Writing from Below

From Spanish to English to Spanish: How Shakira’s VMA Performance Showcases the New Moment in Latin Music “Crossover”

***This post is co-written by Petra Rivera-Rideau  and Vanessa Díaz

On the night of September 12, Colombian pop star Shakira made history as the first predominantly Spanish-language artist to be honored as MTV’s Video Vanguard at the Video Music Awards (VMAs). The award recognizes artists who have had a major and innovative impact on music videos and popular music. Shakira played a 10-minute medley of Spanish and English hits from her three-decades long career. Her performance demonstrated her breadth as an artist as she shifted from pop to rock to reggaetón.

Not only did she demonstrate her impressive musical range, but of her 69 singles, Shakira selected those that represent two significant crossover moments for Latin music. She sang hits like “Wherever, Whenever,” “Hips Don’t Lie,” and “She Wolf” from her English-language crossover in the early 2000s as part of the so-called “Latin Boom.” She sang 2001’s “Objection (Tango)” with the same samba/rock music arrangement she used at her very first VMA performance in 2002.

During this “Latin Boom” of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shakira and other established Latin stars who had previously performed in Spanish, such as Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, and the late Selena Quintanilla, dominated the charts with English-language albums. Despite their successful global careers in the Latin market—and the long history and influence of Latinx musicians in U.S. pop music–U.S. media consistently portrayed these artists as exotic newcomers to the scene, praised more for being “Latin lovers” than established musicians. The Latin boom stars were valued as spicy foreigners there to expose Americans to new, exotic Latin sounds – conga beats, flamenco-style guitar riffs, and festive horns – even as many of these songs draw from familiar rock/pop references. Draco Rosa, one Ricky Martin’s co-writers, remembers “channeling [Jim] Morrison” and “elements of big band … a little bit of surf guitar” in the 1999 smash “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”

Despite the Latin Boom’s English-language crossovers, the images and sounds associated with the moment underscored the artists’ foreignness, something that continues today. This year’s Grammys’ botched treatment of superstar Bad Bunny’s performance and acceptance speech, in which, in lieu of translations, the subtitles merely declared that his words were “non-English.” Spanish has long been used to signify Latinxs’ alleged foreignness and inability to assimilate into US life and culture despite the fact that Latinx communities have been part of the fabric of the US for centuries. In the context of increased anti-immigrant sentiment, the popularity of Spanish-speaking artists like Bad Bunny and Shakira takes on even greater significance.

Following the Grammy’s disastrous handling of Bad Bunny’s performance and speech, backlash ensued. A plethora of popular memes and even t-shirts proudly claiming non-English popped up almost overnight. New York Times’ critic and Princeton professor Yarimar Bonilla proclaimed that “Bad Bunny is [Winning in Non-English].” Celebrities from comedian Cristela Alonzo to rapper 50 Cent admonished CBS. Even California Congressman Robert Garcia sent a letter directly to the CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, writing that the incident “display[ed] a lack of sensitivity and foresight. For too many Spanish-speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture.” CBS eventually released a tepid statement saying that their vendor was not adequately equipped to manage Benito’s Spanish-language speech and performance, and Cheeks took “full responsibility” for the incident. Overall, the Grammys snafu reflects the ways in which the American mainstream still is incapable of embracing the status of Latin artists as equal players in the US and global music markets, in any language. 

Compared to this year’s Grammys, however, MTV’s VMAs offered a much more inclusive approach, with a historic perspective that demonstrated exactly how we were able to arrive at this new moment in Latin music. When Puerto Rican and Cuban American rapper Fat Joe and Mexican pop star Thalia presented the award for Best Latin video, Thalia reminded the audience that “in the 2000s’ first Latin explosion, we had a song together, and now we’re here celebrating again this new Latin explosion.” This new Latin explosion refers to the numerous Spanish-language artists like Shakira, Bad Bunny,  Karol G, and Peso Pluma  who have recently broken out in the US mainstream.

But, unlike the previous Latin Boom, these artists have maintained their Spanish and their musical style. Bad Bunny’s Grammy performance included plena, reggaeton, and merengue rather than the kitschy styles of his Latin Boom predecessors. In addition to selling out stadiums around the country, Karol G drew 15,000 fans, the largest crowd in the Today Show’s history, for her reggaetón performance as part of the program’s Summer Concert Series in Rockefeller Center. Just this past September, Eslabon Armado became the first Mexican regional music group to ever perform on Good Morning America with their chart-topping hit “Ella Baila Sola” (the first Mexican regional song to ever hit number one on Billboard’s Global 200 chart). Whether it is the percussive dembow beat of reggaetón or the syncopated horns of corridos tumbados, all of these musicians have maintained the sounds of their respective genres, foregoing the stereotypical “Latin” sonic signifiers historically associated with Latin music. 

Shakira herself reflected this moment in her Video Vanguard performance. She performed her new Spanish-language songs as 2022’s “Te Felicito,” and 2023’s “TQG” and “Bzrp Music Sessions: Volume 53” (the latter having broken four Guinness world records, including the most streamed Latin track in 24 hours). All of these songs have been part of this new Latin music movement. In fact, her “TQG” collaborator Karol G also performed her Spanish hits at the show. Mexican regional phenom Peso Pluma sang “Lady Gaga” on a small stage, surrounded only by his band, and called out “¡arriba México!” at the end. Brazilian artist Anitta performed a multilingual medley from her Funk Generation: A Favela Love Story. In addition, Shakira and Karol G won the award for best collaboration for “TQG.” Not only did the women give their acceptance speech in Spanish, shouting out their home country of Colombia, but they also won in a category otherwise populated by mainstream English-language artists like Doja Cat with Post Malone, and Metro Boomin with The Weeknd, 21 Savage, and Diddy. The interchangeable, tropical Latinidad of the earlier Latin boom was replaced with shout outs to specific countries and regions, and the crowd proudly waved Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Colombian flags. At the VMAs, Latin musicians were not isolated in Latin awards categories or depicted as exotic novelties. They were central to the show – nominated for major awards, and celebrated for some of the night’s most memorable performances.

Much like this year’s Coachella, which featured Bad Bunny and K-Pop sensation Black Pink as headliners, this year’s VMAs reflects a more global approach to pop music. Tuesday night’s award show also featured two performances by K-Pop groups, and MTV offered its first ever award in Best Afrobeats. In this context, it makes sense that Latin music would have a significant presence in the program. But the dominance of Latin music right now makes it so that no part of the music industry can leave Latin music out anymore. Not the VMAs, not the Grammys, not Coachella. As Thalia proudly declared on stage, “this last year for the first time in the US Latin music made a billion dollars in streaming.” Bad Bunny has been the most streamed artist on Spotify for three years in a row, has the longest-running Spanish-language album at the top of the Billboard chart, and in 2022 became the only artist in history to stage two separate $100 million-grossing tours in less than 12 months. Karol G became the first woman to have a Spanish-language debut at number one, and came to the VMAs after a string of historic performances at her Mañana Será Bonito stadium tour. Latin music’s global appeal is undeniable and the industry has to respond accordingly.

This is among the most important times in history for Latin music, and honoring artists like Shakira center stage at the VMAs helps underscore the musical evolution we are lucky enough to witness. Twenty years ago, Shakira had to crossover into the US market in English; now she performs in her native Spanish and is more relevant than ever. The global success of stars like Peso Pluma, Karol G, and Bad Bunny means we need to completely reevaluate the concept of the crossover. Latin artists today did not crossover, the market crossed over into them. They are not compromising their language, their identity, or their culture. They do not have to kowtow to industry expectations that they perform the exotic, sexy Latin other. So while the VMA Vanguard Award winner Shakira may have had to crossover into English to make it during the ‘90s Latin boom, she can proudly return to her roots and, this time, the market will follow her.

—

Featured Image: Screen shot by SO! from Shakira’s MTV 2023 Video Vanguard acceptance speech

—

Petra Rivera-Rideau is Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College, and the author of Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico and the forthcoming book Fun, Fitness, Fiesta: Selling Latinx Culture in Zumba Fitness. Vanessa Díaz is Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University, and the author of Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood. Díaz and Rivera-Rideau are the co-creators of the Bad Bunny Syllabus.

