331836523&sr=1-6

We have a large migrant population in SW Miami-Dade County's agricultural area and I occasionally switch to the local Mexican radio station. But when I'm on the road going on a camping trip, I can usually find one in several parts of FL...especially when I go up toward Lake Okeechobee."


Banda and Nortena music are two different animals. Nortena is much more like American country and western with the accent on accordion from the Northern states of Mexico. Banda is from Sinaloa and is drum beating, loud horns and out of key singers [my opinion] and a lot of noise and a dozen or so players usually, traditionally.

I like Sergio Vega songs:

http://www.buenamusica.com/sergio-vega/canciones

http://www.buenamusica.com/sergio-vega/biografia

El cantante mexicano norteño Sergio Vega, conocido como El Shaka, fue asesinado el sábado, 26 de junio de 2010, por varios sicarios que le dispararon 30 veces. Horas antes, el cantante había desmentido que hubiera sido víctima de un atentado, como se había rumoreado. De hecho, había comentado que a raíz de la ola de violencia sufrida por los músicos de su estilo, había reforzado su seguridad. Desde 2007 siete músicos populares mexicanos han muerto a manos de sicarios del crimen organizado. El género que manejaba el cantante, con referencias al amor, al peligro y al tráfico de drogas, es conocido como narcocorrido.


He dabbled in Narcocorrido music and recently meet an untimely end.

Also this assassination was hugely publicized as the start of this stupid deadly spree that still continues.

Asesinan a Valentín Elizalde en Reynosa


http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/espectaculos/73091.html

"gracias, Alan.....now I get an education in this music that can have dangerous repercussions. kinda scary
I've copied your message and will check out the links (I was raised in Venezuela; fluent in Spanish, but not with many Mexicanisms.

I loved this book: Ask a Mexican by Gustavo Arellano...from his newspaper columns. Hysterically funny and very irreverent. (and available for one cent plus $3.99 shipping! Kindle price is high $16+ I just ordered another one of his and he has one coming out in April.

http://www.amazon.com/...331844339&sr=1-9 "



You are welcome. This is the guy who unknowingly started it. The songs telling his story and his capture many years ago, the first Narcocorrido music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Caro_Quintero

A forum dedicated just to books is too narrow a focus.

"Alan, off the subject, but you don't take PMs, since you use Mexicali as part of your handle, does that mean you're a cachanilla, or have I been mislead about the meaning of that word?"

Cachanilla, no, married to one, now my ex-wife, yes. My present wife in a Potosina.