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Music Is My Flag : Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities,
1917-1940 by Ruth Glasser
Puerto Rican
music in New York is given center stage in Ruth Glasser's original
and lucid study. Exploring the relationship between the social
history and forms of cultural expression of Puerto Ricans, she
focuses on the years between the two world wars. Her material
integrates the experiences of the mostly working-class Puerto
Rican musicians who struggled to make a living during this period
with those of their compatriots and the other ethnic groups with
whom they shared the cultural landscape. Through recorded songs
and live performances, Puerto Rican musicians were important representatives
for the national consciousness of their compatriots on both sides
of the ocean. Yet they also played with African-American and white
jazz bands, Filipino or Italian-American orchestras, and with
other Latinos. Glasser provides an understanding of the way musical
subcultures could exist side by side or even as a part of the
mainstream, and she demonstrates the complexities of cultural
nationalism and cultural authenticity within the very practical
realm of commercial music... (Amazon.com)
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