Description
Book SynopsisIn 1960s East Los Angeles, La Estrella de la Canción Romántica interpreted boleros and other music from the collective memory of Mexico. Though an untrained, local artist, her musical performance was as trans-racial, trans-class, trans-generational, and trans-national as the most celebrated artists of the music of latinidad. That stage of her artistic career would be key when she later helped deconstruct the machismo that framed the mariachi tradition, as a founding member of the first all-female mariachi group, Las Generalas.
Mucho Corazón, a biography/autoethnography written by the protagonist's daughter, relates the life- and performing stages of Aurora Prado Pastrano, who against overwhelming odds, followed her heart to become a bolerista, songwriter, and the first professional woman guitarrón player in United States history. Seamless storytelling advances the long-neglected history of Chicana grassroots artists. Framed by allusions to the music pop
Trade Review
“This inspiring autoethnographic-biography pays homage to Aurora Prado Pastrano’s life as a pioneer female mariachi, guitarronera, and mother. Chavira-Prado’s work is necessary and relevant as it archives the contributions of those women in mariachi whose work and stories have been too often relegated to back-stage or forgotten in Chicana/x/o music history. This is an empowering interdisciplinary study of the Mexican-American diaspora through the lens of the female mariachi, her struggles, her victories, and the cultural contexts that formed the artist—the mariachi femenil.”—Rachel Yvonne Cruz, Professor of Mexican American Studies/Music Specialist, The University of Texas at San Antonio; Author of The Art of Mariachi: A Curriculum Guide
Table of Contents
List of Photos – Acknowledgments – Introduction: Mucho Corazón – Sin un Amor: Life and Music in El Chamizal – Llorarás, Llorarás: Life and Music in Juárez – Mexican Education, the Golden Age of Cinema, and National Identity – Naa, Na, Na, Na, Naa: The Chicano Movement and the Birth of the East Side Sound – La Estrella de la Canción Romántica – Volver, Volver: Mariachi Music and Performance – My Participation in Mariachi Las Generalas: En Primera Voz – Mariachi Las Generalas – Epilogue: Fallaste Corazón: Legacies, Closures, and Failings of the Heart – Appendix A: Misa Panamericana/ Order of Mass as Played by Mariachi Las Generalas – Appendix B: Aurora Prado Pastrano’s Collection of Old Popular Song Titles – Appendix C: Selected Song Lyrics – Index.