—

REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig: 

Ronca Realness: Voices that Sound the Sucia Body—Cloe Gentile Reyes 

Contra La Pared: Reggaetón and Dissonance in Naarm, Melbourne—Lucreccia Quintanilla

Unapologetic Paisa Chingona-ness: Listening to Fans’ Sonic Identities–Yessica Garcia Hernandez

SO! Podcast #74: Bonus Track for Spanish Rap & Sound Studies Forum

Listening (Loudly) to Spanish-Language Radio– D. Inés Casillas

Simon Bowie

From Spanish to English to Spanish: How Shakira’s VMA Performance Showcases the New Moment in Latin Music “Crossover”

***This post is co-written by Petra Rivera-Rideau  and Vanessa Díaz

On the night of September 12, Colombian pop star Shakira made history as the first predominantly Spanish-language artist to be honored as MTV’s Video Vanguard at the Video Music Awards (VMAs). The award recognizes artists who have had a major and innovative impact on music videos and popular music. Shakira played a 10-minute medley of Spanish and English hits from her three-decades long career. Her performance demonstrated her breadth as an artist as she shifted from pop to rock to reggaetón.

Not only did she demonstrate her impressive musical range, but of her 69 singles, Shakira selected those that represent two significant crossover moments for Latin music. She sang hits like “Wherever, Whenever,” “Hips Don’t Lie,” and “She Wolf” from her English-language crossover in the early 2000s as part of the so-called “Latin Boom.” She sang 2001’s “Objection (Tango)” with the same samba/rock music arrangement she used at her very first VMA performance in 2002.

During this “Latin Boom” of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shakira and other established Latin stars who had previously performed in Spanish, such as Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, and the late Selena Quintanilla, dominated the charts with English-language albums. Despite their successful global careers in the Latin market—and the long history and influence of Latinx musicians in U.S. pop music–U.S. media consistently portrayed these artists as exotic newcomers to the scene, praised more for being “Latin lovers” than established musicians. The Latin boom stars were valued as spicy foreigners there to expose Americans to new, exotic Latin sounds – conga beats, flamenco-style guitar riffs, and festive horns – even as many of these songs draw from familiar rock/pop references. Draco Rosa, one Ricky Martin’s co-writers, remembers “channeling [Jim] Morrison” and “elements of big band … a little bit of surf guitar” in the 1999 smash “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”

Despite the Latin Boom’s English-language crossovers, the images and sounds associated with the moment underscored the artists’ foreignness, something that continues today. This year’s Grammys’ botched treatment of superstar Bad Bunny’s performance and acceptance speech, in which, in lieu of translations, the subtitles merely declared that his words were “non-English.” Spanish has long been used to signify Latinxs’ alleged foreignness and inability to assimilate into US life and culture despite the fact that Latinx communities have been part of the fabric of the US for centuries. In the context of increased anti-immigrant sentiment, the popularity of Spanish-speaking artists like Bad Bunny and Shakira takes on even greater significance.

Following the Grammy’s disastrous handling of Bad Bunny’s performance and speech, backlash ensued. A plethora of popular memes and even t-shirts proudly claiming non-English popped up almost overnight. New York Times’ critic and Princeton professor Yarimar Bonilla proclaimed that “Bad Bunny is [Winning in Non-English].” Celebrities from comedian Cristela Alonzo to rapper 50 Cent admonished CBS. Even California Congressman Robert Garcia sent a letter directly to the CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, writing that the incident “display[ed] a lack of sensitivity and foresight. For too many Spanish-speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture.” CBS eventually released a tepid statement saying that their vendor was not adequately equipped to manage Benito’s Spanish-language speech and performance, and Cheeks took “full responsibility” for the incident. Overall, the Grammys snafu reflects the ways in which the American mainstream still is incapable of embracing the status of Latin artists as equal players in the US and global music markets, in any language. 

Compared to this year’s Grammys, however, MTV’s VMAs offered a much more inclusive approach, with a historic perspective that demonstrated exactly how we were able to arrive at this new moment in Latin music. When Puerto Rican and Cuban American rapper Fat Joe and Mexican pop star Thalia presented the award for Best Latin video, Thalia reminded the audience that “in the 2000s’ first Latin explosion, we had a song together, and now we’re here celebrating again this new Latin explosion.” This new Latin explosion refers to the numerous Spanish-language artists like Shakira, Bad Bunny,  Karol G, and Peso Pluma  who have recently broken out in the US mainstream.

But, unlike the previous Latin Boom, these artists have maintained their Spanish and their musical style. Bad Bunny’s Grammy performance included plena, reggaeton, and merengue rather than the kitschy styles of his Latin Boom predecessors. In addition to selling out stadiums around the country, Karol G drew 15,000 fans, the largest crowd in the Today Show’s history, for her reggaetón performance as part of the program’s Summer Concert Series in Rockefeller Center. Just this past September, Eslabon Armado became the first Mexican regional music group to ever perform on Good Morning America with their chart-topping hit “Ella Baila Sola” (the first Mexican regional song to ever hit number one on Billboard’s Global 200 chart). Whether it is the percussive dembow beat of reggaetón or the syncopated horns of corridos tumbados, all of these musicians have maintained the sounds of their respective genres, foregoing the stereotypical “Latin” sonic signifiers historically associated with Latin music. 

Shakira herself reflected this moment in her Video Vanguard performance. She performed her new Spanish-language songs as 2022’s “Te Felicito,” and 2023’s “TQG” and “Bzrp Music Sessions: Volume 53” (the latter having broken four Guinness world records, including the most streamed Latin track in 24 hours). All of these songs have been part of this new Latin music movement. In fact, her “TQG” collaborator Karol G also performed her Spanish hits at the show. Mexican regional phenom Peso Pluma sang “Lady Gaga” on a small stage, surrounded only by his band, and called out “¡arriba México!” at the end. Brazilian artist Anitta performed a multilingual medley from her Funk Generation: A Favela Love Story. In addition, Shakira and Karol G won the award for best collaboration for “TQG.” Not only did the women give their acceptance speech in Spanish, shouting out their home country of Colombia, but they also won in a category otherwise populated by mainstream English-language artists like Doja Cat with Post Malone, and Metro Boomin with The Weeknd, 21 Savage, and Diddy. The interchangeable, tropical Latinidad of the earlier Latin boom was replaced with shout outs to specific countries and regions, and the crowd proudly waved Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Colombian flags. At the VMAs, Latin musicians were not isolated in Latin awards categories or depicted as exotic novelties. They were central to the show – nominated for major awards, and celebrated for some of the night’s most memorable performances.

Much like this year’s Coachella, which featured Bad Bunny and K-Pop sensation Black Pink as headliners, this year’s VMAs reflects a more global approach to pop music. Tuesday night’s award show also featured two performances by K-Pop groups, and MTV offered its first ever award in Best Afrobeats. In this context, it makes sense that Latin music would have a significant presence in the program. But the dominance of Latin music right now makes it so that no part of the music industry can leave Latin music out anymore. Not the VMAs, not the Grammys, not Coachella. As Thalia proudly declared on stage, “this last year for the first time in the US Latin music made a billion dollars in streaming.” Bad Bunny has been the most streamed artist on Spotify for three years in a row, has the longest-running Spanish-language album at the top of the Billboard chart, and in 2022 became the only artist in history to stage two separate $100 million-grossing tours in less than 12 months. Karol G became the first woman to have a Spanish-language debut at number one, and came to the VMAs after a string of historic performances at her Mañana Será Bonito stadium tour. Latin music’s global appeal is undeniable and the industry has to respond accordingly.

This is among the most important times in history for Latin music, and honoring artists like Shakira center stage at the VMAs helps underscore the musical evolution we are lucky enough to witness. Twenty years ago, Shakira had to crossover into the US market in English; now she performs in her native Spanish and is more relevant than ever. The global success of stars like Peso Pluma, Karol G, and Bad Bunny means we need to completely reevaluate the concept of the crossover. Latin artists today did not crossover, the market crossed over into them. They are not compromising their language, their identity, or their culture. They do not have to kowtow to industry expectations that they perform the exotic, sexy Latin other. So while the VMA Vanguard Award winner Shakira may have had to crossover into English to make it during the ‘90s Latin boom, she can proudly return to her roots and, this time, the market will follow her.

—

Featured Image: Screen shot by SO! from Shakira’s MTV 2023 Video Vanguard acceptance speech

—

Petra Rivera-Rideau is Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College, and the author of Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico and the forthcoming book Fun, Fitness, Fiesta: Selling Latinx Culture in Zumba Fitness. Vanessa Díaz is Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University, and the author of Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood. Díaz and Rivera-Rideau are the co-creators of the Bad Bunny Syllabus.

—

REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig: 

Ronca Realness: Voices that Sound the Sucia Body—Cloe Gentile Reyes 

Contra La Pared: Reggaetón and Dissonance in Naarm, Melbourne—Lucreccia Quintanilla

Unapologetic Paisa Chingona-ness: Listening to Fans’ Sonic Identities–Yessica Garcia Hernandez

SO! Podcast #74: Bonus Track for Spanish Rap & Sound Studies Forum

Listening (Loudly) to Spanish-Language Radio– D. Inés Casillas

Mercedes Bunz

15 Years of Open Book Publishers: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti

15 Years of Open Book Publishers: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti

Open Book Publishers, established in 2008, marks its 15th year in operation this year. What prompted the founding of OBP initially?

