This collection features individual profiles of the artists, tradition bearers, and cultural workers interviewed for Sounds of California: San Joaquín Valley. Each artist offers a distinct perspective on the cultural life of the region, contributing through music, storytelling, language, and community practice. Together, these profiles reflect the living expression of Greater Mexico in the San Joaquín Valley, where traditions rooted in Mexico, Indigenous languages, and U.S. working-class life intersect and evolve.
Each profile includes a biographical narrative and access to the artist’s full interview, offering insight into their personal histories, artistic paths, and cultural contributions. These interviews were conducted through extensive fieldwork across the Valley, with a focus on representing a broad spectrum of musical genres, languages, and traditions—including mariachi, corridos, chilenas, son jarocho, trío romántico, norteño, arpa grande, Latin jazz, and Indigenous rap.
This collection affirms that culture in the Valley is not inherited passively—it is actively practiced, adapted, and reimagined by artists across generations. These individuals embody the sounds, memories, and creative force of Greater Mexico, made present in California through song, storytelling, and community work.
Thumbnail: Juan Morales, mariachi educator and composer, performing with Los Morales at the Corridos del San Joaquín Concert in Fresno, December 8, 2024 (Credit: Jennifer Emerling).
A chat between mariachis about the tradition, struggles, and the evolution of the music.
Listen to the ConversationTwo Chicanx songwriters discuss their connection to the visual, sonic, and political landscape of Boyle Heights.
Listen to the ConversationTwo traditional musicians share their love songs to Boyle Heights, singing of gentrification, cultural loss, and what remains.
Listen to the ConversationTwo generations of women songwriters Lysa Flores and La Marisoul unpack love, decolonization and sanctuary space in Boyle Heights.
Listen to the ConversationTwo versatile artists take us through the multiracial history of Boyle Heights from redlining to the Jewish Bakers Union to the incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Listen to the ConversationA chat between mariachis about the tradition, struggles, and the evolution of the music.
Listen to the ConversationTwo Chicanx songwriters discuss their connection to the visual, sonic, and political landscape of Boyle Heights.
Listen to the ConversationTwo traditional musicians share their love songs to Boyle Heights, singing of gentrification, cultural loss, and what remains.
Listen to the ConversationTwo generations of women songwriters Lysa Flores and La Marisoul unpack love, decolonization and sanctuary space in Boyle Heights.
Listen to the ConversationTwo versatile artists take us through the multiracial history of Boyle Heights from redlining to the Jewish Bakers Union to the incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Listen to the Conversation
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