Del Son al Corazón: Afro-Indigenous Music, Fandango Pedagogy, and Community-Based Transformative Justice

• In Event: Del Son al Corazón: Afro-Indigenous Music, Fandango Pedagogy, and Community-Based Transformative Justice

Abstract

We gather as musicians, educators, scholars, and community members sharing our practice of música de cuerdas—more widely known as “son jarocho” or “fandango”. Born of colonial encounters in the Gulf of Mexico and rooted in Afro-diasporic and Indigenous cultural practices, son jarocho’s histories of resistance have resonated among migrant communities in the U.S. Using core fandango elements—song, dance, and improvisation—this workshop demonstrates how fandango pedagogies cultivate collective dignity through radical love, land connection, and ancestral healing. Sharing teaching practices from our respective communities (Sacramento, Bay Area, Central Valley, San Fernando Valley), we draw on our interdisciplinary experience to offer pedagogical and theoretical insights across Chicanx feminist theories, Indigenous methodologies, socially situated learning theories, and critical education.

Authors

• Yared Portillo, University of California - Berkeley

• Rosalilia Martinez Mendoza, Stanford University

• Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval, California State University - Stanislaus

• Gustavo Garcia, University of New Mexico