The inception of OBP can be traced back to a deep dissatisfaction with our personal experiences as authors of scholarly works - particularly Alessandra's frustration with the exorbitant pricing of her own books despite minimal publisher involvement. This pricing model hindered access for readers, especially those in Russia, for whom the work was directly relevant. This situation seemed unjust to us, and it did not promote the circulation of research effectively. Open access, i.e. the free, immediate, online availability of research outputs such as journal articles or books, combined with the rights to use these outputs fully in the digital environment, offered a natural solution Although the OA landscape in 2008 was relatively sparse with only one such book publisher in the UK, Open Humanities Press as most of the initiatives concerned scientific journal publishing, we believed that the OA model had the potential to revolutionize book publishing in the humanities and the social sciences both in the UK and globally.

As we set out to establish OBP we tackled different aspects of the initiative - Rupert focussing on creating a business plan and establishing the digital infrastructure, whilst Alessandra focussed on the nuts and bolts of publishing, peer-reviewing and commissioning. Initially, we tried to join forces with learned societies but soon understood that the proof of concept had to be provided by the independent publication of the OA manuscript under strict quality control. Our break was represented by  William St. Clair, a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, who agreed to republish one of his works with us: OBP was born. As William's vision perfectly aligned with ours, he soon became a co-director of the press, a position he maintained until his death in 2021.

What were the early obstacles and challenges, and how did you overcome them?

The initial hurdles primarily revolved around skeptical attitudes from publishing gatekeepers who deemed our ambitions unrealistic. Many believed that publishing monographs without extensive experience in the industry was impossible, given the complexities involved. However, creating a publishing house in the digital age required new infrastructures and workflows, and starting a new and nimble initiative proved to have its own advantages.

We also focused our attention on building author confidence and attracting reader attention as in the academic publishing sphere "brand awareness" and prestige play a significant role and can represent a barrier for newcomers. Our strategy involved approaching established authors who might be enticed by the idea of reaching a broader audience beyond academia. Some authors, like St. Clair, were approached through our university networks, while others were selected based on their potential interest in open access and from further afield. A number of US scholars interested in a more democratic way of communicating academic research accepted our invitation with enthusiasm. Among them was Princeton Professor Lionel Gossman, who was to become one of our most prolific and distinguished authors, followed by some of the most prominent thinkers of our time, such as Amartya Sen and Noam Chomsky.
 

In terms of governance, we adopted a social enterprise model to align with our ethos to signal our not-for-profit credentials to authors, funders, and readers. Financially, we initially relied on grants and a zero-interest development loan from the Progress Foundation, as well as on the sale of printed editions.  As humanities scholars only occasionally had access to publication grants for fees OBP was committed to avoiding charging authors for publications, a pledge that prompted us to explore innovative funding models to expand our revenue sources and in 2015 we introduced a Library Membership Programme. Membership provided libraries with an alternative to individual book purchases whilst securing a revenue stream for our initiative.

Open Book Publishers embraced open access when many established academic publishers resisted or opposed it. Why is open access crucial, and how has the landscape evolved since 2008?

Open access to research is now widely recognized as essential for the dissemination of research results and the advancement of scholarly investigation. From an ideal whose feasibility needed demonstrating, OA is now a proven concept and an expected feature of scholarly communication in many settings. Much of the momentum is due to national and international mandates that have pushed OA publishing forward, a development we did not foresee in 2008.

Scholarly publishing's role in sharing knowledge beyond privileged groups or those who could afford subscriptions has since become a priority for funders, universities, scholarly societies, and society at large. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this trend, initially focusing on journals but increasingly including books.

The landscape has evolved with more funder mandates supporting OA books, a rise in new OA publishers in the UK, traditional publishers transitioning to OA, and increased support for OA infrastructure projects.

How do you define success in reshaping the concept of academic books? Is it based on the number of published books, downloads, or other metrics?

Once a book is published in OA, it becomes accessible to a diverse audience for various purposes, including teaching, research, policymaking, artistic practice, or personal knowledge. Open access ensures that scholarly research is available to all, which is vital in a world where immediately accessible information is relevant.  In this context, open-access books, not just journal articles in STEM subjects, play a crucial role in demonstrating the relevance of humanities and social sciences fields. Open Book Publishers' books are accessed by over 80,000 readers monthly worldwide, reflecting significant interest and demand.

However, success for us encompasses several factors. While metrics are important, they do not solely define success. We prioritize publishing innovative books that explore new digital formats and better ways of presenting research. These projects are resource-intensive but align with our vision.

Positive feedback from authors holds great significance, and ensuring authors have a positive experience, from peer review to book availability, is crucial.

Our Library Membership program's growth and the continued support of over 250 libraries reflect success. It demonstrates that libraries choose to support our work, indicating confidence in our mission.

However, our work extends beyond publishing, as we actively contribute to OA book infrastructure projects, share publishing tools, and engage in advocacy and community-building efforts. These endeavours aim to promote smaller, scholar-led OA book publishing on a broader scale.

Can you briefly describe your business model and how Open Book Publishers remains sustainable?

Open Book Publishers operates as a non-profit press, ensuring that incoming and outgoing finances balance. Our publishing activities are funded primarily through three sources: sales of paperback, hardback, and some e-book formats, our Library Membership program, and grants. We encourage authors to seek grants to cover publishing costs, but we publish books based on peer review, with or without attached funding. The income from our Library Membership program has grown as we attracted more members and introduced tiered pricing so that the fees that libraries pay are more aligned with their budgets.

We try to streamline processes to keep our costs manageable without compromising quality. A reliable digital infrastructure is vital for this. For example, we created an Open Dissemination System called Thoth, which enables presses to manage the metadata for their open-access books and to export it in a number of different formats to various platforms, catalogues and other dissemination channels. Thoth was tested with Open Book titles as proof of concept. Our collaborative work with projects like COPIM to develop an open, community-owned and community-governed software to support the publication of open-access books helps improve our own publishing processes, as well as assisting other presses.

Open Book Publishers has expanded into advocacy and technology, particularly open-source software. What drove this expansion, and what projects are you currently involved in?

Our expansion into advocacy and technology stems from our belief that a publisher should be closely involved in the entire book-making process. We recognized the challenges faced by smaller presses, especially regarding distribution in the OA landscape, and the need for cost-effective solutions. We sought collaborative approaches to address these issues.

We initiated the ScholarLed group, comprised of non-profit, academic-led presses, to work together on shared challenges. The COPIM project emerged from this group, where we have been actively involved in developing Thoth too. We also launched the Open Book Collective to promote library membership programs like ours among other presses.

Additionally, we coordinate the Open Access Books Network, a community platform for knowledge-sharing and support in OA book publishing. We engage in various initiatives to strengthen networks and promote scholar-led OA book publishing.

What are your predictions for the future of Open Book Publishers and open access over the next 5 to 10 years?

Open access book publishing is gradually becoming mainstream, driven by funder mandates. However, it is essential to avoid the inequalities and challenges associated with the APC (Author Processing Charges) funding model. Alternative ways of funding monograph publishing need wider recognition and support from grant-giving bodies to ensure the sustainability of OA book publishing.

The interoperability of open source and community-led solutions for OA book publishing platforms will be crucial to prevent platform capture by commercial entities.

Another interesting area is the likely expansion of digital  books to include interactive and computational elements and better integration with underlying data and resources will likely continue.


OA textbooks and Open Educational Resources (OER) also hold promise for development, particularly in conjunction with the growing OER initiatives at universities.

Furthermore, the role of AI in the production processes will be an area to watch closely.

Any additional insights or thoughts you'd like to share?

I think it is vital to recognize that Western scholarly publishing practices may not be suitable for all contexts as OA book publishing develops globally. In non-Western societies and communities, concepts like authorial ownership of knowledge and copyright laws can pose challenges. We must be cautious not to impose Western practices and be sensitive to diverse publishing solutions. Collaboration, rather than competition, and fostering a variety of publishing models are key to the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable OA publishing landscape.

Mercedes Bunz

Changing the conversation around Existential Risk

Changing the conversation around Existential Risk

by Dr SJ Beard

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk was established in 2014 at the University of Cambridge. I was one of its first postdoctoral researchers, starting in 2016, and when I joined the first question anyone used to ask me was “what is an existential risk? And has it got anything to do with Jean Paul Sartre?” “No”, I would reply, “existential risk refers to the risk of human extinction and global civilization collapse!” at which point they would usually give me a very strange look and try to change the topic of conversation.

