Remembering the Borderlands: Traditional Music and the Post-Frontier in Aisén, Chile

Abstract

In the Region of Aisén, in Chilean Patagonia, musicians claim Argentine popular music from the early twentieth century as regional tradition, and call on it to express local identifications and Chilean patriotism. This seemingly incongruous form of traditionalism is rooted in narratives of Aisén’s early history, when Chilean settlers depended on Argentina for their survival in marginal, frontier circumstances. This article introduces the concept of the "post-frontier" to explain the position from which residents of Aisén claim this music as their own. This research opens new territory in the study of transnational music, tracing the various ways in which temporality acts upon and within notions of regional identity, national belonging, and transnational affinity.

The role of music in ethnic identity formation in diaspora: a research review

“…Music not only functions to express and maintain pre‐existing identities, it also provides resources for contesting and negotiating identities and constructing new ones (Jung ; Kyker ; Stokes ). Due to globalisation processes, with their flows of ideas, people and products, hybridisations are continuously arising between cultural identities, practices and belongings (Ong ; Robinson ). Individuals and groups constantly must respond and relate to new phenomena and practices, and it is increasingly difficult to speak of distinct and fixed cultures.…”

“…Memory : Sheleman () discusses music as a site of memory, where historical narratives are shaped, something that is also stressed by Cidra (); Kyker () investigates how transnational identities are produced and negotiated through musical listening, with songs making it possible for listeners to symbolically relocate themselves within the social setting of a remembered home. Politics : Cidra () shows how songs questioned the legacy of colonial narratives and provided embodied experience of a diasporic present; Jung () examines how social media provide opportunities to circumvent racial barriers in the music industry; Alajaji () shows how the re‐diasporisation of a community affected the inclusivity of an ethnic identity, making it more exclusive; Kyker () discusses how audiences routinely interpreted songs about migration and diaspora as subtle criticism of postcolonial domestic politics, whereas Robinson () investigates how residents claim a regional music traditions as their own, and thereby express local identification as well as national patriotism.…”

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“…Durante la última década, la etnomusicología en el contexto sur-austral -denominación utilizada para referir al conjunto de regiones de Los Lagos, Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, y Magallanes y La Antártica Chilena-ha reportado experiencias que abarcan temáticas tan diversas como la música popular mapuche, la música tradicional en la Patagonia chilena, el jazz en la ciudad de Osorno, y las prácticas musicales urbanas en la Isla de Chiloé. Entre estas últimas, podemos encontrar los trabajos de Hayward y Garrido (2011), Hayward (2011), Robinson (2013, Garrido y Bendrups (2013), Delgado y Álvarez (2015), Soto-Silva (2017 y 2019) y Núñez (2019), los cuales, a pesar de las diferencias en sus enfoques y tópicos, coinciden en la instalación del territorio como un elemento común. Nelson Vergara (2010) en su ensayo titulado Saberes y entornos: notas para una epistemología del territorio habla de la condición imaginaria de este, y lo define como la construcción colectiva de un proyecto por parte de una comunidad.…”

Del Cafetero, de Maruja Hinestrosa, al Hombre macho, de Adán Guevara: género y transnacionalidad entre Colombia y Costa Rica

“…Esta noción de transnacionalidad se apoya también en el enfoque de investigaciones afines como la de Gregory Robinson (2013), cuyo estudio sobre músicos de Aisén (Chile) subraya la cercanía con tradiciones argentinas y, como consecuencia, la defensa de sus prácticas para reivindicar la música aisenina como auténticamente chilena:…”