American Song and the Fight for Hispanic Equality.

In a country based on freedom, equal opportunity, and democracy, you’d think that lessons related to social justice would not need to be re-hashed so often.  But that does seem to be our fate.  And so, in every generation, we’ve witnessed one group after another struggle to claim their own share of the American dream.Music has had a huge role in raising awareness, unifying people, inspiring empathy, and challenging the status quo in every major social wave of change.  Today, we’re looking at how American music was used, like the trumpets at Jericho, to knock down the walls that separated Hispanic Americans from the promises made to all Americans, beginning in 1776.  In many ways, this is a fight that continues today, and its as true about the Hispanic struggle for justice as it's been for every group in our history.  Hispanics have had a wide range of musical inspirations, including familiar faces such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie, and musical heroes from their own communities.  Music from the black civil rights struggle was also borrowed, early on.  But the most important parts of the cultural foundations that the Chicano community drew from came from their own Mexican heritage – especially the corrido, which we talked about last month in the Roots of Latin American music episode.  As the revolutionary tide of the 1960s began to swell in American culture, Chicanos started by resurrecting the corrido, and added to it a new, political consciousness, giving air to their grievances and struggles.   Soon, out of the streets, and in the rising youth movement, Chicano rock and roll bands from both sides of the border were filling the radio waves, and encouraging their own people to advance towards a better future.Welcome to Episode 22, American Song and the Fight for Hispanic Equality.In This Episode:Agustin LiraAztecaCannibal and the Head HuntersChan RomeroEl ChicanoCarlos SantanaChuy NegreteClarence Sonny HenryThe Village CallersEl JarochoThee MidnightersFreddy FenderTrini LopezJose SuarezLos ShakersLos LobosLos Teen TopsOzomatliRichie ValensRobert DeNiroSon Jarocho Master Musicians