Fast forward 7 years and those conversations are nothing but a distant memory. Speak to anyone, from journalists and politicians to participants at my weekly dance classes and they not only tend to already know what existential risk is but are glad to hear that there are people like me and my colleagues studying it. The last 7 years have been an utter roller-coaster, from rising panic about climate change and the lightning pace of developments in AI and biotech, to explosive nuclear tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and of course our personal experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global disaster far less dangerous than those we worry about at the Centre but that has left 8-billion humans feeling battered and bruised nonetheless.

Yet, even though talk about existential risk now appears to be everywhere, so many people are left with no idea how it relates to them and what they can do about it. That is where The Era of Global Risk comes in. Me and my colleagues have spent years working to understand this most worrying of risks but we are academic researchers who spend most of our time talking to other academics or technical experts across government and industry. So, we set out to write about some of the key findings of our research and to make this accessible to a broader audience in the hope that others could share in, and engage with, our work.

The resulting volume does not aim to alarm or incite; the essays are rich in detail and draw upon a huge volume of research. They are written for any educated reader who wants to know more about Existential Risk Studies, the emerging transdisciplinary field of research that has sprung up at CSER and elsewhere. The first half of the book looks at different aspects of this field: its history and development; the methods it uses to model systemic collapse; it’s approaches to governing science and technology; its relationship with global justice; and its need to diversify and become more inclusive if it is to succeed. The second half then draws upon the results of this field to survey the main drivers of existential risk: natural phenomena like asteroids and volcanoes; anthropogenic climate change; biotechnology; AI; and nuclear weapons. Through it all the authors pose a single question, how can we move beyond recognizing the danger we are in to understand how to actually reduce that danger – to move beyond our present era of global risk to one of global safety?

For instance, a common theme running through many chapters is the need to distinguish between existential risk and existential threats. Often, when we worry about the worst things that could happen to humanity our minds are drawn to individual catastrophic events, like an asteroid strike or nuclear war, and we imagine that the only way of safeguarding our future is to make sure such events never happen. However, this is only half the story. We are not only in danger because these threats exist but also because we are vulnerable to them. This vulnerability can take many forms, from the global infrastructure pinch points that might be destroyed by even a relatively small volcanic eruption or tsunami, to the lack of preparedness for major disruptions to the earth’s food system, to societal fragilities that make us more likely to fracture and fight than to unite and flourish. But these vulnerabilities are not just another thing to worry about, they also show us how we can build greater resilience and risk preparedness that could make even worse case scenarios less bad than they would otherwise be.

By identifying such opportunities for risk mitigation, in all its forms, and working out how to harness them in ways that are just and beneficial for society as a whole, we hope to stimulate a further transformation in the conversations that researchers like me are having. Where once we were met with incomprehension and guardedness (“this sounds strange”) and now we are rewarded with recognition and encouragement (“this seems important”) we hope that in the future our work can be embraced with understanding and collaboration (“I want to be part of this”).

This is an Open Access title available to read and download for free or to purchase in all available print and ebook formats below.

The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies
This innovative and comprehensive collection of essays explores the biggest threats facing humanity in the 21st century; threats that cannot be contained or controlled and that have the potential to bring about human extinction and civilization collapse. Bringing together experts from many disciplin…
Changing the conversation around Existential RiskOpen Book Publishers
Changing the conversation around Existential Risk
Mercedes Bunz

On ‘William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design’

On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'

by Alex Carabine

“Oh!” I cried at the television. “It’s Moorcroft!”

My husband was suitably perplexed. I had recently been volunteering at Open Book Publishers, and one of my first tasks was proofreading and editing a manuscript entitled William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design (a pioneering study by Jonathan Mallinson, Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford). Now, here we were watching the semi-final of The Great Pottery Throwdown, and for their surprise test the four competing potters were asked to recreate the delicate tube-lining of a famous piece of Moorcroft pottery. The example they were given was exquisite: a design of fruit and flora on a black background, created by designer Emma Bossons. It was called Queen’s Choice, and had been inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Though the piece displayed on the episode wasn’t original to William Moorcroft, his influences were clear. I felt quite lucky that I had read Mallinson’s gorgeously illustrated book before the episode, so that I could thoroughly understand how Moorcroft’s creative vision continues in the modern designs of his pottery.

Born in 1872, Moorcroft was one of the most celebrated British potters of the twentieth century. He rejected mass production, and considered it his vocation to create an everyday art form that was both functional and decorative, and that would be accessible to as many people as possible rather than made exclusively for the privileged few. ‘If only the people in the world would concentrate upon making all things beautiful,’ he wrote in a letter to his daughter Beatrice in 1930, ‘and if all people concentrated on developing the arts of Peace, what a world it might be.’

His career began in the late stages of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the nineteenth century. This movement was a reaction against the Industrial Revolution, with its emphasis on mass production at the expense of artistry. Eminent Victorians such as the artist William Morris and critic John Ruskin were crucial to the movement, as they drew inspiration from medieval art and romantic folk styles of illustration. Arts and Crafts designs honoured the beauty of nature, and, for the most part, depicted flowers and plants with great attention to detail. The movement went on to influence Art Nouveau, and it was in this cultural moment that Moorcroft emerged as a potter.

On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'
Butterfly and Aurelian Ware.

Consider the above image. The taller of the two vases displays an early example of Moorcroft’s tube-lining, which is a skill that involves using a small bottle to squeeze a narrow and delicate line of clay directly onto the surface of the vessel. The design can then be enhanced by painting. It’s a difficult process as the artist needs a steady hand to achieve an even line. The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement is visible in the natural motifs of the vessels – the butterflies and the flowers, for example – while the whiplash lines of Art Nouveau designs are visible in the elongated, flowing forms of the vases.

On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'
Toadstool Design for Shreve and Co

As time went on, Moorcroft’s craft developed, and with the Toadstool design (see above) he found a new signature style: harmonious colours applied in such a way that they softly bled together, creating an ethereal and delicate effect. Even as the glazes softened, the lines remained clean, and Moorcroft’s pottery became so desirable that he acquired royal patronage, and became Potter to H. M. the Queen in 1928.

Unfortunately, Moorcroft’s career spanned both World Wars, during which time he worked hard to keep his pottery open and his staff employed. During the Second World War, the Government introduced a time of austerity and required potteries to make only domestic items in plain white. Through necessity, Moorcroft had to abandon his beautiful colour palettes and rich decorations. However, the simple elegance of his pottery forms still shone through.

On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'
Austerity Ware

In 1942, he wrote to The Times newspaper: ‘Form exquisitely balanced, pure in tone and texture, is as refreshing as early morning in the country, with the song of the bird… the maker of pottery alone can eliminate the fault in shape that so easily destroys beauty and truth.’ Moorcroft was careful that his domestic items would be functional, carrying enough weight and balance that they would be practical pieces for everyday use. Nevertheless, they each had a stark elegance where the absence of ornament emphasised the purity of line. Even in times of war, Moorcroft’s ware was popular.

William Moorcroft died in 1945, the same year that the Second World War ended. Though he worked hard to establish his pottery and to bring expressive beauty to functional items, he did not live to see his legacy. Despite the fact that he was hugely influential during the first, tumultuous half of the twentieth century, there has been no detailed account of his life. That is, until now. After having read Mallinson’s book and become invested in the life of this remarkable potter, it was with great joy that I saw his work – present in name and spirit, if not in his literal designs – appear on The Great Pottery Throwdown. Moorcroft might not have lived to see his legacy, but Mallinson’s readers will.

“Oh!” I cried at the television. “It’s Moorcroft!”  I smiled to see his name, but I was glad to have learned more of the artist.

This is an Open Access title available to read and download for free or to purchase in all available print and ebook formats below.

William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design
William Moorcroft (1872-1945) was one of the most celebrated potters of the early twentieth century. His career extended from the Arts and Crafts movement of the late Victorian age to the Austerity aesthetics of the Second World War. Rejecting mass production and patronised by Royalty, Moorcroft’s w…
On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'Open Book Publishers
On 'William Moorcroft, Potter: Individuality by Design'
Mercedes Bunz

Diachronic variation in the Omani Arabic vernacular of the al-‘Awabi district. From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the present day

Diachronic variation in the Omani Arabic vernacular of the al-‘Awabi district. From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the present day

by Roberta Morano

The Sultanate of Oman lies at the south-easternmost corner of the Arabian Peninsula, and if one looks carefully at a geographical map of the area one will notice that, in fact, Oman is almost like an island. Surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, Oman is separated from the rest of the Arabian Peninsula by the mountain range of the al-Hajar and by the vast desert of the Rubˁ al-Khālī. The geography of the country, as well as its historical, social and political endeavours, have radically shaped the linguistic landscape of the Sultanate. Modern Oman is the result of great bio-cultural diversity developed over centuries of internal and external displacement, maritime trade and foreign incursions, but also very deep indigenous dichotomy, i.e., Imamate versus Sultanate, tribal versus settled communities, tradition versus modernity.

