Sounding Aztlan: Music, Literature, and the Chicana/o Sonic Imaginary
This dissertation explores the question: What does Aztlán sound like? Informed by decolonialfeminist theory and sound studies concepts, I consider listening as a new praxis with which toremember complex narratives of belonging and citizenship against the assimilating force ofnational forms and political limits. This interdisciplinary research engages the idea of Aztlán, themythical homeland of the Nahuas, and the imagined solidarity it mobilized in 1960s activism asa Chicana feminist concept with a history of generative interventions that challenge itsnationalist logic. Taking up the contested notion of Aztlán as historically marginalizing towomen and la joteria, I use a method of listening to "tune in" to multiple, heterogeneous, andalternate histories of Chicana/o belonging in the musical and literary soundscapes of GreaterMexico. This work explores the diverse audible markers of race, gender, sexuality, citizenshipand migration that circulate in the Chicana/o musical, literary, performance and new mediaobjects I examine. I argue that through the soundscape, Aztlán becomes a plural concept."Sounding Aztlán" is organized as four linked discussions that test the portability of sound as anew interpretive method and epistemology for Chicana/o Studies, sound studies, and decolonialfeminism: Ch. 1, "Tuning In to Coalition: Listening to This Bridge Called My Back," revisitsthe foundational feminist text, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women ofColor. I think of Bridge as an artifact of coalition, a multiplicity of radical voices embodied inits very form. Just as the act of writing for women of color is connected to life, the stakes ofbeing heard are high. I claim that there is an aural dimension to Bridge beyond the textual thathas to do with perceptions of the sound and noise women of color make. Practicing a decolonialfeminist "listening," this chapter engages Bridge anew as a soundscape of coalition. Ch. 2,"Decolonial Feminist Soundscapes in Post 1980s Chicana Literature," and Ch. 3, "Soundtracks,Chicana Butches, and East L.A.: Verónica Reyes's Chopper! Chopper! Poetry from BorderedLives and Raquel Gutiérrez's The Barber of East L.A." posit that literature is noisy and thereforecalls for the reader to listen as a new mode of interpretation. The soundscapes in Chicana/o2narratives have not been fully engaged in prior readings of the poetry, fiction, and drama bySandra Cisneros, Luis Alfaro, Estella Gonzalez, Raquel Gutiérrez, and Verónica Reyes. I arguethat literature becomes a site for hearing creative sonics of subjectivity, coalition, and queerness.Against the dominant imaginary of Aztlán, feminist solidarities, decolonial feminist poetics,butch/femme histories, alternative music scenes, and East Los Angeles become audible in thesepost 80s literary Chicana representations. Ch. 4, "Performing América On The National Stage,"examines a repertoire of three Chicana/o performances of "The Star Spangled Banner" bycontemporary pop/rock, mariachi, and banda musicians. I take Jimi Hendrix's iconic 1969performance at Woodstock as a jumping off point to explore how dissonant moments betweenthe visual and aural performance of nation captured on social media provide openings formultiple interpretations of citizenship. When the national anthem becomes part of the Chicana/orepertoire, what map of the Americas is sounded through these Chicano performances of thenational anthem? These performances highlight meaningful disruptions, tensions, resistances,and variations on the theme of América.