How has Mexican music in Los Angeles served as more than just entertainment, acting instead as a vital tool for community survival and social change across generations?

In Puentes Sonoros (Sonic Bridges), distinguished scholar George Lipsitz explores how music has functioned as a primary register of the demographic and political shifts affecting Mexican-origin communities since the 1960s. Through a series of compelling case studies, George traces the evolution of three distinct musical movements: the emergence of Chicano rock as a defiance against commercial fragmentation, the rise of Banda as a shield against the labor exploitation of the 1990s, and the contemporary growth of FandangObon. By analyzing these "sonic bridges," George reveals a hidden history of Los Angeles, demonstrating how convivial co-creation and performance call new communities into being and transform expressive culture into a powerful social force.

This book is a must-read for scholars of Ethnomusicology and Chicano/a Studies, as well as urban historians interested in the social fabric of Los Angeles. It will also deeply resonate with community organizers and musicians who view art as a form of resistance and solidarity.

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Learning objectives
• Introduction
  • Who writes?
• 1 Cruising around the historical bloc: Postmodernism and popular music in East Los Angeles
  • Chicano rock music: Sonic Bridges
  • Chicano rock as grass roots postmodern cultural production
  • Pausing to ponder puentes 1
• 2 Banda: The music of the migrant class struggle
  • The Banda boom
  • Banda as an expression of working-class consciousness
  • Pausing to ponder puentes 2
• 3 FandangObon: Amplification, counter publics, and fugitive spaces of belonging in Los Angeles
  • Amplification
  • Fugitive spaces of belonging
  • FandangObon
    • The local and the politics of location
    • Improvisation and amplification
  • Pausing puentes 3
• Conclusion
  • Puentes Sonoros today
• Notes
• Recommended further readings
• Index