Latin America and the Carribean

von Javier Silvestrini

The diverse regions and cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean have commonalities in their historical, sociocultural, political and migrational identities. They share, among other aspects, a colonial past, the exploitation of Afro descendant people, the oppression of Indigenous nations, the processes of nation building and decolonization, and the power struggles of centuries of migrations between Europe and the Americas. Furthermore, the Latin-American and Caribbean regions also share the preservation, maintenance, and development of unique modes of existence and epistemologies, which are particularly expressed in their diversity of traditions of popular musics and dances. A fundamental aspect of the musics and dances of Latin America and the Caribbean is the hybridization or mestizaje of elements and experiences from Indigenous, African, European and creole or mestizo cultures.

Since 2013 through the dissertation of Javier Silvestrini, Plena in San Juan, the IVE has been involved in research in the Caribbean on the Urban Afro-Puerto Rican practice of plena. This thesis examines musical and social aspects of plena through an intersectional analysis of race, gender, national identity, identity politics, and class. Furthermore, as of  2019, the IVE has offered research-led teaching in the form of practical courses on the Caribbean, particularly on Afro–Puerto Rican vocal and instrumental musical traditions. 

Internationally, the IVE’s research on Latin American and Caribbean music has contributed to establish a new ICTM Study Group dedicated to ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological in this part of the world. The ICTM Study Group, Music and Dance in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAT CAR), was founded in 2018 by an international committee of researchers, two of its founding members, Nora Bammer and Javier Silvestrini, have or had ties to the IVE. The research network provides a language-based platform in English, Spanish and Portuguese for research on Latin American and Caribbean topics. 

 Lastly, as part of the Transculturality projects of the mdw, the IVE has closely collaborated with the researchers from Latin America. As of 2020 the IVE is establishing a new Erasmus+ collaboration with the University of Brasilia as part of the project The Meeting of Knowledge, which aims at facilitating the exchange of research and non-hierarchical knowledge production as a paradigm change in higher education.