Squeezebox Stories: Rural music, immigration, & the accordion

This event takes place on Thursday, January 24, 2013, 6:00pm

Reservations are required

Free event at the California Historical Society

678 Mission Street

San Francisco

Squeezebox Stories: Rural music, immigration, and the accordion in California's Central Valley

When Carlos Mendoza immigrated to California from Oaxaca in the 1980s to work in the fields outside Madera, he brought his beloved Chilena music along with him. Now a full-time musician, Mendoza will play some of these traditional Oaxacan songs and talk with producers Julie Caine and Marié Abe about the role the accordion has played in carrying culture to a new land.

Squeezebox Stories is an award-winning public radio documentary that uses the rich history of the accordion to tell immigration and migration stories to California.  Produced by radio journalist Julie Caine and Boston University ethnomusicologist Marié Abe, this project is supported by the California Council for the Humanities and the Arhoolie Foundation.

During this event, we'll hear the story of some of rural California's newest residents, and learn how their journey north has given new life to traditional music that embodies cultural pride in a new land. The most recent wave of Mexican immigrants to California are mostly indigenous people from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca–many of whom don’t even speak Spanish as their first language, and who are often discriminated against within mainstream Mexican culture for their indigenous heritage. We hope you can join us for this special event. Light refreshments will be served. 

Please RSVP at squeezeboxchs.eventbrite.com and we'll see you there!

Geil J. Norris Family Papers, Vault MS 156

Geil J. Norris Family Papers, Vault MS 156

            These New Year cards—printed in Mexico City in 1881 for Sam Brannan and Manual Castro, with the Mexican coat of arms and, yes, real feathers affixed in the shape of birds—are part of the recently cataloged Geil J. Norris Family Papers. Though small, the collection contains many notable and exquisite examples of Californiana documenting the Pico, Castro, and Sanchez families, from which Mr. Norris was descended, throughout the nineteenth century. Highlights of the collection include: an 1844 broadside announcing Thomas O. Larkin’s appointment as United States consul; letters by Zamorano, Pío Pico, Thomas O. Larkin, and Manuel Castro; documents pertaining to the Mexican War, including an 1846 bando and a letter of protest written by the minister of the missions at Santa Clara and San José; and the pictured greeting cards. 

            The cards (and a letter in the collection) tell an interesting story in their own right, suggesting that Mormon pioneer Sam Brannan and Mexican War general Manual Castro were business associates in Mexico in the early 1880s, when Brannan was involved in land speculation schemes in Sonora. The collection as a whole reminds us of the complex and historic interconnections—political, economic, and familial—between Mexico and California.

            A detailed guide to the collection is available on the Online Archive of California: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8k072ns

Marie Silva

Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian