Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-187) Also issued online.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of Latina/o students in a high school mariachi and how they affect success in school during the course of a year and a half. The main research question is “how does mariachi membership influences ethnic cultural identity perception and schooling experiences for a group of Latina/o high school students?” The study is based on a qualitative research design, incorporating methods from ethnography and case study research and will rely on a sociocultural perspective on identity (Vygotsky, 1978, Holland et. al, 1998, Holland & Lachicotte, 2005) and Chicana feminist theory (Delgado Bernal, 1998) to illuminate the voices of the students and their experiences of mestizaje (Anzaldúa, 1987), or navigating between two cultures. Observations, field notes and ethnographic interviews containing descriptive and structural questions were conducted to understand how mariachi membership influences ethnic cultural identity perception and schooling experiences for a group of eleven Latina/o high school students. The interviews included students from age fourteen to seventeen, the mariachi director and assistant director, and the principal of the high school. Six of the eleven students interviewed participated in follow-up interviews and a focus group, and their experiences will be highlighted in this study. / text

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-302). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR32061

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One of the most recognized icons of Mexico is the mariachi moderno tradition, which in the global popular imaginary, is associated with nostalgic, humorous, and emotional songs of love, heartache, death, drinking, and place. Inseparably fused to tequila and the historic charro figure, mariachi moderno completes a symbolic trinity of hetero-nationalist culture, conveyed within a popular imaginary of authentic mexicanidad (Mexican-ness). For mariachis and aficionados in Mexico, performative hypermasculine machismo acts as a perceptual baseline, structuring modes of feeling that signify an experience of authentic nationalist musicality This process is musically constructed in an incorporation of bodily movement, instruments, sound timbres, and symbolic clothing, simultaneously gestured with a heavy male-accent fusing an experience that feels genuinely Mexican. This reflexive signification is a consequence of the lived experience, shared dispositions, and competencies learned in the habitus, constituting real and imagined notions of hetero-nationalist culture. I refer to this musical semiosis as mariachismo, a neologism describing an intersubjective experience of machismo-infused mariachi subjectivity, ritualized through repeated gestures of sound, lyric, and corporeality. The semiotic power of mariachismo is most potent for subjects enculturated to Mexico's hetero-nationalist culture, shaped by popular imaginaries operationalizing gender and mexicanidad, connecting the two, making them feel unquestioned, natural, and unmediated. The ontology of mariachismo, is in part revealed through an analysis of metaphors used by practitioners and aficionados to describe mariachi's musical techniques and social practices. These metaphors index an archive of embodied knowledge, a lived experience where hypermasculine subjectivity is reified and other forms of gendered performativity, including femininity and non-hetero subjectivities, are marginalized or purposefully subverted. Employing ethnomusicological analysis and building on concepts of habitus, performativity, and musical semiotics, this dissertation illustrates how mariachismo aesthetically enacts sonic-somatic gestures, enhanced by fetishized clothing, and construed within a symbolic music practice, all of which ritualize a perceptual experience of authentic mariachi musicality.

Music plays an important role in Mexican funeral ceremonies, acting as a vehicle for men to acceptably express emotions of bereavement. As an important symbol of mexicanidad (Mexicanness), mariachi music is often used in traditional Catholic funerals, ritualizing grief equally as a mourning of loss and a celebration of the life of a deceased person. Although a form of popular music, mariachi's secular songs go through a process of sacralization, becoming meaningful sites for experiencing grief. As a musical expression of Mexico's idealized gender norms mariachi opens an aesthetic sphere for masculine grief to be expressed, experienced, and socialized in an acceptable form. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the musical mediation of masculine grief, experienced and ritualized within funeral ceremonies, and observed through an ethnographic study of Mexican immigrant communities.

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Since the 1960s and in reaction to its increasing popularity within Latino populations in the U.S., mariachi has become a common component of curriculum-based music courses in a growing number of public schools. Even though one of the principal purposes for the existence of mariachi programs is to improve students’ academic performance, music scholars have yet to address how mariachi education encourages higher academic achievement. On the other hand, anthropological educators argue that children underperform in school due to cultural difference or cultural mismatch; therefore, it is necessary to incorporate the cultural heritage of students into the curricula for academic success. The purpose of this study is to gain an increased understanding of the impact of mariachi programs on high school students' experiences and academic achievement and look for the relationship between achievement and cultural identity. This study examines two mariachi programs in the Tucson Unified School District as microcosms within the larger mariachi community in Tucson. In this interdisciplinary study, I use both ethnomusicology and anthropology of education as frameworks. I argue that students enrolled in the two mariachi programs are re-creating their cultural identities in response to the sociocultural context of the music education in the United States. This process of identity formation allows them to move more smoothly from one setting to another in their family, peer, and school worlds. The interrelationship between students and their peers, parents, and teachers facilitates their academic achievement.

The purpose of this research study is to examine the influences of mariachi education on student perceptions of their academic achievement, academic attainment, and student engagement. The study involved students attending schools in California, Oregon, and Texas with mariachi programs that consented to be a part of the study, whose districts approved their participation. The students were approached to participate in this study, as they are a part of their school’s mariachi program in middle or high school throughout the Western half of the United States. A convergent parallel (mixed-methods) design and descriptive statistical analyses were used to investigate the influence of mariachi education on student perceptions of their academic achievement, academic attainment and student engagement. Within each strand, the three short-answer questions were analyzed for emergent themes. Within this study, the results and their implications will be beneficial for both mariachi educators and music administrators as they begin to build a foundation of evidence as to the influences of mariachi education as they relate to the academic achievement, academic attainment, and engagement of students. Influenced by their experience, fifty percent of participants identified mariachi as having a positive influence on their other classes, with almost another fifty percent acknowledging mariachi’s influence on their grades. Additionally, the largest portion of respondents indicated mariachi influenced them to pursue music after high school, with almost ninety percent stating they will be graduating from high school; an increase of seventeen percent over the national average for Latinx students. Eighty-two percent of students indicated that mariachi helps them connect more with their friends, while over seventy-one percent of respondents stating that mariachi helps them connect with their family. Finally, the largest portion of participants (96.1%) indicated that mariachi enables them to express pride in being Latinx. The study also provides a foundation for researchers who wish to continue to study the influences of mariachi education on academic achievement and attainment, as well as student engagement. Through a future doctoral dissertation, the researcher herself plans on further studying via statistical examination, influences of mariachi education on students, in comparison to students not involved in mariachi, with a focus on Latinx students.