Across the San Joaquin Valley, music and oral tradition have long been central tools of resistance, solidarity, and survival. Cantos of Resistance and Solidarity brings together artists, cultural workers, and community historians who turn to song, poetry, and performance to remember, resist, and reimagine. Their work traces histories of migration, labor organizing, civil rights struggle, and cultural assertion, demonstrating how creative expression becomes a force for political and communal life. The artists featured here draw from diverse traditions—mariachi, Chicano rock, Latin folk, protest balladry, and spoken word—but share a commitment to honoring lived experience and challenging erasure.  

Agustín Lira and Patricia Wells reflect on the foundational role of music in El Teatro Campesino and movements for farmworker rights. Xóchitl Morales reclaims protest music and poetry as living archives of struggle and hope. Carlos Rodríguez, Héctor Uriarte, and Marilyn Rodríguez offer distinct perspectives on Chicano music’s role in sustaining histories of migration, negotiation, and belonging. In their work, music and spoken word are not embellishments; they are acts of survival and imagination. Each canto in this collection stands as an assertion of presence and a gesture of solidarity, reminding us that cultural work is political work—that song carries both memory and possibility across generations.

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Thumbnail: Compiled by Estevan Cesar Azcona and Russel Rodriguez (current ACTA Board Member), Rolas de Aztlán highlights songs of struggle, hope, and vision fueled the Chicano Movement's quest for civil rights, economic justice, and cultural respect (Credit: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings).