The Sounds of the Nation: Visions of Modernity and Tradition in Mexico’s First National Congress of Music

For decades, political, social, and (lately) cultural historians have successfully challenged the orthodox history of the Mexican Revolution: a teleology of progress achieved through the beneficence of the postrevolutionary state. The official history of nationalist aesthetics and national identity — with its essentialist claims to mexicanidad or lo mexicano, its iconization of (male) cultural caudillos, and its close association of cultural nationalism with the state — has received less attention. The critical assessment of aesthetics now underway has focused on the relationship between indigenismo and the plastic arts, rather than music.¹ The orthodox history of music iconizes a few great men (for example, Manuel M. Ponce, Julián Carrillo, and Carlos Chávez) and links cultural nationalism to government sponsorship; such prevailing views bear reexamination. The cultural production and consumption of music is an arena for the dynamic interplay of power in particular historical contexts.² This article seeks to...