Latino Migrant Music and Identity in the Borderlands of the New South

Abstract

Life in Mount Airy, North Carolina, moves at a stately pace, and at times experience of life there, like image projected by can be almost achingly quaint. If boosters in Mount Airy had their way, people would consider it to be quintessential Southern town, an oasis of timelessness in modern world. Andy Griffith was from there, after all, and Mount Airy was model for Mayberry on his famous and beloved show. The town's webpage, tellingly named VisitMayberry.com, invites visitors to step back to a simpler time when you visit Mount Airy. A visitor might initially be inclined to agree that rhythms of life seem not to have changed quite as thoroughly as they have elsewhere in country. But striking and historic change has come to Mount Airy as it has to rest of American South, and neither life nor culture in Mayberry will ever be same. Suddenly, tradition-embracing Mount Airy has become a vital new borderland of globalization. The diverse and growing Latino immigrant population newly arrived in region is transforming historically insular and biracial Southern culture and introducing new cultures and new identities into communities such as this that are already rich with distinctive cultural traditions. This change can be seen in signature events in town which celebrate regional culture. Every year, on first weekend of June, thousands of people are drawn by Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention, an institution in region since 1971 and a destination for musicians from around world. Mount Airy stands at heart of Surry County, region in North Carolina richest in, and most famous for, driving traditional music known to fans and musicologists as old time music. Whereas bluegrass is dominant in most areas in southeast and around country, in Surry County traditional old-time fiddlebanjo music is still revered and played on a scale and intensity not seen in other areas in region. As might be expected, participants at Fiddlers Convention are almost exclusively white, although a tiny handful of African Americans do participate. The population of Surry County is 94.8% white, and Mt. Airy itself is slightly over eighty-five percent white and 7.9% African American. In 2000, federal census counted only 498 Hispanics or Latinos of any race residing in Mount Airy (American FactFinder). But town, like North Carolina more broadly, has changed with extraordinary speed, and 2000 Census numbers have been eclipsed by a remarkable explosion in size of Mexican population. Mexican Consul to North Carolina Armand Ortiz-Rocha notes that the Mexican migrant population in North Carolina has grown at unexpected rates, surpassing all (qtd. in Karsada and Johnson, Jr. unnumbered frontspiece).1 By September 15, 2007, these ongoing transformations were made clear when Mount Airy hosted new Latino in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. The Mount Airy News noted that this festival was the first ever Hispanic celebration in city, and articles covering build-up to event offered sense that this festival marked a real turning point in life of this town. Held in same Veterans Memorial Park as Fiddlers Convention, Festival Latino 2007 featured twelve hours of Mexican music played by fifteen bands, food, dancing, bull riding, and visits from Mexican Consul Ortiz-Rocha and Mount Airy town mayor, Jack Loftis. As organizer Juan Rivas told Mount Airy News, the heart of Mayberry community is friendliness ___ And that's what we want (qtd. in Perkins, to Showcase Latino Culture n.pag.). Mount Airy officials did not know what to expect before festival but continuously increased their estimates of anticipated attendance. The Mount Airy News eventually reported in a brief note on September 16, day after event, that festival goers numbered in many thousands. …