Cumbia!

"Cumbia has mattered, matters, and will most likely continue to matter for the multitudes who create it, listen and dance to it, and debate it almost as a way of life. This collection is both a sonic roadmap and testimony to the imagination of people across the Americas as they make some sense of their many worlds through music." - Jairo Moreno, author of Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects

"This is a significant, comprehensive, and timely collection of essays. As the essays demonstrate, cumbia is probably the most widespread rhythm in the Americas. Yet, until now, its travels and transformations have not received systematic attention, taking into account the complexities of the genre's roots in northern coastal Colombia and its subsequent routes into Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and the United States. Cumbia! fills a crucial gap in the literature on Latin/o American popular music." - George Yúdice, author of The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era

“The clear, simple language makes the essays accessible, and contributors are to be commended for their excellent presentations...Highly recommended.” - K. W. Mukuna, Choice

"Together [the essays] introduce the reader to a broad range of Latin American musical practices that claim their roots in a specific regional genre but mean different things in different places. Cumbia! is essential reading for anyone interested in popular music studies, music and migration, globalization, and communication."  - Helena Simonett, Hispanic American Historical Review

"The 'scenes' of this anthology range widely in a geographical sense and in the way that each writer approaches cumbia. Héctor Fernández l’Hoeste and Pablo Vila have assembled a collection of thoughtful essays and presented them in a logical sequence reflecting the outward migration of cumbia from its origins." - Carlos Pena, Notes

“[T]he volume underscores cumbia’s potential as a subject of academic inquiry and should inspire scholarship with a more integrative perspective. [The book] is a laudable effort to establish an understudied Latin American popular music in Anglophone academic discourse.” - Sven Kube, Journal of Popular Culture

"...the volume of essays offers an exciting foray into cumbia music and popular culture within transnational spaces." - Kristen McCleary, EIAL

"Cumbia! contributes useful ways of thinking about popular music and identities, regardless of region or genre." - Sydney Hutchinson, Ethnomusicology