The study Diachronic variation in the Omani Arabic vernacular of the al-‘Awabi district. From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the present day examines one of the foundational works in the field of Omani dialectology (i.e., Carl Reinhardt’s Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in ‘Oman und Zanzibar, 1894) and compares its linguistic description with modern data collected by the author in the field between 2017 and 2018.

The Omani variety described by the German diplomat in 1894 was found to be different both from the one spoken in the capital city (and described by the Indian doctor Jayakar in 1889) and from the one spoken in the coastal area. As Reinhardt himself states in the introduction, the variety spoken by the Banū Kharūṣ tribe was also spoken by the Omani court and by some two-thirds of the Arabs living in Zanzibar. Thus, we can presume that it was sufficiently widespread to require the writing of a practical and quick guide for German soldiers quartered in the East African colonies. However, the German work has numerous weaknesses: first, the lack of transcription, made by the author only at a later stage and not during his stay in Oman and Zanzibar. Secondly, his informants. He employed only two people, whom he paid, and whom followed him to Cairo, where he then ended up writing the grammar. Thirdly, the book had mainly a pedagogical intent and therefore some of the linguistic facts are not fully accurate.

The new study conducted by Dr Morano re-examines this linguistic material and compiles a new set of linguistic traits and lexicon used by the same tribes living in the same area – i.e., al-ˁAwābī and Wādī Banī Kharūṣ in northern Oman. The book is divided into four chapters and an Appendix: the chapters describe the Omani socio-political context, the phonology, the morphology, and the syntax of the al-ˁAwābī vernacular respectively; whereas the Appendix includes two sample texts illustrating the grammatical features analysed in the previous chapter, a set of 10 proverbs – transcribed, translated and analysed – and finally a traditional song of the mountains.

The analysis – conducted using qualitative and quantitative methodologies and based on 15 participants, recruited on the basis of their place/tribe of origin, level of education and age– has two main aims: on the one hand, to provide a linguistic description of the Omani Arabic spoken in the al-ˁAwābī district at the present and, on the other hand, to assess the diachronic variation this vernacular underwent over the last hundred years. The results are striking: most variations were detected in the syntax – which Reinhardt restricts to the analysis of just a few sentence types – and in the lexicon. The reader might find interesting, for example, the discussion on the uses and functions of the active participle in this dialect, whose syntax seems to have a wider spectrum than anticipated. Moreover, the negative system – highly distinctive for this region in the German description – seems to have now undergone a process of homogenisation with other neighbouring Arabic varieties (e.g., Gulf Arabic). In fact, the study shows only one instance of the original form of negation in the traditional song in the Appendix, whereas it is completely disappeared in all other cases. Similarly, the relative pronoun has become obsolete and has been replaced by Gulf or MSA alternatives.

Generally, the speed of diachronic change in the district – and in the region as a whole – is highly concerning and this is demonstrated by the disappearance of certain lexical items and syntactic structures, which are progressively falling into oblivion through the generations. These unique features, together with plant names, traditional medicine, the natural environment, and arrays of orientation so treasured by local people must be protected and cherished by urgently documenting the Arabic varieties spoken in Oman and the Peninsula and by creating awareness of traditional languages and cultural practices among the younger generation.

This study is a first step in this direction.

This is an Open Access title available to read and download for free or to purchase in all available print and ebook formats below.

Diachronic Variation in the Omani Arabic Vernacular of the Al-ʿAwābī District: From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the Present Day
In this monograph, Roberta Morano re-examines one of the foundational works of the Omani Arabic dialectology field, Carl Reinhardt’s Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in ’Oman und Zanzibar (1894). This German-authored work was prolific in shaping our knowledge of Omani Arabic during the twentieth ce…
Diachronic variation in the Omani Arabic vernacular of the al-‘Awabi district. From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the present dayOpen Book Publishers
Diachronic variation in the Omani Arabic vernacular of the al-‘Awabi district. From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the present day
Simon Bowie

Echoes in Transit: Loudly Waiting at the Paso del Norte Border Region

This series listens to the political, gendered, queer(ed), racial engagements and class entanglements involved in proclaiming out loud: La-TIN-x. ChI-ca-NA. La-TI-ne. ChI-ca-n-@.  Xi-can-x. Funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative, the Latinx Sound Cultures Studies Working Group critically considers the role of sound and listening in our formation as political subjects. Through both a comparative and cross-regional lens, we invite Latinx Sound Scholars to join us as we dialogue about our place within the larger fields of Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Sound Studies. We are delighted to publish our initial musings with Sounding Out!, a forum that has long prioritized sound from a queered, racial, working-class and  “always-from-below” epistemological standpoint. —Ed. Dolores Inés Casillas

—

This post is co-authored by José Manuel Flores & Dolores Inés Casillas

A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition.  

Gloria Anzaldúa (1999)

Ciudad Juárez es número uno/

y la frontera más fabulosa y bella del mundo

Juan Gabriel  (lyric to “Juárez es el #1” – 1984)

—

Geographically, the Paso del Norte (PdN) region includes the city of El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as well as neighboring cities in the state of New Mexico (see map). U.S. citizens live and play in Juárez, and those in Juárez (Juarenses), live and work in El Paso with families extended on both sides; continually moving back and forth. Yet, this broader region has long been plagued with sensationalizing headlines, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, that cast violent and limiting portrayals of these borderland communities. Recognized as sister cities, El Paso and Ciudad Juárez are seen less as close-knit siblings and more like distant cousins with Juárez routinely referred to undesirably as the little sister or ugly sister in comparison to El Paso. Indeed these hierarchical north/south (first world/not-quite-first-world) distinctions are products of histories of colonialism, unequal trade policies, and racial capitalist systems galvanized by immigrant detention camps (a tenant of the Immigration Industrial Complex). Within larger conversations about border cities, both Tijuana (San Diego) and Reynosa (McAllen) are recognized as the “primary” border cities due to their larger population size, transnational capital, and industrious reputations.

Two decades ago, Josh Kun’s concept of the “aural border” invited scholars to consider the US/Mexico border as a “field of sound, a terrain of musicality and music-making, of melodic convergence and dissonant clashing” (2000). Kun’s writings over the years have roused generations of sound scholars to listen to borders, border crossings, border communities and how they reverberate their economic, social, and migrant conditions. This essay intentionally moves away from Kun’s (beloved) border city of Tijuana and towards a less-referenced US/Mexico border city: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Here, 1,201 kilometers east of Tijuana, we offer an opportunity to listen to Juárez’s everyday bustling of migratory life through the digital sound repository, the Border Soundscapes Project.

Sound structures our social, cultural, and political relations, and as Tom Western reminds us succinctly: “sounds have politics” (2020). Indeed, Juárez’s soundscapes are microcosms of economic, immigration and border enforcement policies as the city’s migratory composition changes depending on the latest economic crisis in the global south. “Whether intentional or unintentional,” Sarah Barns insists “urban soundscapes are by-products of both active design strategies as well as infrastructure and socio-economic organization” (2014). In essence, listening to migrants within Juárez, along with those planning to traverse Ciudad Juárez (to el norte), shapes our multiethnic and multiracial understandings of Latinidad.

City life in Ciudad Juarez in 2016 through the lens of the Red Nacional de Ciclismo Urbano organization(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Field audio recordings of public life including nuanced linguistic expressions, comprise a rich sonic site that best demonstrates Juárez’s daily sounds of transit. This Project benefits tremendously from José Manuel Flores’s attentive ear, raised as a borderlander himself, and a seasoned crosser of the bridges linking Juárez and El Paso. Flores created this Project in 2018, the same year, Ciudad Juárez became a prominent make-shift, temporary “home” for groups of migrants – currently a majority of Venezuelan-nationals with previous waves of Cubanos and Salvadoreños. Within Juárez, these migrant caravans initially settled on the primary Paso del Norte bridge and later to nearby main border bridges. Migrants have felt comfortable settling in this arid city of approximately 1.5 million people, while others consider Juárez more of a “waiting room” before setting their sights on securing political asylum in the United States. Either way, Juárez becomes part of both their journey and resettlement.

Below are five instances where we listen to migrants in Juárez.

Track 1: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Te traigo un manguito”

map of the area near the Paso del Nte. International Bridge

Near the Paso del Nte. International Bridge, in Juárez, on Avenida Juárez, a downtown street where people begin to line up to cross the border. Cars are heard passing. A Venezuelan man wants to rest on this hot day yet his friend cajoles him to get ready to work. He promises his resting friend un mangito o agua (a mango or water) as soon as he’s up and ready to tackle some work.

Track #2: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Cualquier bendición que le sale a tu corazón es buena”

map of area near Juárez’s Migration's national institute and  Presidencia Municipal de Ciudad Juárez.

Near Juárez’s Migration’s national institute and  Presidencia Municipal de Ciudad Juárez, an older woman cleans car windshields during traffic stops. As she cleans, she is heard laughing while conversing and doling out bendiciones (blessings) to those who gave her work. She’s assumed to be Venezuelan yet her use of the word “carnal” –a Mexican phrase to say brother – indicates that she’s been in Juárez for sometime.

Track #3: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “El Escandalo”

map of Calle Segunda de Ugarte

Local news highlights the influx of migrant caravans in promising tones. In an interview for local and national media in Mexico, Mr. José Luis Cruzalta, Cuban migrant, comments that: “no hay que ir para el lado de allá (EE.UU.), aquí se vive igual o mejor que del lado de allá, menos sacrificio, sin meterte en problemas, aquí no hay problemas de ningún tipo.” 

“you don’t have to go there (USA), here you live the same or better than on that side, less sacrifice, without getting into trouble, there are no problems of any kind here, they can stay here.” 

He later sends assurances that there is enough work for everyone and that only a willingness and desire to work is required, that nothing else.

Track #4: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Rincon Cubano”

A group of Cuban migrants started a small Creole street food business offering “frituras de maíz” and Cuban “tamales.” The sound space of the downtown of Ciudad Juárez is nourished by the voices of a group of Cubans proclaiming Cuban Corn, “Maíz Cubano”. These contemporary Cuban criers conjure the city’s sonic memories of previous food vendors. Flores remembers fondly as a child the shouting of “Caldo de Oso” (Bear Broth) for sale and the fear that he’d find a grizzly bear in his soup. 

Track #5: Migrants In Ciudad Juarez: Haitians Talking in La Taquería

The small restaurant,”La Taqueria,” in downtown Juárez has undergone ethnic transformations. A few years ago it used to be a place known for traditional Cuban food –el rincón cubano–, nowadays it is a place recognized for its tasty, Venezuelan food. Caribbean music attracts some Haitian migrants to this place, inside the restaurant there are some families eating and having a restful moment. Outside the place, there are some Haitian families moving through the city carrying their luggage.

Bonus Track and Outro

The Border Soundscapes Project offers an acoustic ecology of this region through a site that acts as part-archive, part-map, and perhaps even, part-love-song, à la the late singer Juan Gabriel, a globally famous Juaranese who dedicated six songs to his beloved home city.

The Border Soundscapes Project invites listeners to hear for yourself why Juan Gabriel characterized Juárez as the most beautiful borderland in the world. His lyrics fiercely defended Juárez, and decades later, the Border Soundscapes Projects demonstrates how Juarez, the “little sister,” dignifies their migrant communities, in the critical context of Gloría Anzaldúa’s conceptions of borders as vague, “unnatural boundaries” crafted by the “emotional residue” of two other siblings: colonialism and capitalism.

Inspired by the written musings of Valeria Luiselli (2019), the Border Soundscapes Project also functions as an “inventory of echoes,” where sounds are not simply recovered or used within a larger catalog project. Instead, sounds are considered “present in the time of recording and that, when we listen to them, remind us of the ones that are lost” (p. 141), and we would add, in transit. Most importantly, echoes cannot be placed on static, visual representations of standard “maps.” In offering audio snippets of Juárez’s public life, sound becomes a different migrant-led “scale of analysis” (DeLeon 2016); a type of audio counter-mapping of the U.S./Mexico border that lends itself uniquely to sound.

—

Featured Image by Flickr User Simon Foot, “Ciudad Juárez, from El Paso, Texas” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

—

José Manuel Flores is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Composition Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. He holds an MA in Studies and Creative Processes in Art and Design. He considers that the sounds that arise between the Juarez and El Paso border are relevant because they contribute to the historical heritage of the region. That is why his interest as a researcher focuses on Sound Studies, specifically in the intersection between Soundscapes and philosophy from a disciplinary posture of rhetoric.

Dolores Inés Casillas is Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute (CSI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy (2014), which received two book prizes, and co-editor of the Companion to Latina/o Media Studies (2016) and Feeling It: Language, Race and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning (2018).

—

REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig: 

Xicanacimiento, Life-giving Sonics of Critical Consciousness—Esther Díaz Martín and  Kristian E. Vasquez 

Ronca Realness: Voices that Sound the Sucia Body—Cloe Gentile Reyes

SO! READS: Melissa Mora Hidalgo’s Mozlandia: Morrissey Fans in the Borderlands–Nabeel Zuberi

Your Voice is (Not) Your Passport–Michelle Pfeiffer

Óyeme Voz: U.S. Latin@ & Immigrant Communities Re-Sound Citizenship and Belonging-Nancy Morales

“Don’t Be Self-Conchas”: Listening to Mexican Styled Phonetics in Popular Culture*–Sara Hinijos and Inés Casillas

“Listening to the Border: ‘”2487″: Giving Voice in Diaspora’ and the Sound Art of Luz María Sánchez”-D. Ines Casillas

Writing from Below

Echoes in Transit: Loudly Waiting at the Paso del Norte Border Region

This series listens to the political, gendered, queer(ed), racial engagements and class entanglements involved in proclaiming out loud: La-TIN-x. ChI-ca-NA. La-TI-ne. ChI-ca-n-@.  Xi-can-x. Funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative, the Latinx Sound Cultures Studies Working Group critically considers the role of sound and listening in our formation as political subjects. Through both a comparative and cross-regional lens, we invite Latinx Sound Scholars to join us as we dialogue about our place within the larger fields of Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Sound Studies. We are delighted to publish our initial musings with Sounding Out!, a forum that has long prioritized sound from a queered, racial, working-class and  “always-from-below” epistemological standpoint. —Ed. Dolores Inés Casillas

—

This post is co-authored by José Manuel Flores & Dolores Inés Casillas

A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition.  

Gloria Anzaldúa (1999)

Ciudad Juárez es número uno/

y la frontera más fabulosa y bella del mundo

Juan Gabriel  (lyric to “Juárez es el #1” – 1984)

—

Geographically, the Paso del Norte (PdN) region includes the city of El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as well as neighboring cities in the state of New Mexico (see map). U.S. citizens live and play in Juárez, and those in Juárez (Juarenses), live and work in El Paso with families extended on both sides; continually moving back and forth. Yet, this broader region has long been plagued with sensationalizing headlines, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, that cast violent and limiting portrayals of these borderland communities. Recognized as sister cities, El Paso and Ciudad Juárez are seen less as close-knit siblings and more like distant cousins with Juárez routinely referred to undesirably as the little sister or ugly sister in comparison to El Paso. Indeed these hierarchical north/south (first world/not-quite-first-world) distinctions are products of histories of colonialism, unequal trade policies, and racial capitalist systems galvanized by immigrant detention camps (a tenant of the Immigration Industrial Complex). Within larger conversations about border cities, both Tijuana (San Diego) and Reynosa (McAllen) are recognized as the “primary” border cities due to their larger population size, transnational capital, and industrious reputations.

Two decades ago, Josh Kun’s concept of the “aural border” invited scholars to consider the US/Mexico border as a “field of sound, a terrain of musicality and music-making, of melodic convergence and dissonant clashing” (2000). Kun’s writings over the years have roused generations of sound scholars to listen to borders, border crossings, border communities and how they reverberate their economic, social, and migrant conditions. This essay intentionally moves away from Kun’s (beloved) border city of Tijuana and towards a less-referenced US/Mexico border city: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Here, 1,201 kilometers east of Tijuana, we offer an opportunity to listen to Juárez’s everyday bustling of migratory life through the digital sound repository, the Border Soundscapes Project.

Sound structures our social, cultural, and political relations, and as Tom Western reminds us succinctly: “sounds have politics” (2020). Indeed, Juárez’s soundscapes are microcosms of economic, immigration and border enforcement policies as the city’s migratory composition changes depending on the latest economic crisis in the global south. “Whether intentional or unintentional,” Sarah Barns insists “urban soundscapes are by-products of both active design strategies as well as infrastructure and socio-economic organization” (2014). In essence, listening to migrants within Juárez, along with those planning to traverse Ciudad Juárez (to el norte), shapes our multiethnic and multiracial understandings of Latinidad.

