Northward Bound

"... provides a valuable service of not only gathering and presenting from 5,000 song texts a wide variety of ballads with full translation but also placing them all in a succinct historical context extending from the Mexican War to the present." -- Journal of American Ethnic History"... [a] stunning achievement, not only because it is an intelligent and comprehensive study of Mexican immigrant ballads, but because analysis gives way to, steps aside respectfully for, a multitude of immigrants who sing their experiences of crossing the border into the U.S. with astonishing clarity and historical perspicacity." -- Western Folklore"Herrera-Sobek's folk-song collection is impressive, as are her English translations -- crisp and unstilted." -- MultiCultural Review"[Herrera-Sobek's] well-written book provides historians, ethnomusicologists, sociologists, and other scholars with a case study that demonstrates how valuable song lyrics can be in their studies. Strongly recommended to humanists and social scientists." -- Choice"Supported with photographs, full documentation and other scholarly devices, this is a solid work on an unusual topic." -- Sing Out!Northward Bound traces Mexican emigration to the United States from 1848 to 1991 through the lyrics of Mexican ballads ( corridos) and contemporary popular songs ( canciones). These autobiographical songs reflect the relationship between individual experience and the history-making process.

Maria Herrera-Sobek is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Irvine.