Diasporic Be(long)ing: Music and Dance as Cultural Caretaking

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

As diasporic communities negotiate a sense of cultural belonging, scholars explore how identity is questioned, reframed, and navigated in new locations. Are diasporic identity and national belonging mutually exclusive? When does a group cease to be a diaspora? Can one belong to both a local community and a diaspora? How are identities negotiated amongst future generations who have ties to more than one culture? Engaging with diasporic communities across the Americas, this panel explores questions of diasporic belonging through three case studies in which music and dance are acts of cultural caretaking. By providing a way for those entrusted with cultural knowledge to take care and responsibility for its use and safeguarding, cultural caretaking challenges the complexity of being both part of a distinct diaspora and belonging to the community in which they live. These case studies are tied together through the idea of “diasporic be(long)ing,” which highlights the state of being within a diaspora, the longing for recognition of cultural identity, and the sense of belonging within the broader community.

Sub Track

• Migration, Displacements, Diasporas

Session Organizer

• Corey Blake, University of California, Riverside

Chair

• Claudine Avalos, University of California, Riverside

Discussant

• Jessica M Gutierrez Masini

Individual Presentations

• “Con ‘P’ de Patria”: Folkloric Music and Dance Instruction in the Peruvian Diaspora in Los Angeles - Claudine Avalos, University of California, Riverside

• “Are You Native?”: A Decolonized Approach to Understanding Native American Indigeneity through Danza in University of California Powwows - Jessica M Gutierrez Masini

• “I am not the story of my ancestors”: Cultural Performance and the Issue of Diaspora for Panamanians of Chinese Descent - Corey Blake, University of California, Riverside