HECTOR VAZQUEZ
Hector Vazquez recently graduated with his doctorate in music education from the University of Victoria. His dissertation entitled: Building Appreciation for Indigenous Cultures in Mexico Via Music Education draws upon Wilson’s (2008) recommendations for using indigenous methodologies in research to frame his study, specifically drawing upon the three Rs of Relationality, Respect, and Reciprocity. The framework Vazquez draws upon comes from Chikomexochitl and the Five Stages of the Development of Corn. A contribution of this study is a concept that Vazquez coined “Indigenous Epistemic Resilience,” which acknowledges the importance of indigenous ways of knowing in current times, avoiding the depiction of indigenous perspectives located solely in a static past.
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“He told me that his daughter wants to learn nice music, classical music; she does not want to learn Huasteco music”: Can the rhetoric of cultural production serve to reframe the role of the music educator?
Mexico is a country with a population of over 121 million; 26 million people identify as Indigenous (CONAPO, 2015). Currently, there is a global movement to recognize the value of Indigenous knowledge and the need for their worldviews to be present in education (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2008). Nevertheless, knowledge rooted in Indigenous cultures has historically been devalued and undermined in favor of Western-European knowledge, which has been portrayed as the pinnacle of cultural evolution, with Western classical music as a perfect example of that superiority (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018).
In July 2019, Mexico’s federal government announced the adoption of an orchestral model, a music program inspired by El Sistema, as one of the pillars of a new educational model that will soon be made public (SEP, 2019). The federal government portrays the adoption of an orchestra model as a major step towards cultural democratization and a key factor in improving students’ lives: this project will cultivate love for country, respect for rights, freedom, peace and culture in children and youth; listening and playing an instrument is seen as a valuable tool for children and youth to develop their intellectual and emotional abilities because playing in an orchestra or music group fosters better self-esteem, and love of beauty and discipline (p.1).
The arguments and rationale provided by Mexico’s federal government is not different from other El Sistema-inspired projects: music for social change (Baker, 2014). Throughout the process of planning the implementation of orchestras around the country, no mention has been made about forms of music making rooted in local traditions and collaboration with their music culture bearers.
Gaztambide-Fernández (2013) posits that arts programs globally are based on a rhetoric of effects, which has what arts do for people at the centre of the discourse. By that logic, arts for their own sake are advertised as a “medicine” that are going to change people’s lives in a positive way just by being in contact with them. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of effects fails to address the active role of the person as well as the particular social and cultural context where arts education takes place. In order for people to be at the centre of discussion, Gaztambide-Fernández proposes the rhetoric of cultural production because from this perspective:
rather than thinking about the arts as doing something to people, we should think about artistic forms as something people do…it is actual people, under real social circumstances, in particular cultural contexts, and within specific material and symbolic relations that have experiences involving symbolic materials and forms of cultural production. (p. 226)
Following Gaztambide-Fernandez, in the context of music education, it is crucial to engage students in experiences that are significant to their local contexts with symbolic relations that are connected to their idea of what culture is. Imposing a conception of art exemplified by classical music on students can create dislocations between a student’s personal experience and external, “superior” form of arts. This possibility for dislocation begs the question: what can music educators or people in general actually do to embrace students’ cultural identities via music education when governmental policy dictates that Western-classical music be implanted in the educational system?
In this presentation, I will discuss initial findings of my doctoral dissertation data from interviews in the Huasteca region, Mexico. I will particularly address the narratives of Huasteco music culture bearers when prompted with questions regarding how they might envision collaboration with music educators in the educational system as a way to promote appreciation for their culture and to decolonize spaces, practices, and epistemologies for music learning and teaching. In this context, interviewees reflected on the role that music educators might play to mediate the needs of the communities and the obligations that can be placed on them by governmental policy by partnering with music culture bearers in order to address issues of discrimination in spaces for music learning.
