‘Through forests of old / mahogany and cedar’: Geographies of the music of Sotavento

Abstract

This thesis examines the ways in which music and space intertwine in the region of Sotavento in the Atlantic coast of Mexico. It explores son Jarocho — that is, Sotaventine music — from a cultural geographical perspective, considering geopoetic and ecomusicological approaches, and drawing upon Paz and Bakhtin’s literary theory, Lefebvrian principles of the production of space, and Bachelardian phenomenology.

This work surveys Sotaventine music and different musical practices in relation to some important Sotaventine landscapes; namely grasslands, rivers, and forests. Through these explorations, questions of mobility, post-humanism and alternate ontologies, memory, colonialism, and race are interrogated, and the part played by music in their construction and deconstruction is interpreted. From these analyses I propose the notion of a son onto-epistemology that may help us understand this region and its music, but also places and sounds beyond.

The arguments in this text are built upon ethnographic research undertaken in different sites in which son Jarocho is played — mostly in Sotavento — and are presented alongside my own reflections on positionality, including my doubts and critiques of the ethnographic method.

This thesis builds upon the scholarship on musical and sound geographies by utilising the aforementioned theories to describe and analyse musical practices. It contributes to geopoetics and ecomusicology by adding a subaltern music to the already heterogeneous mix, taking this music style not only as an object of study, but also as a tool of analysis. It also adds to regional studies by approaching the Sotavento region through its music; and to son Jarocho by adding a geographical perspective to the study of this music.

Lastly, this thesis includes musical excerpts and field recordings, mostly as files accessible online at Soundcloud, but also transcribed as sheet music. This too is an innovation for music geographies.