“’Don’t let the Palm Trees fool you’: Visions of California in Chicano Hip-Hop”

Mausfeld, Dianne Violeta (20 October 2023). “’Don’t let the Palm Trees fool you’: Visions of California in Chicano Hip-Hop” (Unpublished). In: Jährliche Konferenz der Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Program - #WONDERlust: Interdisciplinary Encounters with Awe. San Diego, Kalifornien. 19.-21. Oktober 2023..

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Chicano hip-hop evolved in Southern California during the 1980s and ‘90s as a Mexican/Latino response to the African American gangster rap scene on the West Coast. The genre integrates Chicano subcultural elements such as gang aesthetics, prison art, indigenous signifiers, lowrider culture, and ‘Spanglish’ rhymes flow over beats that sample Chicano rock, Mexican folk music, funk, and soul. Los Angeles and San Diego have been important creative hubs since its inception, but the genre also spread throughout the US Southwest. Music videos, songs, and album artwork often have a spatial dimension and evoke specific neighborhoods and cities, state penitentiaries, as well as Mexico and Aztlán, the mythical homeland of the Chicanos. Mirroring barrio realities, Brown pride, and Chicano history, Chicano hip-hop thus produces images of “Califas” (California) that are in stark contrast to popularized imaginations of the Golden State in TV, film, literature, and travel catalogues.
The paper offers a fresh perspective on the US’ most idolized state, operating at the intersection of the in-depth analysis of Chicano hip-hop productions and my own journey in the field as a white female researcher from Germany. Exploring the California of my interview partners took me to spaces far off the tourist trail and never ceased to put me in awe. The methodology draws on critical source evaluation (music, music videos, cover art), ethnographic interviews with artists, and participant observation at video shoots, concerts, and events between 2019-2023.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History > Institute of History, Iberian and Latin American History
UniBE Contributor:	Mausfeld, Dianne Violeta
Subjects:	900 History > 970 History of North America 900 History > 980 History of South America
Funders:	[4] Swiss National Science Foundation
Projects:	[UNSPECIFIED] Hip-Hop as a Transcultural Phenomenon
Language:	English
Submitter:	Dianne Violeta Mausfeld
Date Deposited:	05 Apr 2024 12:50
Last Modified:	05 Apr 2024 12:50
Uncontrolled Keywords:	California; Chicano Hip-Hop; Urban Music Studies; Ethnomusicology
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/195084