References
CONAPO. (2015). Infografía: Población indígena. Retreived from: https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/121653/Infografia_INDI_FINAL_08082016.pdf
Baker, G. (2014). El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela’s youth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bernal, M. G. (2008). El son huasteco: fronteras entre lo tradicional y lo académico. Boletín Oficial del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 85, 46-49.
Gaztambide-Fernández, R. A. (2013). Why the arts don't do anything: Toward a new vision for cultural production in education. Harvard Educational Review, 83(1), 211
Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Durham: Duke University Press.
SEP. (2019). La música, pondrá la nota a la Nueva Escuela Mexicana. Boletin No. 103
United Nations. (2008). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Retrieved from http://www.wipce2008.com/enews/pdf/wipce_fact_sheet_21-10-07.pdf.
In July 2019, Mexico’s federal government announced the adoption of an orchestral model, a music program inspired by El Sistema, as one of the pillars of a new educational model that will soon be made public (SEP, 2019). The federal government portrays the adoption of an orchestra model as a major step towards cultural democratization and a key factor in improving students’ lives: this project will cultivate love for country, respect for rights, freedom, peace and culture in children and youth; listening and playing an instrument is seen as a valuable tool for children and youth to develop their intellectual and emotional abilities because playing in an orchestra or music group fosters better self-esteem, and love of beauty and discipline (p.1).
The arguments and rationale provided by Mexico’s federal government is not different from other El Sistema-inspired projects: music for social change (Baker, 2014). Throughout the process of planning the implementation of orchestras around the country, no mention has been made about forms of music making rooted in local traditions and collaboration with their music culture bearers.
Gaztambide-Fernández (2013) posits that arts programs globally are based on a rhetoric of effects, which has what arts do for people at the centre of the discourse. By that logic, arts for their own sake are advertised as a “medicine” that are going to change people’s lives in a positive way just by being in contact with them. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of effects fails to address the active role of the person as well as the particular social and cultural context where arts education takes place. In order for people to be at the centre of discussion, Gaztambide-Fernández proposes the rhetoric of cultural production because from this perspective:
rather than thinking about the arts as doing something to people, we should think about artistic forms as something people do…it is actual people, under real social circumstances, in particular cultural contexts, and within specific material and symbolic relations that have experiences involving symbolic materials and forms of cultural production. (p. 226)
Following Gaztambide-Fernandez, in the context of music education, it is crucial to engage students in experiences that are significant to their local contexts with symbolic relations that are connected to their idea of what culture is. Imposing a conception of art exemplified by classical music on students can create dislocations between a student’s personal experience and external, “superior” form of arts. This possibility for dislocation begs the question: what can music educators or people in general actually do to embrace students’ cultural identities via music education when governmental policy dictates that Western-classical music be implanted in the educational system?
In this presentation, I will discuss initial findings of my doctoral dissertation data from interviews in the Huasteca region, Mexico. I will particularly address the narratives of Huasteco music culture bearers when prompted with questions regarding how they might envision collaboration with music educators in the educational system as a way to promote appreciation for their culture and to decolonize spaces, practices, and epistemologies for music learning and teaching. In this context, interviewees reflected on the role that music educators might play to mediate the needs of the communities and the obligations that can be placed on them by governmental policy by partnering with music culture bearers in order to address issues of discrimination in spaces for music learning.
References
CONAPO. (2015). Infografía: Población indígena. Retreived from: https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/121653/Infografia_INDI_FINAL_08082016.pdf
Baker, G. (2014). El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela’s youth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bernal, M. G. (2008). El son huasteco: fronteras entre lo tradicional y lo académico. Boletín Oficial del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 85, 46-49.
Gaztambide-Fernández, R. A. (2013). Why the arts don't do anything: Toward a new vision for cultural production in education. Harvard Educational Review, 83(1), 211
Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Durham: Duke University Press.
SEP. (2019). La música, pondrá la nota a la Nueva Escuela Mexicana. Boletin No. 103
United Nations. (2008). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Retrieved from http://www.wipce2008.com/enews/pdf/wipce_fact_sheet_21-10-07.pdf.