“Now We're Actually Playing Music”: Sones and Parental Transformation in Mexican Chicago

Abstract

The US-based revival of Mexican sones has received increased scholarly attention in the past two decades, primarily focused on the music's capacity for community formation and political activism among young adults. This article examines a different side of the son revival: parents and young children at a recently established Mexican Music School in Chicago. This type of institution—nongovernmental, but more formalized than traditional community transmission—is proliferating across many ethnic communities and musical traditions in US cities. This article shows how such programs can have unexpected transformative effects while bringing new populations into a music revival movement.