City life in Ciudad Juarez in 2016 through the lens of the Red Nacional de Ciclismo Urbano organization(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Field audio recordings of public life including nuanced linguistic expressions, comprise a rich sonic site that best demonstrates Juárez’s daily sounds of transit. This Project benefits tremendously from José Manuel Flores’s attentive ear, raised as a borderlander himself, and a seasoned crosser of the bridges linking Juárez and El Paso. Flores created this Project in 2018, the same year, Ciudad Juárez became a prominent make-shift, temporary “home” for groups of migrants – currently a majority of Venezuelan-nationals with previous waves of Cubanos and Salvadoreños. Within Juárez, these migrant caravans initially settled on the primary Paso del Norte bridge and later to nearby main border bridges. Migrants have felt comfortable settling in this arid city of approximately 1.5 million people, while others consider Juárez more of a “waiting room” before setting their sights on securing political asylum in the United States. Either way, Juárez becomes part of both their journey and resettlement.

Below are five instances where we listen to migrants in Juárez.

Track 1: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Te traigo un manguito”

map of the area near the Paso del Nte. International Bridge

Near the Paso del Nte. International Bridge, in Juárez, on Avenida Juárez, a downtown street where people begin to line up to cross the border. Cars are heard passing. A Venezuelan man wants to rest on this hot day yet his friend cajoles him to get ready to work. He promises his resting friend un mangito o agua (a mango or water) as soon as he’s up and ready to tackle some work.

Track #2: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Cualquier bendición que le sale a tu corazón es buena”

map of area near Juárez’s Migration's national institute and  Presidencia Municipal de Ciudad Juárez.

Near Juárez’s Migration’s national institute and  Presidencia Municipal de Ciudad Juárez, an older woman cleans car windshields during traffic stops. As she cleans, she is heard laughing while conversing and doling out bendiciones (blessings) to those who gave her work. She’s assumed to be Venezuelan yet her use of the word “carnal” –a Mexican phrase to say brother – indicates that she’s been in Juárez for sometime.

Track #3: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “El Escandalo”

map of Calle Segunda de Ugarte

Local news highlights the influx of migrant caravans in promising tones. In an interview for local and national media in Mexico, Mr. José Luis Cruzalta, Cuban migrant, comments that: “no hay que ir para el lado de allá (EE.UU.), aquí se vive igual o mejor que del lado de allá, menos sacrificio, sin meterte en problemas, aquí no hay problemas de ningún tipo.” 

“you don’t have to go there (USA), here you live the same or better than on that side, less sacrifice, without getting into trouble, there are no problems of any kind here, they can stay here.” 

He later sends assurances that there is enough work for everyone and that only a willingness and desire to work is required, that nothing else.

Track #4: Migrants in Ciudad Juarez: “Rincon Cubano”

A group of Cuban migrants started a small Creole street food business offering “frituras de maíz” and Cuban “tamales.” The sound space of the downtown of Ciudad Juárez is nourished by the voices of a group of Cubans proclaiming Cuban Corn, “Maíz Cubano”. These contemporary Cuban criers conjure the city’s sonic memories of previous food vendors. Flores remembers fondly as a child the shouting of “Caldo de Oso” (Bear Broth) for sale and the fear that he’d find a grizzly bear in his soup. 

Track #5: Migrants In Ciudad Juarez: Haitians Talking in La Taquería

The small restaurant,”La Taqueria,” in downtown Juárez has undergone ethnic transformations. A few years ago it used to be a place known for traditional Cuban food –el rincón cubano–, nowadays it is a place recognized for its tasty, Venezuelan food. Caribbean music attracts some Haitian migrants to this place, inside the restaurant there are some families eating and having a restful moment. Outside the place, there are some Haitian families moving through the city carrying their luggage.

Bonus Track and Outro

The Border Soundscapes Project offers an acoustic ecology of this region through a site that acts as part-archive, part-map, and perhaps even, part-love-song, à la the late singer Juan Gabriel, a globally famous Juaranese who dedicated six songs to his beloved home city.

The Border Soundscapes Project invites listeners to hear for yourself why Juan Gabriel characterized Juárez as the most beautiful borderland in the world. His lyrics fiercely defended Juárez, and decades later, the Border Soundscapes Projects demonstrates how Juarez, the “little sister,” dignifies their migrant communities, in the critical context of Gloría Anzaldúa’s conceptions of borders as vague, “unnatural boundaries” crafted by the “emotional residue” of two other siblings: colonialism and capitalism.

Inspired by the written musings of Valeria Luiselli (2019), the Border Soundscapes Project also functions as an “inventory of echoes,” where sounds are not simply recovered or used within a larger catalog project. Instead, sounds are considered “present in the time of recording and that, when we listen to them, remind us of the ones that are lost” (p. 141), and we would add, in transit. Most importantly, echoes cannot be placed on static, visual representations of standard “maps.” In offering audio snippets of Juárez’s public life, sound becomes a different migrant-led “scale of analysis” (DeLeon 2016); a type of audio counter-mapping of the U.S./Mexico border that lends itself uniquely to sound.

—

Featured Image by Flickr User Simon Foot, “Ciudad Juárez, from El Paso, Texas” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

—

José Manuel Flores is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Composition Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. He holds an MA in Studies and Creative Processes in Art and Design. He considers that the sounds that arise between the Juarez and El Paso border are relevant because they contribute to the historical heritage of the region. That is why his interest as a researcher focuses on Sound Studies, specifically in the intersection between Soundscapes and philosophy from a disciplinary posture of rhetoric.

Dolores Inés Casillas is Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute (CSI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy (2014), which received two book prizes, and co-editor of the Companion to Latina/o Media Studies (2016) and Feeling It: Language, Race and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning (2018).

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REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig: 

Xicanacimiento, Life-giving Sonics of Critical Consciousness—Esther Díaz Martín and  Kristian E. Vasquez 

Ronca Realness: Voices that Sound the Sucia Body—Cloe Gentile Reyes

SO! READS: Melissa Mora Hidalgo’s Mozlandia: Morrissey Fans in the Borderlands–Nabeel Zuberi

Your Voice is (Not) Your Passport–Michelle Pfeiffer

Óyeme Voz: U.S. Latin@ & Immigrant Communities Re-Sound Citizenship and Belonging-Nancy Morales

“Don’t Be Self-Conchas”: Listening to Mexican Styled Phonetics in Popular Culture*–Sara Hinijos and Inés Casillas

“Listening to the Border: ‘”2487″: Giving Voice in Diaspora’ and the Sound Art of Luz María Sánchez”-D. Ines Casillas

Simon Bowie

Méthodes et approches en évaluation des politiques publiques

Sous la direction d’Anne Revillard

Pour accéder au livre en version html, cliquez ici.
Pour télécharger le PDF, cliquez ici (à venir).

[English version – see below]

En tant que pratique de recherche appliquée, l’évaluation des politiques publiques a emprunté toute une série de méthodes aux sciences sociales. Mais son essor a aussi suscité le développement d’approches spécifiques. Partant de ce constat, deux choix fondamentaux guident cet ouvrage : combiner des outils issus de la recherche fondamentale avec d’autres développés dans la pratique de l’évaluation, et ouvrir un dialogue entre méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives. 24 méthodes ou approches qualitatives, quantitatives ou mixtes font ainsi l’objet de présentations didactiques et illustrées, à partir d’une trame de questionnement commune facilitant leur comparaison. Par son accessibilité, cet ouvrage constitue aussi bien un outil de dialogue interdisciplinaire et inter-méthodes pour les universitaires, qu’une introduction aux enjeux méthodologiques de l’évaluation pour les étudiant·e·s, praticien·ne·s, les acteurs publics et la société civile.

ISBN pour l’impression : 978-2-925128-27-4

ISBN pour le PDF : 978-2-925128-28-1

DOI : à venir

355 pages

Design de la couverture : Kate McDonnell

Date de publication : septembre 2023

***

Policy Evaluation: Methods and Approaches

Edited by Anne Revillard

To access the html version of the book, click here.
To download the PDF, click here ( forthcoming).

As an applied research practice, policy evaluation has borrowed a range of methods from the social sciences. But its growth has also led to the development of specific approaches. Based on this observation, two fundamental choices guide this book: combining tools from fundamental research with others developed in evaluation practice, and opening a dialogue between quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-four qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods or approaches are thus presented in a didactic and illustrated manner, based on a common series of questions that facilitate their comparison.Thanks to its accessibility, this book is both a tool for interdisciplinary and inter-methods dialogue for academics, and a useful introduction for students, practitioners, policymakers and civil society.

DOI : forthcoming

317 pages

Cover design: Kate McDonnell

Publication date: September 2023

Sounding Out!

Xicanacimiento, Life-giving Sonics of Critical Consciousness

This series listens to the political, gendered, queer(ed), racial engagements and class entanglements involved in proclaiming out loud: La-TIN-x. ChI-ca-NA. La-TI-ne. ChI-ca-n-@.  Xi-can-x. Funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative, the Latinx Sound Cultures Studies Working Group critically considers the role of sound and listening in our formation as political subjects. Through both a comparative and cross-regional lens, we invite Latinx Sound Scholars to join us as we dialogue about our place within the larger fields of Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Sound Studies. We are delighted to publish our initial musings with Sounding Out!, a forum that has long prioritized sound from a queered, racial, working-class and  “always-from-below” epistemological standpoint. —Ed. Dolores Inés Casillas

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In the past year, we, Esther, a first-generation profesora in Latinx culture and feminist studies in Chicago and Kristian, an L.A-raised Xicano de letras pursuing a doctoral degree in Santa Barbara, engaged in a multi-synchronous dialogue on the life-giving sonics of our critical consciousness. This Xicanacimiento, as theorized in Kristian’s current writing and in conversation with Irene Vasquez and an emerging generation of Chicana/o scholar-educators, refers to the incomplete process and life-giving knowledge forged in the socio-political and pedagogical activities of Chicanx worldmaking. 

SO! writers note music listening as a powerful site for critical thinking. Erika Giselda Abad, for instance, teaches the Hamilton Mixtape so her Latinx students may “hear [their stories] from people who look and sound like them.” We reflected on the pedagogical implications of our music listening that informed our coming-into-critical consciousness. In this diálogo, we developed a playlist through experimenting with our sonic memories through the poetics of our rasquache sensibilities. Gloria Anzaldúa suggests something similar with notes from Los Tigres, Silvio Rodriguez, and others in La Frontera. Our auditory imaginary echoes our evolving conocimiento toward spiritual activism.

Here, we offer our musical resonances as shaped by our gendered, place-based, and generational Xicanx experiences as a pathway to hear the auditory dimensions of Xicanacimiento. Our listening is thus counter-hegemonic or a “brown form of listening” as suggested by D. Inés Casillas, “a form of radical self-love, a sonic eff-you, and a means of taking up uninvited (white) space,” when this listening evolves critical anti-imperialist and feminist consciousness that hears 500 years of opresión y resistencia.

Diverging from the mixtape genre, our Xicanacimiento playlist seeks to convey something beyond connection and emotion towards a sustained affective state. Instead of a sonic moment, we hear a sonic stream; a subaltern auditory repertoire that is multi-directional and open to expansion by any and all interpellated Xicanx ears.  

Kristian: Tuning-in to Xicanacimiento is a symbiosis of feeling and listening to La Chicanada from Califas to all corners of Aztlán unearthed. I was raised to the sounds of my father’s rancheras played in his truck and the hip-thumping rhythms of bachata and reggaetón played in my mother’s kitchen after a workday.

Yet, my love for UK anarcho-punk and US hardcore punk developed in defiance of public schooling and of a disaffected civil society. As a youth during the Great Recession, a future without higher education meant prison, the military, death by overdose, or the eternal damnation of working the Los Angeles service industry. I thrashed in sound; numbing my ears with noise, bruising in the mosh pit; bearing witness to minors as mota and alcohol addicts; pierced by the cries of police sirens breaking up our communion. 

I found refuge in Xicanacimiento as a community college student and as a transfer at UC Los Angeles. I came into Xicanx consciousness by studying Mexican anarchists and Chicanx organizing. As a MEChistA, I came to listen to the ways local elders, youth, organizers, and agents of social transformation in Los Angeles identified their struggle with land, life, and spirit. My primer to social movements gave me language, and it was MEChistAs who offered me a new soundtrack against the escapism of the Los Angeles punk scene. The resonances of marchas, fiestas, and the songs of danza azteca oriented me into a new modality of listening. Xicanacimiento was the sonic web of these social and cultural practices, rooted in my auditory encounters with the verses of Quetzal, the biting guitars of Subsistencia, the rhythms of Quinto Sol, and the lyrical narratives of Aztlán Underground. The life-giving sonics of Xicanacimiento grazed against my wounded sonics of broken glass, nos tanks, drunk noise, and the cacophonous affair of a raided gig as intoxicated Latinx youth disperse into the discordant symphonies of the urban soundscape.

Esther: I listen as a campesina migrante translocada from Jalisco to California, Texas, and Illinois. Some twenty years ago, while attending Cal State en el Valle Central, I heard Xicanacimiento as concientización; an evolving awareness about la lucha obrera, the open veins of Latinoamerica and my place within the interlocked hierarchies of race, class, and gender in US society. With Chicanx and brigadista musics I felt connected to la lucha and acquired the language to name capitalist imperialism rooted in white supremacy as the enemy of humanity and Pachamama. 

My early sonic memories include the sequence of my Alien number, the urging tones of radio hablada discussing Prop 187 (insisting we were aliens), Prop 227 (banning our language), and reports of Minuteman harassing la raza. I was immersed in listening; my mother’s sobremesa, my sister’s Temerarios at 5 am, Selena on the school bus, and 90s hits-from Chalino to Morrissey-on Columbia House CDs I traded with my older brother. Among other norteñas, La Jaula de Oro, the theme song of the diaspora of papás mexicanos, played at random-at the marketa, en los files, in passing cars, and so on…- to remind us of my father’s sacrificio en el norte caring for 500 dairy cows, six days a week, in two 5-hour shifts, to provide us el sueño americano.

I studied music in college, playing jazz and orchestral bass until the racist and sexual harassment targeting my young Latina body turned me away. I left the scene but continued my communion with music through library loans, traveling vendors, and trips to Amoeba. In reggae and canción nueva I found otros mundos posibles in the upbeat, cariño in 2 over 3, and the poetics of black and brown history; manos abiertas, muchas manos.

In 2002, “El Rasquache Rudo” a poet from the Rudo Revolutionary Front brought me sounds from Azltán; the UFW unity clap rallying in Modesto, a recitation by José Montoya in Sacramento, and brigadista music synergizing the 1492 quincentennial resistance with the uprising of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN). As Omar Marquez argues, the Zapatista uprising shifted Chicano ideology to speak from the position of a living indigenous present; still loud in the work of Xicanx activists like Flor Martinez. Into the 21st century, Aztlán Underground, Manu Chao, and Todos Tus Muertos, among others, soundtracked our protests against the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Julieta Venegas’s distinctly vulnerable voice over the controlled chaos of ska and Martha Gonzalez’s tension over the wall of sound that is Quetzal, was transformative as I heard In Lak’ech; hearing in their voices possibilities for my Chicana existence. 

Some of these selections anchor my first-year lectures at the University of Illinois in Chicago, where most of my students are working-class Latinx and Black. I do this with the intention of “opening affective pathways toward Xicanacimiento” as Kristian offered, and to insist on the point that Latina/o/x Studies is to be a critical, anti-hegemonic, subaltern field of study that hears a history from el mundo zurdo.

Outro:

In a gesture to deconstruct the term Xicanacimiento, one might think of the words “renacimiento”and “conocimiento.” What might emerge is a “regenerative force” and “collective knowledges” in consideration to how we listen, what resonances are made, and what sounds we inhabit when Xicanacimiento is invoked or felt as sound. Tuning into this auditory imagination guides the listener to a myriad and select decisions of what constitutes the Xicanx resonance for the local sonic geographies and the soundscapes which emerge from music. This curated sonic experience is one where voice, instrument, memory, and affect intersect.

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Featured Image by Jennifer Lynn Stoever

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Esther Díaz Martín is a researcher and educator in the Latin American and Latino Studies and the Gender and Women’s Studies program at the University of Illinois in Chicago. At present, she is working towards finishing her manuscript Latina Radiophonic Feminism(s) which seeks to amplify the acoustic work of popular feminism in contemporary Spanish-language radio and Latina podcasting. 

Kristian E. Vasquez is a Xicano writer, poet, and zinester born and raised in Los Angeles, California currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Chicana and Chicano Studies at UC Santa Barbara. His research on the affects, sounds, and semiotics of La Xicanada expands the concept of Xicanacimiento, centering the affective force of expressive culture.

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REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig: 

Ronca Realness: Voices that Sound the Sucia Body—Cloe Gentile Reyes

SO! Podcast #74: Bonus Track for Spanish Rap & Sound Studies Forum—Lucreccia Quintanilla

“Heavy Airplay, All Day with No Chorus”: Classroom Sonic Consciousness in the Playlist Project—Todd Craig

Deep Listening as Philogynoir: Playlists, Black Girl Idiom, and Love–Shakira Holt

Mixtapes v. Playlists: Medium, Message, Materiality–Mike Glennon

SO! Amplifies: Memoir Mixtapes

Could I Be Chicana Without Carlos Santana?–Wanda Alarcón

Tape Hiss, Compression, and the Stubborn Materiality of Sonic Diaspora–Christopher Chien

Sounding Out! Podcast #28: Off the 60: A Mix-Tape Dedication to Los Angeles–J.L. Stoever

“Oh how so East L.A.”: The Sound of 80s Flashbacks in Chicana Literature–Wanda Alarcón