It's not a history book and it's not a chronology in the sense that this happened, and this happened. There's a direct line between the troubadours and what you're commenting on, and the kinds of things that I'll be commenting on. And some of this comes right off that from traditions of troubadours and telling the news that way. It's almost like maybe Chuck D of Public Enemy, saying that his band is sort of the CNN of Black people back in the early 90s.Įxactly. So, it's more looking at music as a way of revealing a cultural history. And some of the songs became like beacons, in the sense that they pointed out, or led me to investigate, historical events that aren’t widely commented on.Īnd what I realized it's a little bit like the underdog’s history book, because when you are in a certain position, sometimes you're not writing the history and you're not writing the news. Between the United States and its neighbor to the south, Mexico … and I’m half Mexican … or other Latin countries or Puerto Rico. But the music at some point began to reveal historical aspects of relationships. I’m not a historian, it’s about the music. WGLT: Your presentation focuses on how numerous Latino music genres connects with Latino history within and outside the U.S.

Johnson spoke with WGLT’s Jon Norton in this lightly edited interview. Louis, Missouri, and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She said thanks to them, she grew up in two cities: St. The host and producer of Beat Latino on Chicago Public Media’s Vocalo credits the tenacious insistence of a Mexican mom and a German/Swedish dad for what she calls the extraordinary gift of a bilingual and bicultural heritage. as a way of understanding the history, roots, and concerns of Latinos in this land. Chicago-based journalist Catalina Maria Johnson will provide a broad overview of music milestones over the last 75 years in the Latino U.S. That’s the gist of this Saturday’s illustrated music presentation presented by the McLean County Museum of History at the Normal Public Library. Music can be viewed and “read” as a tool that shares a cultures values, roots, and history.

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