Sounds of Crossing

"I am almost left at a loss for words, except: wow. Alex E. Chávez's writing is vivid, rich, and sensuous, and the command of voicing as he switches between perspectives and crosses theoretical, ethnographical, and analytical divides is effortless and constantly clarifying. One hears the sound of a major ethnographic voice emerging here. Sounds of Crossing is one of the best musical ethnographies I've read in years, and it will surely rank with the very best books in its category of this or any generation." - Aaron A. Fox, author of Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture

"In this masterful ethnography, Alex E. Chávez focuses on huapango arribeño, its performance, its circulation, and its consumption, to explore the everyday politics of Mexican migrant life in the United States. Evoking the border crossing of décimas and zapateados huapangueros, Chávez's beautiful writing continuously challenges the boundaries between storytelling, theory, and real life to offer a dispassionate glimpse into the emotional paradoxes that inform the making of Mexican American spaces and subjectivities in twenty-first-century America." - Alejandro L. Madrid, author of Nor-tec Rifa! Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World

"Chavez uses the songs of the borderlands to talk about immigration into the US and the culture that has sprung up around the border. He pulls in both history and current situations – and best of all, his own experiences as a Mexican academic and musician – to create a multidimensional, gorgeous book." - Alejandra Oliva, Remezcla

"Bold and engaging. . . . Teeming with moments of intimacy, and a genuine attention to humanity. . . . Courageous and timely. . . . Sounds of Crossing will be of interest not only to scholars across disciplines and musical genres, as it relates aurality and aesthetics to political and social life, but also to non-academic lovers of music. This is a book of humanity, and a book of stories." - Nandini Rupa Banerjee-Datta, Current Musicology

"Alex E. Chávez has made an important contribution in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnomusicology, folklore, history, and immigration studies with his work, Sounds of Crossing. . . . A must read for those interested in the lives, experiences, and music of undocumented people in the United States." - José R. López Morín, Anthropos

"This masterfully written ethnography uses the huapango arribeño as a productive analytical lens into transnational living. It makes a stimulating contribution to the growing literature on vernacular musical practices beyond the radar of transnational music industries." - Helena Simonett, Ethnomusicology Forum

"Few scholarly works have attempted to link the study of popular music and literary practices to the experience of international migration and fewer still have done so in as compelling a way as Chávez has done." - David Spener, Bulletin of Latin American Research

"Sounds of Crossing succeeds in introducing Huapango Arribeno to the world, articulately weaving between the daunting cliffs of anthropological theory and the lush valleys of sung poetry and anecdote, carrying the mellifluous sounds of Espanol and a vihuela on its back, greeting across space and time, singing the songs of the unheard." - Renata Yazzie, Linguistic Anthropology

"The rigor and depth of both the ethnographic and musical work in this text, and the joining of the two, is a rare find in contemporary ethnography." - Kristina M. Jacobsen, Anthropological Quarterly

"Chávez provides a vivid, layered ethnographic model, pertinent to a wide range of scholarly inquiries and one that bridges vernacular conceptualizations of aurality and spatiality with sound studies literature." - Anthony W. Rasmussen, Sound Studies

"The scholarly significance of Sounds of Crossing is irrevocable. Chávez engages critically across histories and disciplines with also crafting an ethnographic narrative that is deeply meaningful and personal for many with similar or shared experiences." - Sophia M. Enriquez, Journal of the Society for American Music

"The author’s masterful oscillation between critiques of existing literature and his own ethnographic reflections makes for a wonderfully engaging and convincing book overall. . . . The depth of Chavez’s critical discussions is often remarkable." - Salvador Hernandez, Journal of Folklore Research