Music as an Indicative of the History of Puerto Rico :: Culture cultural History Puerto Rican Essays

Music as an Indicative of the History of Puerto RicoDuring Dr. Lise Waxers October 29th arouse she characterized music as being indicative of the history of a people, a way of establishing social relations, and being a forum for dialogue. However, upon a critical psychoanalysis of the claims within her lecture and the issues discussed within Ruth Glassers My Music is My Flag, I believe that modern studies of Puerto Rican popular culture reveal more about the gift state of Puerto Rican identity than the diachronic subjects themselves. It is clear that above all else Puerto Rican musical history, from its evolution on the island and in the diaspora, was created and conditioned by the US colonial system. Therefore, any attempt to elevate its significance may be more of a classed-based attempt to elevate their social position within the context of colonized historical reality. Before embarking upon this analysis it is important to none that Ruth Glasser is not Puerto Rican. Althoug h she is a nice Jewish girl studying the history of Puerto Rican music, the fact that she is not Puerto Rican does not exclude her from misinterpreting the significance of her findings (xv). From the onset of her analysis she presents herself in opposition to the traditional historians assumptions about Puerto Rican history. She claims that many popular and scholarly assessments suggest that Puerto Rican players take a leak left their own ostensibly meager musical resources behind and havemerely adopted Cuban sounds (3). This opinion, she claims, characterizes Puerto Rican musical culture as being imported, meaning that it has no self-sustaining historical traditions of its own. Such a claim would also challenge Lise Waxers claims which characterize Puerto Rican music as a manifestation of Puerto Rican national history. Glasser in turn proceeds within her study to describe the numerous historical traditions of Puerto Rican music. Most prominent among these traditions is the fact th at many of the early bands under early US colonial rule began as military bands during the First World War. Indeed, the US army band soldiers were examples of the first musical experience during the Puerto Rican Diaspora because their travels to Europe allowed some musician form a particularly prominent part of the United States Armys most famous musical ensembles. For example the 369th Infantry Hellfighters Band (54). As professional person musician these people benefitted greatly by gaining access to more traditional forms of musical skills.