ABSTRACT
Mobility is the essential characteristic of sound. According to Simon Frith (1996, 124–125) music “defines a space without boundaries” and is “the cultural form best able to cross borders … and to define places.” At the same time, Josh Kun (1997, 289), building on Michel de Certeau, asserts that music is “delinquent,” a “challenging mobility” that does not respect places. Music, therefore, has the capability to generate places, as well as to destroy them or reshape them anew. On the other hand, Mark Slobin (1994, 243) reminds us that the disbursement of music has often been caused by human migration. In this sense, music followed both colonial and postcolonial migration routes and is, thus, central to the diasporic experience. The Nuyorican poet Victor Hernández Cruz (1997) reaffirmed this statement in the emblematic title of a poem found in the collection Panorama: “Home is where the music is.” Therefore, again following Slobin, it is possible to assert that:
Music is both deeply rooted and transient. It dissolves into space while simultaneously settling into individual and collective memory. Yesterday's song triggers tomorrow's tears. Music harbors the habitual, but also acts as a herald of change. It helps to orchestrate personal, local, regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and national identity. … Stable yet constantly in flux, music offers both metaphors and tangible data for understanding societies in transition. (Slobin 1996, 1)
