Tubas on the Rise: the Tuba As a Signifier of 21st Century Mexican-American Music Culture in Southern California (open access)

Tubas on the Rise: the Tuba As a Signifier of 21st Century Mexican-American Music Culture in Southern California

Banda is a rural Mexican brass band genre from the state of Sinaloa that became popular among immigrant populations of Los Angeles in the 1990s. In contemporary banda, the tuba has acquired a more prominent role than it held in traditional banda. The tuba has shifted from the traditional background harmonic and rhythmic function to a significant and new placement with the front line melodic instruments. The focus on tubas in modern incarnations of banda has helped it become a staple in acoustic and accordion genres such as sierreña and norteña. In many Mexican-American regional ensembles, the prominence of the tuba and its placement within the group represents a shift in its cultural significance, a stronger connection to the Mexican history and cultural roots, in the Mexican-American music community of southern California. This paper uncovers some of the motives and significance behind these recent changes in the role of the tuba in Mexican-American regional genres as well as the cultural connection that the tuba provides for Mexican-Americans in southern California to traditional Mexican music culture.
Date: August 2015
Creator: Orth, Jesse
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Critical Medical Anthropology Approach to Advocating for Social Justice and Policy Change in Pesticide Use and Practice to Reduce Health Risks Among Hispanic/Latinos in Central California (open access)

A Critical Medical Anthropology Approach to Advocating for Social Justice and Policy Change in Pesticide Use and Practice to Reduce Health Risks Among Hispanic/Latinos in Central California

This mixed methods research was conducted in the fall of 2014 to understand the perceptions and experiences of health risks and health outcomes due to pesticide exposure among community members (n=13) - concerned community members, agriculture workers and teachers- that live in the Central California agriculture counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz, Tulare, Fresno and Madera. This research explored: 1) The crops growing in participants’ communities, and how exposure to pesticides used in these crops pose potential health risks to participants and their communities 2) How pesticide exposure is impacting Hispanic/Latino communities in Central California, particularly those that are most vulnerable including school children, agriculture workers, and community members 3) The major public health concerns of impacted communities 4) Feelings of empowered to advocate for community health and environment and 5) What impacted communities wish to see on behalf of government and agribusiness to protect public health from pesticide exposure and toxins.
Date: August 2015
Creator: Romero, Mariel Sintora
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Women of El Toro captions transcript

The Women of El Toro

Recording of a presentation session at the 2015 Digital Frontiers Annual Conference. In this session, the presenter discusses her project about the history of female Marines and military wives in the El Toro base through an app featuring oral histories.
Date: September 2015
Creator: Burrough, Xtine
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library