Migration is not a single journey, but a layered process—crossing landscapes, reshaping identities, and carrying memory from one place to another. Echoes of Migration explores how individuals and families from across Mexico have settled in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and how musicand cultural practices have helped families create places of belonging far from their original homelands.

Each story in this collection begins with a specific region—Oaxaca, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Veracruz, and Jalisco—and traces how cultural traditions continue to shape life in the Central Valley. These stories are not about loss, but about transformation: how tequio and communal festivals are revived in farmworker towns, how arpa grande ensembles sustain Purépecha identity across generations, how chilenas, danzas, and cumbia are performed in celebration and memory. These traditions provide continuity in the midst of change, helping communities navigate the emotional and material transitions involved in migration.

Drawing from Américo Paredes’s idea of Greater Mexico, it recognizes that Mexican culture is not confined by borders, but extends into the places where people live, labor, and love. In community halls, backyard gatherings, religious celebrations, and makeshift stages, migrants from diverse regions rebuild cultural landscapes—spaces where sound and ceremony offer a sense of rootedness, dignity, and connection.

The individuals featured in this collection carry knowledge that is both local and transnational. Their stories show that cultural practice is not something left behind in migration—it is what helps people move forward. Whether through instruments brought from home, songs learned by ear, or traditions passed down at family gatherings, these echoes of migration remind us that music is not only a form of expression, but a tool for survival, memory, and community formation. Together, the stories in this collection reveal how music and cultural knowledge continue to move across borders, shaping what it means to belong in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Thumbnail: Cotton picker. Southern San Joaquin Valley, California (Credit: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection).